Key information missing over North Yorkshire devolution - Yorkshire Post Letters

The director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, Henri Murison, (The Yorkshire Post, May 9), should be supported in his hope that everyone should work together to get the best possible devolution deal for North Yorkshire.

There are however two unacknowledged ‘elephants’ that need putting to bed first:

The first is that the new North Yorkshire Council was a political fix.

Rushi Sunak needs to dispel the reports that Cabinet, on his recommendation, overruled then-Minister Robert Jenrick’s department’s conclusion that a two council solution, east and west, served North Yorkshire people best.

Concerned residents need to see published details of the department’s conclusion and the Cabinet’s reaction to them so we can move on.

The second is the false view that parish/town councils will fill the void left next year when local district councils disappear. Such councils give a voice but absolutely no power.

With a large minority of Harrogate, Scarborough and Selby voters unlikely to have political representation on the North Yorkshire Executive, you don’t need to be Tam Dalyell to see the impending predicament this decision has created.

The county chief executive has promised a interim subsidiarity-based solution to this West Lothian dilemma until new parish/town councils are in place; that solution needs to be for a longer term.

A third elephant is also predicted to enter the room soon. Once one of our larger councils, the City of York is increasingly seen as too (financially) small. The Government must have considered its future prospects during the North Yorkshire decision process, where is its solution?