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17
Mar
‘Dick Turpin reinvented’: Mayor and Ripon councillor clash over highways funding cut claim
Mayor David Skaith and a Ripon councillor have clashed over claims that highways funding to North Yorkshire is set to be cut.
Cllr Andrew Williams, a member of North Yorkshire Council's controlling Conservatives and Independents group who represents Ripon Minster and Moorside, claimed Mayor Skaith planned to cut £7 million from North Yorkshire’s highways funding for the forthcoming year.
The Department for Transport has allocated £456 million in transport funding to York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, which includes money for capital projects over the next four years.
The authority is expected to distribute the funding to both City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council for highways schemes.
At a combined authority overview and scrutiny meeting today (March 17), Cllr Williams claimed that Mr Skaith planned to hand North Yorkshire £52 million from a government recommended £59 million for 2026/27 and compared it to “Dick Turpin reinvented”.
Cllr Williams said:
It will actually have to cut £7 million of highways maintenance works if you carry on with your current proposals, which will be deeply damaging to North Yorkshire. There is nothing more dangerous to a cyclist than a pothole in the road, quite frankly.
I’m confused as to why you believe that you know better than the Department for Transport does in terms of the allocation of resources which has been an approved formula and has been applied consistently for years. Now we seem to have Dick Turpin reinvented and a new highway robber taking funds from North Yorkshire.
In response, Mr Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, demanded that Cllr Williams “keep his answers professional” and said he did not like being referred to as the 18th century highwayman.
The Labour mayor said the combined authority was still working on a formula for the funding allocation, but added that North Yorkshire would be receiving “more money than you have ever had”.
He said:
First and foremost, keep your answers professional please. I do not like being referred to as Dick Turpin. I will not speak to you like that, if you do not speak to me like that.
As I said, you will be getting more money than you have ever had. You have got a four-year settlement, which means you can actually plan your work.
It also needs to be emphasised that of two of the last five years, North Yorkshire have actually underspent on their highways funding. We are working with the Department for Transport and the Department for Transport has said to us that it is no longer local authority money, it is combined authority mayoral funding. We have a duty to do things differently and explore different alternatives to deliver it.
York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority will discuss the funding settlement at a board meeting later this month.
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