Greater clarity on tax needed from new North Yorkshire 'super council' - Yorkshire Post Letters

I agree with the 'common sense' views of councillor Michael Harrison that creating a separate parish council in Harrogate will undoubtedly have to be paid for by means of a separate council tax precept, The Yorkshire Post, January 12, 2023.

The major selling point from the main instigator of 'one super council' in the geographical area known as North Yorkshire (except the city which bares the name, York) was and still is council leader Carl Les who says it will provide better value due to economy of scale with the reduction of management and supervision cost for providing services, and greater access to more central government funding.

Emptying domestic property waste and recycling bins will still have the same number of 'bin lorry' rounds as any surplus capacity would have been removed when councils direct labour cleansing departments had to tender against the private sector under compulsory competitive tendering introduced by a previous Conservative government.

Why can't councillor Carl Les give an estimate of what a precept is likely to cost for providing maintenance of small local parks and allotments in Harrogate?

The figures are there in the boroughs accounts department, if residents vote for the same level of service.

The reason being once a new council is up and running residents are stuck with what is charged by North Yorkshire Council.

Councillor Carl Les is now pushing for a slimmed-down organisation to promote tourism in the whole of Yorkshire paid for by a small amount of funding from each of the 22 council leaders in Yorkshire.

How much have the leaders board agreed, and what figure is a small amount of funding from each council?

He says that there will be more transparency, but the public have heard this before many times.

I hope that lessons have been learnt from the way Welcome to Yorkshire was run, as not one, but two, highly paid chief executive officers left at short notice, The Yorkshire Post, January 14, 2023.

I would love to move my family from from the flatness of Holderness, in the county of East Riding, to the beauty of the undulating county of North Yorkshire, but the worry of higher cost of council tax will prevent us from doing that, and also not being properly represented in a North Yorkshire town, who will undoubtedly have fewer ward councillors, than present, to represent local residents views at Northallerton.