Mea Culpa

York Minster, credit Wikipedia

Mea Culpa, by Bill Hartley

The City of York and County of North Yorkshire now has an elected mayor. The fact that this was going to happen may have come as a surprise to many in the local electorate. Judging by the modest response at the poll, held in May of this year, voters have been underwhelmed by the idea. The total turnout was 29.89 % and around 450,000 people didn’t bother to vote.

The idea isn’t new having first been considered in 2004. Although Tony Blair’s government was big on devolution, North Yorkshire, for sound geographical reasons, didn’t get the treatment; the conclusion being that it was too large an area to be governed by a single authority. This is hardly surprising since England’s biggest county stretches 116 miles from the Lancashire border to the North Sea. Then, in 2022, unnoticed by many, a devolution deal was done between York City Council and North Yorkshire County Council. It seems there is nothing that politicians like better than more political posts. Judging by the recent turnout this is not a view shared by the electorate.

Six candidates put themselves forward for the post. Their manifesto statements might have been written by the same person. They spoke of ‘sustainable economic growth’, ‘building communities’ and ‘people first’. Clichés of remarkable similarity and of course the word ‘strategic’ was also used.

There isn’t anything inherently wrong with an elected official having strategic oversight but in the case of York and North Yorkshire geography plays an important part in defeating the idea. Conveniently forgotten at the dawn of the brave new era is the reason why the idea was abandoned a couple of decades ago. Some mayoral fiefdoms, usually city regions, are reasonably cohesive: Greater Manchester for example. In Teesside, too, an elected mayor is thought by many to be doing a decent job.

To create a mayoral post covering such a vast area defies logic as does gluing the county to the city of York. One of the favourite subjects found on the candidates’ election material is a good point to begin considering why. Candidates usually talk about public transport. No-one is likely to challenge the idea that it can be improved. A good way to avoid going into detail about this is to stress the need to make it ‘interconnected’. Presumably none of them bothered to look at a map of the county. A geographer would point out that human interaction is shaped by a hierarchy of services. For example, a village in deepest North Yorkshire may posses such basic amenities as a shop, pub and perhaps a filling station. Should a resident wish for access to more services, for example a supermarket, then they are likely to visit a town. More services equal the need for a larger town and herein lies the problem. Whatever the mayor’s strategy it is unlikely to fit conveniently within the borders of his fiefdom. There is, for example, a long coastal strip in the county with Whitby in the north and Scarborough at the south end. Anyone from these towns wishing to access a greater range of services is likely to head for Middlesbrough. Transport links by road and rail reflect this. Middlesbrough of course has its own mayor. Further west the same applies. The nearest large town is Darlington, which has a main line railway station. It happens to be the largest town in County Durham.

The significance of York to most citizens of North Yorkshire is negligible beyond its immediate hinterland. Even within its own postcode area this is doubtful, since to the west is the more accessible town of Harrogate. The main road linking Leeds, York and Scarborough is the A64, one of the reasons why the city is so awkward to reach. It is an accident black spot and at weekends in the summer can be overloaded with traffic heading for the coast. The new mayor, incidentally, has no powers to upgrade the stretch which badly needs to be turned into a dual carriageway.

Further south the map of the county forms a panhandle. This is the district of Selby, the most southerly part of North Yorkshire. A glance at the map will reveal that though York is closer, most of the main lines of communication run east to west between the two cities of Leeds and Hull. The draw of the largest city in West Yorkshire is likely to overwhelm anything York has to offer.

In the run up to the mayoral election the Conservative candidate set himself the task of visiting all the York and North Yorkshire communities, said to number around a thousand. In contrast, the Labour candidate (who won) didn’t trouble to campaign outside the city. If so, then he showed a greater understanding of political realities than his opponent. York has always been a Labour city, whereas the county leans towards Conservative. This was reflected in the vote. Without the York vote going mainly to Labour, the Conservative candidate would have won.

There are now two administrative centres as announced on the new authorities’ website. One is the county town of Northallerton, the other is York. The former, incidentally, has good transport links by road and rail to …Middlesbrough.

An article in the Yorkshire Post, reflecting on the low turnout at the election, expressed concern about the effect on democracy. Equally it might have been a measure of the distain shown by voters who had no say in the creation of the mayoral post. The new mayor’s role is also combined with that of police and fire commissioner. Just in case anyone was worried that this would prove burdensome, he is empowered to create the post of deputy. Doubtless each will have an office with administrative support. That is not all; eight senior managers at North Yorkshire Council are set to receive salaries of over £100,000 a year to reflect their increased responsibilities. Predictably the council defends this with the usual talk about the need to retain talent. Local government lifers presumably are in short supply and therefore much sought after. The chief executive, for instance, is now paid more than the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

One thing that villages are good at is creating a sense of community. It’s one of the reasons why people like living in them. Most have a village hall which hosts various activities and there are sports teams. The new authority still sees the need for a helping hand to show villagers how to do it. There is to be a post of Director of Community Development on a salary of £139,215. Presumably this figure has been set to reduce the risk of candidates being lured away to direct community development elsewhere.

The people behind this new tier of administration evidently see no reason to let logic get in the way as it goes to work to meet the needs of a largely uninterested citizenry. York (the only city in the county) is to be the flag ship even though its draw is more to do with tourism than as a service provider. People will continue to go elsewhere for their needs; not that this is likely trouble the authority. No matter how effective the new mayor tries to be, he will ultimately be defeated by the realities of geography.

William Hartley is a Social Historian