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22
Dec
Has devolution been good for North Yorkshire? MP, council leader and mayor clash
The government outlined plans this week to create more unitary authorities and give greater power to elected mayors in its English Devolution White Paper.
Ministers said extending devolution would transfer more power from Westminster to local people.
But the publication of the white paper caused political controversy locally when Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, claimed the creation of North Yorkshire Council had "solved nothing".
Seven district and borough councils, including Harrogate Borough Council, were abolished in April last year for the creation of North Yorkshire Council.
That paved the way for the election of regional mayors with powers over strategic planning, housing, transport and skills. David Skaith was elected Labour mayor of York and North Yorkshire in May. Mr Skaith now oversees the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Mr Gordon said he welcomed less centralisation, but added removing the borough council had only further removed local people from their representatives.
He said:
This is devolution only in name. Yes, less power will be in Westminster, but the vast majority of power in any particular area will now be in the hands of a single person. With larger unitary authorities, people will also have less connection to their local councils. We’ve already seen in North Yorkshire that people feel the new authority is far removed from them.
The new unitary council in North Yorkshire has solved nothing. North Yorkshire Council adopted the lowest common denominator in so many areas, as has become clear in my time as an MP.
Council leader hits back
The Stray Ferret put Mr Gordon’s statement to Cllr Carl Les, the Conservative leader of North Yorkshire Council.
He said:
In the few months since we inherited issues from the borough council, we have stabilised our financial position by reducing our deficit of £42 million by £35 million.
We have integrated new teams across the council; moved out of a property and made better use of the available space at Knapping Mount; completed investment in Knaresborough and Harrogate leisure centres and undertaken a review of the Harrogate Convention Centre, reducing the demand for circa £70m of public money to an agreed spend of £7m.
Cllr Les also said the authority has taken steps to introduce Harrogate Town Council and has played a key role in establishing the combined authority.
He added:
I don’t agree with Mr Gordon’s comment that the new council is removed from local people any more than an MP working in London is seen is remote.
We still have a face-to-face centre in all areas, there is a local area committee made up of members elected by local people, and a local planning committee.
Most staff who transferred to the unitary authority are still working in the same roles, Cllr Les said.
He told the Stray Ferret none of the previous council’s functions have stopped and council members, the council’s chief executive and the management board frequently work at Harrogate Civic Centre.
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'Completely disingenuous to suggest I don't care about Harrogate'
Mr Gordon also claimed Labour mayor Mr Skaith "seems to care little for our area".
Giving an example, he said the mayor had “refused” to back his campaign to extend the funding for Harrogate College’s £22 million redevelopment.
We also put these claims to Mr Skaith, who said:
It is completely disingenuous to suggest I do not care about Harrogate. I was born in Harrogate and like every community across York and North Yorkshire I care deeply about the people that live there and the challenges they face.
I wrote to the Education Secretary to share my support for an extension to the funding timeline to complete the much needed rebuild they had planned. I am sorry that Tom Gordon would prefer to score cheap, and inaccurate, points than work collaboratively to address the challenges we were both elected to address in Harrogate, Knaresborough and beyond.
Mr Skaith said community is at the heart of his work as mayor, including investment in community spaces and delivering up to 1,000 homes through a £12.7 million brownfield housing fund.
"This is very much the start of the journey in York and North Yorkshire, but we have bold and ambitious plans for our villages, towns and cities right across the region", he added.
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