Farewell to Teesside and hello to Yorkshire?

In May voters in Yarm overwhelmingly backed a proposal to leave Teesside and move to North Yorkshire. In a move designed to send a message of discord, residents voted in favour of leaving Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council and become part of neighbouring Hambleton in North Yorkshire.

However this month members of Stockton’s cabinet opted to throw out the request and recommend “no more action” was taken. The decision was expected to be ratified by its full council last night.

Traditionally, Yarm was part of Yorkshire until the re-organisation of local authority boundaries in the 1970s. However today the town, which sits on the south bank of the Tees, is administered by Stockton Borough Council.

May’s poll showed 1,465 people in the town wished to join Hambleton, with 177 opting to stay in Stockton. Turnout was 24 per cent.

The vote, called by Yarm Town Council, is not legally binding and any change, if it is to come, would require borough councillors to recommend the issue is looked at by the Boundary Commission and feasibility studies carried out. Critics argue the poll is unlikely to bring change but campaigners using the yarm4yorkshire twitter name disagree with how the borough council has dealt with local issues such as parking and plans to build more homes.

Earlier Coun Cook said the local authority delivered “a huge range of very high quality services.”

He added: “Of course, like all councils, there are times when we have to make difficult decisions and we absolutely understand that people have strong views on issues such as parking and on planning applications for new houses.”