North Yorkshire councillors have urged the region’s mayor to "come to the table" to discuss their authority's allocation of road repair funding.
Members of North Yorkshire Council yesterday (Wednesday) voted in support of a decision by the authority’s executive to call for York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority to rethink its plan for distributing road maintenance funding.
While Labour 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 that period due to the mayor’s changes, than it would if the money came directly from the government.
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.
At the full council meeting at County Hall, Northallerton, councillors from different parties and political groups backed the motion by the Tory-led executive.
Independent councillor, Caroline Goodrick, said:
“We need to recognise that the mayor has hijacked our budgets and it will impact every councillor in this room because we’re going to have a lot less money to deal with 6,500 miles of road when York have 900 miles.
“The mayor needs to come to the table, he needs to remember the 615,000 residents he represents in North Yorkshire and not be so York-centric and represent York.”
Independent councillor Stuart Parsons added: “I think we have to support this because if we’re not careful, what we’re going to get is the York city area with grade A roads and everything feeding into it from North Yorkshire with grade D or grade E roads.”
Councillor David Staveley, a Conservative member, said the mayor may have seen the funding as an opportunity to “play to his base” or he may have been badly advised.
He added:
“We are asking him to come to the table.
“Until you get around the table and have that conversation with him we’re not going to be able to get to the bones of this and understand each other, and I really think it will be to his benefit, not just ours, to do so.”
Liberal Democrat councillor Monika Slater said she supported the motion but said she was not surprised by the mayor’s action.
She added:
“We didn’t get a good deal when we came to creating the combined authority in the first place — York got a much better slice of the pie. So I think he’s just carrying on the same way.”
Only Labour councillors voted against the authority continuing to take action over the settlement.
Labour councillor, Subash Sharma, said North Yorkshire Council was failing to address issues with the roads in its urban areas.
He added:
“I welcome the mayor’s prioritising of safety on the roads and cycle lanes and walking.
“There seems to be a division growing within North Yorkshire between the needs of the rurality and the needs of urban areas.”
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