Give the North its own government – Yorkshire Post Letters

THE North Yorkshire devolution debate drags on, laudably covered by The Yorkshire Post.

Single unitary; two unitaries either side of the A1; York standing alone – or perhaps not.

Nowhere do we see the big picture; much more must be devolved from London. So much indeed that our anachronistic county level of local government is too parochial and small.

England needs regional government with only very limited powers retained in London (defence; international trade negotiations).

We need a North region, with fully devolved powers, and within it today’s existing districts, boroughs and city councils.

Only in that way can the North balance the economic power of individual cities and the agricultural and tourism power of its stunning landscapes.

So I offer this solution.

Retain counties only as “brown-sign geographic areas of interest and historic reference” (in Yorkshire’s case, the brown signs could say “welcome to Yorkshire” or “welcome to the West Riding of Yorkshire etc” – a debate to be had there).

But there would be just two tiers of local authority: North region, and within it the existing districts, boroughs and city councils.

Spread the regional government offices far and wide across the region rather than allow any one city to dominate.

We have to think big. Take a cue from China. Any one of China’s provinces makes the entire UK, let alone just England, look like a single mid-sized city-region.

Yet here we are squabbling over which pocket-handkerchief-sized bits of the former county of Yorkshire should delineate the second-level administration of England.

The North as a whole has a significant population, economic and cultural power.

Its economy is far bigger than that of Scotland but with a smaller land-mass; don’t tell me it is too unwieldy to have one government.

It needs co-ordination and regional democracy with the best brains applied to the need for social justice, harmony and balance.

Counties belong to feudal history; not to politics.

Questions on attainment

From: Neil Richardson, Kirkheaton.

IN Robert Halfon’s Saturday Essay (The Yorkshire Post, October 10) he notes the importance of improving educational underachievement, where white working class pupils are the largest disadvantaged group missing national school benchmarks at age 16 (and far less likely to gain eight good GCSE grades).

How successful have one or two new teachers per school or parental engagement sessions been in resolving this – better than average? Is a big (subjective) shift in how kids themselves participate in schools keen to deliver (and perhaps heavily burdened by) traditional subject knowledge required?

Missed cafes

From: Ruth Pickles, Hutton Road, Hutton Cranswick.

I ENJOYED the ‘Bike Ride’ article by Mike Cowling but was a little surprised that he could not find a café on his suggested circular route from Driffield (The Yorkshire Post, October 10).

After the village of Southburn, coming to the A164 you meet a crossroads. If you take a right turn there, just less than half a mile will bring you to The Farm Shop and The Garden Centre at Hutton Cranswick along Burn Butts Lane on the right, both which can boast excellent cafés for drinks, snacks, and meals.

This detour would add no more than a mile to the ride, when you could retrace steps back along the A164 to the crossroads, turn right into Hutton Balk and continue as before. I hope this information is helpful.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson