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09
Aug
‘York has better alternatives to cars… giving it more of North Yorkshire’s pothole money is wrong’
The mayor’s diversion of £20.5 million of highways funding from North Yorkshire to York has been one of the most controversial political decisions of the year.
The Department for Transport used to distribute funding directly to City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council.
But since York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority was created in 2023, it now receives the funds and decides how to distribute it to the two local authorities.
In March the combined authority, chaired by mayor David Skaith, agreed to change the DfT’s funding formula for the four-year, £456.2 million highways settlement covering 2026-30.
North Yorkshire will now receive 90%, as opposed to 92.7% under the DfT regime. By contrast, York’s slice will increase from 7.3% to 10%.
Although the total amount received by both councils will increase, the Labour mayor’s decision to award proportionally more to Labour-run City of York Council and less to Conservative-run North Yorkshire Council was politically incendiary.
It led to legal threats and personal attacks, with Ripon Minster and Moorside Councillor Andrew Williams, a member of the Conservative and Independents group on North Yorkshire Council, even likening the mayor to highwayman Dick Turpin.
York and North Yorkshire mayor David Skaith.
The Stray Ferret has been engaged in lengthy freedom of information correspondence with the combined authority to find out what evidence was used to inform its decision and requesting details of correspondence on the matter.
We still haven’t received any correspondence, but this week the combined authority sent us a document called Rationale for Highways Maintenance Funding Split.
The document, which we published in full on Friday, says the new approach “seeks to deliver a compromise between the traditional ‘road length’ formula based on an asset inventory, and road usage metrics to reflect how roads are used and the economic activity they support, including rate of deterioration and consequence of consequence of network degradation or failure”.
You can read more here.
We sent the document to Cllr Andy Solloway, an Independent North Yorkshire councillor and critic of the mayor’s decision, to see if the explanation satisfied him.
Cllr Solloway, an Independent who represents Skipton West and West Craven, said York has better alternatives to cars than North Yorkshire, and local roads were likely to become more congested due to Labour’s plans to ramp up housebuilding.
Cllr Solloway added:
I can drive to York from Skipton mainly along A and B roads in a poor state of repair. For me to do this on public transport would take a good few bus or train changes.
If I drive to York however, I can park my car in a park and ride and have easy access to bus services and pedestrian walking. If I put my bike in the boot, I could ride across and around York on a whole network of bike lanes.
I know people who live in York that tell me they don’t bother owning a car because the non-car infrastructure is so good. We don’t even remotely have that luxury in the rest of North Yorkshire. York is accessed by main train lines. Some of our market towns haven’t had a rail service for over 60 years if not more.
It’s still not fair and I stand by my objection to it.
What do you think? Use the comments section below to have your say.
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