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30
Nov
Reshuffle of North Yorkshire Council committees set to take place next year
A reshuffle of North Yorkshire Council’s committees following the Conservative-led group’s loss of its majority may not take place until next year.
Opposition leaders at the unitary authority have this week called for the political make-up of the committees to be reassessed after the Conservative and Independent group lost its majority.
Oatlands and Pannal councillor,John Mann’s decision to become an unaffiliated independent councillor means the controlling Tory group has 45 out of the 90 councillors.
Of those, 42 are Conservatives and three are independent councillors aligned to the group.
The majority of the council’s committees, other than those based on constituency areas, have a majority of councillors from the Conservative and Independents group.
However, opposition councillors say the political proportionality of the committees should now be reassessed.
Councillor Kevin Foster, leader of the Green and Independents group on the authority, said:
I hope this can be sorted out with agreement from all parties to achieve a clear way forward for everybody to ensure the council can function effectively.
The council’s head of democratic services, Daniel Harry, confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that Cllr Mann had resigned.
He said:
This means the Conservative and Independents no longer have an absolute majority on the authority. However, the group is still the largest, with 45 out of 90 councillors.
On the issue of the committees, he added:
Assuming a request is made to reallocate seats on our committees to take into account the changes in political representation, then this will go to the meeting of the full council on February 13 next year.
Cllr Carl Les remains the council’s leader and the executive continues in its current form.
The LDRS understands the make-up of the committees could be changed sooner if an extraordinary meeting of the authority is held.
This would need to be agreed by the chair of the council or could be requested by five councillors.
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