North Yorkshire Council Leaders Condemn "Disgraceful" £20m Road Funding Reallocation

Members of North Yorkshire Council’s executive committee have heavily criticised a decision by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority to reallocate road maintenance funding, branding the move an "attack on rural North Yorkshire".

The executive committee of North Yorkshire Council has strongly condemned a budget decision by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority that shifts funding from highway maintenance to improvement schemes. Members branded the reallocation of Department for Transport funding as an "attack on rural North Yorkshire", "frankly outrageous", and "disgraceful".

The dispute centres around a change in the highway maintenance allocation split between North Yorkshire Council and the City of York Council. The revised ratio stands at 90:10, a significant shift from the previous 92.7:7.3 split. Council leaders claim the move will cost the county £20 million in road repair funding over the four-year period from 2026 to 2030, with £4 million diverted directly to York.

In response, North Yorkshire Council has initiated formal legal proceedings and is actively seeking a judicial review. The authority argues that the decision was made without the required unanimous agreement.

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 Leader, Councillor Carl Les, expressed his frustration over how the decision was handled. He said:

"there was an element of almost like last minute about this when it came to the to to the authority. We have had little discussion about it. We also have a disagreement about the process that we actually think this is a budgetary item and therefore should have required a unanimous agreement, not majority voting."

The reallocation has sparked outrage among committee members, who argue that the Mayor's Road Maintenance Fund lacks clear justification and bypasses professional highways advice.

Deputy Leader, Councillor Gareth Dadd, strongly criticised the Mayor's involvement in the funding allocation. He said:

"One thing that sticks out for me is the politicisation of what should be an objective exercise with the Mayors maintenance fund. We have never done that in North Yorkshire, we have always played a straight bat. Quite often to the detriment of majority party divisions.

On what basis does the Mayor think he's got more hold skills than professional highways officers in either York or North Yorkshire to decide and direct the allocation of funds when it should be done on the very objective basis. That's the biggest point of contention.

Frankly I've never seen anything so disgraceful it's an attack on rural North Yorkshire by a York mayor."

The shift in funding comes at a time when the county's roads have suffered significant deterioration due to severe weather exposure, altitude, and heavy traffic.

Executive Member for Highways, Councillor Malcolm Taylor, highlighted the impact the reduction in capital funding will have on local communities. He said:

"The mayor's decision to shift funding from highway maintenance to improvement schemes would leave North Yorkshire with a substantial real-term reduction over the four-year funding period.

I think the one thing that probably unites all councillors is that we get representations about the state of the roads in North Yorkshire. We've had a particularly gruelling, wet winter, which has really undermined a lot of our roads. We all get challenged about funding for our highways, and so to be finding out that in the next year we're going to have less capital funding to spend on those roads, is quite galling really and unpalatable to us as a council and the communities that we represent."

According to the council, over 2,200 potholes have been fixed in the last eighteen months, highlighting the scale of the maintenance challenge facing the authority.

Councillor Malcolm Taylor added that the focus must remain on comprehensive road repairs rather than temporary fixes. He said:

"There's a hyperbole about potholes. Potholes are the symptoms. We don't want to be fixing potholes. We don't particularly want a pothole fund from the mayor. We want the capital funding to fix the roads properly because that's what needs doing, because you fix potholes, you fix them once, you end up fixing them again very shortly.

And I think my figures I think I understand it correct in the last 18 months, we fixed over 2,200 potholes, which shows some scale of the problem that we've got. We want to fix our roads properly, and to do that, we need proper funding. So this is particularly unpalatable to us."

The divisive budget plan received support from the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith, alongside chiefs from the City of York Council. However, it has faced continued, staunch opposition from North Yorkshire Council's leadership.

In a letter before action sent by North Yorkshire Council's assistant chief executive, Barry Khan, the council asserted that clear legal errors were made when the decision was finalised, rendering the outcome unlawful. The Mayor has defended the budget, describing the council's legal action as a political stunt which could waste taxpayer money.

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.”

A report updating committee members on the allocation of the capital funding was recently referred to the Executive by the Transport, Economy, Environment and Enterprise Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Following over two hours of debate, the committee welcomed the long-term certainty of the consolidated transport settlement from the Department for Transport but maintained their significant concerns over the revised funding splits.

The executive committee agreed to ask the full council to urge the mayor to reconsider the allocations when it meets next week.