Scarborough Borough Councillors have backed the submission of plans to split North Yorkshire in two.
The Government is asking for proposals for the future of local government, they want to merge district and county councils.
North Yorkshire County Council is set to back plans to create one large council for all of North Yorkshire at a meeting tomorrow.
Yesterday, in a heated debate, the Borough Council backed the submission of a plan to split the county in two with the Scarborough Borough forming an Eastern county with Ryedale, Selby, and York.
There was concern from councillors that the process is being rushed and that there has not been enough consultation on the plans. Council leader Steve Siddons says the timetable from central government has been very tight.
Councillor Liz Colling felt it was important that there was an alternative to the County Council plan.
The East/West plan would create two brand-new councils across North Yorkshire and York:
• Ryedale, Scarborough, Selby and York in the east
• Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate and Richmondshire in the west
The model would create an east authority with a population of 465,375 and a west authority with a population of 363,297.
The district council leaders say this would..
"create two equally-sized authorities around the 400,000-resident threshold that Simon Clarke MP, minister of state for local government, said is “optimal”. It would also deliver change in the City of York, which the minister said is "sub-optimally" sized."
"The county council’s plan is to create a unitary authority covering the whole of North Yorkshire with a population of 617,982, while preserving the existing City of York unitary authority with a population of 210,618."
Plans have to be submitted to the Government by November 9th.
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