Battle on as government poised to start local government reorganisation consultation.

District Councils letter

In a bizarre twist, the Leaders of 6 District Councils in North Yorkshire have written to York Councillors seeking their support for a reorganisation of Council boundaries.

The Leaders (4 Conservative, 1 Labour and 1 independent) favour a west/east split with York merging with Selby, Ryedale and Scarborough.

The government is expected to publish proposals for consultation next week.

The York Council favours a two way split with the North Yorkshire County Council becoming a unitary authority and York remaining as it is.

The letter from the District Leaders seems to be ill judged.

It pointedly fails to address the underlying threat to democracy – the imposition of a regional mayor – who would have wide ranging spending and regulatory powers.  Far from bringing influence closer to local communities, the government plans would impose a remote, and probably insensitive, decision making model on our City.

There is no mention of the future of the long-standing York institutions such as the 800 year old role of Lord Mayor.

Some District Council services are poor. Here litter mounts on the A64 near Tadcaster

But critically, the inexperience of the District Leaders (their councils are not responsible for services such as education, social care and transport) is apparent when they criticise housing and children’s services in the City.

York is unique in the county in retaining a stock of 8000 council houses. The Districts have no experience of managing such numbers while children’s (care) services, outside York, are currently administered by the County Council.

The City Council has responded to the letter, fortunately resisting, for once, the temptation to point out the high Council Tax levels in North Yorkshire.

The latest re-organisation debate is an unwelcome diversion from more important matters.

York and North Yorkshire need all their resources to be focused on recovering from the pandemic over the next few years.

Exchanges of correspondence between politicians, all of whom have vested interests one way or another, simply adds to the confusion.

Does local decision making matter?

York Council propaganda brochure cover

The York Council is asking residents to support them by making representations to the government about a possible local government reorganisation.

They have point about unnecessary change being debilitating at a time when all resources should be focused on the recovery from the health crisis and the possible downside from BREXIT.

Most attention is focused on Council boundaries. The biggest threat to accountability is however posed by the introduction of a Mayoral position covering the whole of York and North Yorkshire.

Local government reorganisations in 1973 and again in 1997 were debilitating with new structures and personalities taking many years to come to terms with roles, geographies and priorities.  The post reorganisation periods were not ones that will be recorded in history for dynamic and decisive decision making. Rather they were periods where individuals and political parties jockeyed for position and advantage.

We now enjoy a settled structure with which everyone is familiar if not universally comfortable.

Some will say that there is no right time for system reform. That may be true.

But there is certainly a wrong time and we are clearly in the middle of it.

There has been little debate about the powers and responsibilities of an elected Mayor. While the achievements of the, hitherto largely urban, mayors attract mixed reviews, few argue that the system gives the average person any greater say over decisions affecting their local community.

The system is untested in a predominantly rural area of the size of North Yorkshire. The nearest parallel we have is the directly elected Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner. Turnout in the elections for that post was only 23%.  There was no mandate for the creation of the position and therefore people have not engaged with it. The underlying concern – absolute power corrupts absolutely – although an exaggeration in this case clearly has some relevance with many PFCC and Mayors displaying, after a few years, a tendency towards directional rather than consensus government. For this reason, the NYPFCC was eventually discarded by her own party and clings to power only because of the pandemic which caused elections to be suspended.

Women Voting GIF by US National Archives

For that reason we hope that any move towards creating a Mayoral post will be subject to a referendum of those living in the area.

They should be given a chance to choose between the change and the status quo.

That would be in line with the government’s stated intention to apply the principle of subsidiarity to local decision making and not to impose change on an unwilling community.

NB. In the period up to October 2016, there had been 53 referendums on the question of changing executive arrangements to a model with a directly elected mayor. Of these, 16 resulted in the establishment of a new mayoralty and 37 were rejected by voters

Mayors new clothes

2682C7DE00000578-2988585-Nothing_to_hide_Mayoral_candidate_Yolanda_Morin_stripped_off_in_-a-6_1426016467288The York Council is embarking on a, largely nominal, consultation exercise on the desirability of handing powers to an elected Mayor in Yorkshire.

Unfortunately what powers and resources such an official might have is largely opaque. Hence it is impossible to predict with any accuracy what impact such a post might have on everyday life.

Up and down the country there have been some able Mayor elected. They are balanced by some pretty poor ones in places like Tower Hamlets and, much more close to home, Doncaster who have presided over poor services and questionable practices.

In London, the Mayor spends most of his time on public relations duties. London is, in any case, very much different from Yorkshire.

The latest push for devolution coincides with a plan to give Scotland more powers. Yorkshire has broadly the same population as Scotland so why shouldn’t it be able to determine its own priorities goes the argument?

But would a Mayor under siege in a Doncaster bunker be more sensitive to local needs than someone in an office a further 180 miles away.

We doubt they would.

The Council is right to give people a chance to air their views. Given the lack lustre information pack issued by the Council they would be wise not to expect a big response.

The pack contains some strange claims, not least  that the new system might help to “preserve the green belt”. The contrary might more likely be the case.  A regional baron exercising powers from Bradford might find it much easier to ride roughshod over the views and aspirations of a small City like York

The new Council has inherited a mish mash of regional and sub regional bodies. It is in two enterprise partnership areas and seeks to maintain a foot in both the the Labour dominated West Yorkshire Combined Authority and in Tory dominated North Yorkshire. Added to mix, are four  Police and Crime Commissioners (whose role could be taken over by an elected Mayor). Their demise would, at least, be a welcome relief for taxpayers.

So some rationalisation is needed.where-boris-bikes-go-video-animation-21471977

But change should start with the principle of subsidiarity – that decisions should be taken at the level nearest the people that the decision affects.

Unless that principle is agreed, and electoral systems are used which ensure that all views can be articulated,  then further consideration of elected Mayors, or extending the powers of the currently opaque “combined authority”, is simply not worth spending any time on.

The Council says, “a series of drop-in engagement events will be held across the city from next week to offer residents and businesses more information about what devolution means for York”.

The drop-in events will be held at the following locations where officers, members of the Executive and the Chief Executive will be on-hand to answer any questions on devolution:

York Explore, Marriott Room
• Thursday 13 August 12.30 – 2pm 
• Thursday 20 August 5.30 – 7pm

West Offices, Hudson Board Room
• Monday 10 August, 5.30 – 7pm 
• Tuesday 18 August, 11.30am – 1pm

Alternately, email feedback to: devolution@york.gov.uk or write to: Devolution, Business Intelligence Team, City of York Council, West Offices, York, YO1 6GA.

Residents will note that the Council’s new found interest in devolution doesn’t extend to holding events in the suburbs!