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04
Dec 2022
North Yorkshire leaders set up devolution decision making body
An ambition to create a devolved mayoral combined authority for North Yorkshire and York has reached a milestone as the local authorities pursuing it launched their first joint decision-making body.
In a turn of events that highlighted geographic and transport issues a combined authority for the vast area will face, the inaugural meeting of North Yorkshire and City of York Council’s joint devolution committee started more than half an hour late due to committee members travelling to central York being delayed on public transport.
With two of the leading executive members from each councils and being co-chaired by the councils’ leaders, the committee bears a close resemblance to the proposed mayoral combined authority executive.
However, it also includes non-voting members, such as the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner and the chair of the local enterprise partnership.
The meeting heard the committee was being launched despite the public having yet to decide having a mayoral combined authority as part of the proposed devolution deal is acceptable, with a consultation under way.
North Yorkshire’s monitoring officer Barry Khan told members:
Nevertheless, James Farrar, the enterprise partnership’s chief officer, told he meeting the councils needed to start taking joint decisions or face losing nearly £20 million of funding the government had agreed to give under the proposed devolution deal.
Mr Farrar said:
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He said the government had set a deadline of March 2025 to complete two major projects it was funding.
The schemes include £7 million to enable the area to drive green economic growth, creating the country’s first carbon negative region, and £12.7 million to support the building of new homes on brownfield land.
He said with a potential date of creating the combined authority in December next year it left a very tight timescale to complete the projects, leading councillors to approve a move to invite firms to submit interest in potential schemes this month.
Mr Farrar said even if devolution was not progressed the authorities would have created a pipeline to challenge for “increasingly competitive” funding from government.
City of York Council leader Cllr Keith Aspden issued an appeal for as many residents and businesses as possible to respond to the consultation ahead of its December 16 deadline.
The meeting was told the committee would “exercise executive functions”, but its remit could be widened to “a joint committee that exercises both council and executive functions”.
The county council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said he was hopeful the consultation would come back in favour of creating a mayoral combined authority.
He added:
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