A row has erupted over how local planning decision will be made under the new North Yorkshire Council.
The new unitary authority takes over from the borough council in April with planning decisions set to be made by a subgroup of a new "local area committee". These committees will consist of the local county councillors.
However, they've now been told they won't be able to elect the chair of the local planning committee themselves, and instead the chair will be appointed by the full council.
Hunmanby and Sherburn Councillor - Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff - isn't impressed.
At the moment planning decisions in the Scarborough Borough are made by a sub-committee of the Borough Council. When the new North Yorkshire Council takes over from the existing county and borough council's in April it will have six "Area Constituency Planning Committees" across the county which will follow the Parliamentary constituency boundaries.
This means that while Scarborough and Whitby will be in the same planning area, Filey, Hunmanby and Sherburn will be in a separate area with Thirsk and Malton. These new planning committees will meet once a month.
In addition there will be a "Strategic Planning Committee", which will deal with high level planning applications such as housing developments of over 500 properties, mining and significant applications related to energy.
Each of the local area planning committees will have seven members drawn from the 15 councillors who represent divisions within the area.
Hunmanby and Sherburn councillor, Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff, thinks the local planning committee should be able to appoint it's own chair.
There are concerns that politics is playing a part in the process. Currently the Conservatives have a majority in the full council chamber so could in theory vote conservative's into all the chair roles. The Scarborough and Whitby Local Area Committee has 15 councillors, 7 of whom are Conservative, 7 are Labour and 1 is independent.
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