North Yorkshire's Future : The Case for a Single County Authority

As the Government launches a consultation on the future of North Yorkshire, Local Democracy Reporter Stuart Minting looks at the case for a single unitary authority for the county.

North Yorkshire County Council has put forward a case for it to become a unitary authority, absorbing it's seven district and borough councils.

This plan for the future of North Yorkshire has been put forward by the County Council and the City of York Council.

It would see the City of York left alone, remaining as a stand alone unitary authority and North Yorkshire County Council become a new unitary authority for the whole of the rest of North Yorkshire, effectively merging with the current district councils.

The supporters of the plan say that

"Such is the unique geography of North Yorkshire that it needs a single council and more than 600,000 residents to be able to maintain services"

North Yorkshire County Council’s proposal highlights how almost one in five of its residents live in areas classified as “super-sparse” and that a single council would provide the “critical mass, scale and financial sustainability” to tackle the challenges of providing services across the area.

While opponents of the model have claimed smaller local authorities would be more knowledgeable and responsive about local issues, the county council says it has delivered most of the services funded by council tax-payers, such as social care, on local level, for decades.

A county council spokesman said:

“By keeping the county together we can take the best of all council services and keep the scale to respond to multiple challenges while improving the lives of everyone living and working in North Yorkshire.

“We can also save as much as £260m over five years by removing unnecessary waste and duplication. Money which would be used to protect and strengthen your services at a critical time. No other bid can deliver this amount of savings within this timeframe.”

Nevertheless, critics of the model have repeatedly claimed a single North Yorkshire council would be unaccountable, pointing to how decisions have been made at its headquarters in Northallerton, more than an hour’s drive away from many of the settlements it serves.

In response, the county council has argued it would create local access points for residents to get council services, devolve powers to parishes which wished to take decisions more locally, empower its constituency committees and create local planning committees for medium scale applications.

A county council spokesman said:

“We know our people and our places. For every £5 spent on council services across North Yorkshire £4 is already delivered by us and our staff working on the ground in every community, delivering services into every town and village and even into people’s homes.”

The single North Yorkshire authority bid backers say it would provide a strong voice with national reach to speak out for its communities.

A county council spokesman said:

“North Yorkshire has an enviable identity – one of the strongest of any English county. We are globally renowned for our hospitality and culture, our market towns, spectacular landscapes and coastline. People are proud to live and work in North Yorkshire. It has a thriving visitor economy and our aim is to protect this brand and build on it.”

Another key plank of the county council’s argument is that a single North Yorkshire council would minimise disruption to services for children, adults and highways.

Despite this opponents of the single authority model say services such as adult social care and children’s services could be improved more if they were delivered by two councils 

“with opportunities taken to maximise whole-systems thinking through integrated delivery with district services and with other public and voluntary and community sector organisations”.

Supporters of the county’s bid have also raised concerns over large numbers of job losses in Northallerton, where both the county and Hambleton councils are based, if the East-West proposal was pursued, arguing the bases for the two unitary authorities were likely to be in York and Harrogate.

A county council spokesman said:

“Our proposal delivers two complementary rather than competing councils, City of York and North Yorkshire, each with unique and distinct qualities to strengthen a devolved, mayoral authority.”