Devolution in York and North Yorkshire will fail if further decisions are taken that are York-centric, councillors warned today as a row over road repair funding intensified.
Members of North Yorkshire Council’s executive committee branded a decision by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority to reallocate funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) was “an attack on rural North Yorkshire”, “frankly outrageous” and “disgraceful”.
While Mayor David Skaith, who leads the combined authority, says the council will receive a record-breaking £268m over the next four years to fix roads, councillors say the authority will actually receive around £20m less over the four years due to the mayor’s changes than it would if the money came directly from the DfT.
Senior councillors point out that a new calculation devised by the mayor would mean £4m redirected from North Yorkshire Council to City of York Council.
Around £30m is being set aside to use for repairs to the major roads network, with another funding pot being allocated for minor improvements such as dropped kerbs and new crossings.
North Yorkshire Council deputy leader Gareth Dadd told the meeting that he was “subject to gagging by the Mayor of York” when the Combined Authority discussed the issue last month.
He added:
“I call him the Mayor of York because his actions seem to be the Mayor of York rather than the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire.
“Frankly, I’ve never seen anything so disgraceful. It’s an attack on rural North Yorkshire by a York mayor.”
Councillor Mark Crane, executive member for open to business, said:
“What he’s doing is frankly outrageous and he needs to be told.
“It’s just simply not acceptable to take money from North Yorkshire and give it to York.
“There is a clear formula set out by the Department for Transport. He’s written roughshod over the rule book and he’s costing this county millions of pounds.”
Councillor Simon Myers, executive member for culture, arts and housing, said devolution in the region would not work if the combined authority was “York-centric”.
He added:
“I’m afraid this is the first indication of it failing to work. A decision is taken that is York-biased, using a majority that in any democratic world they wouldn’t have.”
The executive committee agreed to ask the full council to urge the mayor to reconsider the allocations when it meets later this month.
In response, the Labour mayor told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that North Yorkshire Conservatives had let the region down.
He added:
“If they’d put as much effort into fighting the actual cuts to highways funding imposed by their government as they do into criticising the biggest investment they’ve ever had to fix our roads, maybe the state of those roads would be in a better place.
“This funding package is not about me or them; it’s about residents who are sick of broken roads and being ignored when they ask for them to be made safer.
“This is record investment into fixing our roads and making them safer for everyone who uses them, that’s the reality, however it’s spun.”
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