Are Filey Residents Suffering a Democracy Disadvantage?

Concerns have been raised about he ability of Filey residents to take part in council meetings, following the creation of the new North Yorkshire Council.

North Yorkshire Council is being criticized for not live streaming all of it's meetings.

The old borough council used to hold meetings in Scarborough and broadcast most of them.

Under the new council, most meetings are not streamed and many are held in Northallerton or elsewhere in the county.

The most recent Thirsk, Malton and Filey area committee meting was held in Helmsley, over an hours drive away from Filey

Councillor Caroline Goodrick says that causes problems for both councillors and members of the public who want to attend.

Following the local government reorganisation in April the former Scarborough Borough Council was abolished. The old borough council streamed almost all of it's meetings which were held in Scarborough. The replacement - North Yorkshire Council - has set up what it calls "Local Area Committees" (LAC) to deal with local issues. These LAC's have been set up to match the Westminster parliamentary boundaries which means that Filey and Hunmanby are now in a local area with Thirsk and Malton.

The most recent LAC committee meeting was held in Helmsley, around a one hour twenty minute drive from Filey and it wasn't live streamed, leading to criticism that it has become harder for local residents to attend meetings.

Filey Councillor Sam Cross says it's a far cry from when Filey was part of the old Scarborough Borough.

The chair of the "Thirsk and Malton" Local Area Committee, Councillor Nigel Knapton, admits that the situation needs addressing.

Earlier this month a House of Lords peer strongly criticised devolution in North Yorkshire calling it an “effective destruction of local government” for the region.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire, who is a Liberal Democrat, was speaking on June 16 during a debate in the second chamber about how to reinvigorate local democracy.

Speaking in the House of Lords this month, Lord Wallace said:

“I find what has happened recently in North Yorkshire the most appalling, and when I heard someone assure me that no councillor in North Yorkshire would need more than two hours to drive from the ward they represent to council meetings, it showed me just how far we have gone.

“Decent places such as Harrogate, Scarborough, Richmond and Craven, which had working district authorities and which represented real places, have been dismantled and they are now trying to set up very large town councils for them.

“We have the prospect of a mayor, somehow, for North Yorkshire and, incidentally, one for East Yorkshire. That is the effective destruction of local government and I really do not understand the rationale for it.”

On April 1, the seven district and borough councils in North Yorkshire as well as the county council were replaced by the new unitary authority.

The aim was to streamline structures and save money but with larger areas to cover and more responsibilities over key services there have been concerns that some councillors will struggle to meet the needs of all their constituents.

Despite having a stated ambition of being a “truly local” council, the number of councillors has reduced from 319 to 90 across North Yorkshire.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service in March, Conservative council leader Carl Les defended criticism about the reduction in councillors.

Cllr Les said as one of three elected members for Bedale, councillors there had been “falling over each other” as there had been “very little to do”.

He said:

“Representation by numbers doesn’t work. What matters is if you’ve got energetic people in the cohort of 90. The great benefit of reducing from 319 is that we have saved £750,000.

“I think we’ve got enough members to represent the people and continue the political process. You don’t have to go to a parish meeting to understand what’s happening in that parish.”