UKIP councillors call for unitary authority in North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire UKIP county councillors Sam Cross and David Simister said they would also accept two smaller all-encompassing bodies to administer the county as part of a drive to save taxpayers millions of pounds.

The pair are calling on North Yorkshire County Council to back their unitary authority proposal at meeting on Wednesday, February 19.

Coun Cross said the council, which is mid-way through an eight-year drive to save £168m, needed to make some brave decisions.

He said: “Government funding is making it increasingly difficult for the county council to balance its books, and as a result it is having to make cuts across all services.

“North Yorkshire has eight authorities, each with its own chief executive and senior directors, all of whom receive executive pay packets. Departments are not just duplicated, they are octoplicated.”

The proposal comes almost seven years after local government minister John Healey dismissed a county council application to create a unitary authority, saying it did not meet the necessary criteria.

Durham County Council was judged to have fulfillled the criteria and became a unitary authority in 2009.

North Yorkshire County Council argued in 2007 that its proposal would save £14m a year.

Opponents of the plan, including all seven North Yorkshire MPs, said the new council would be extremely remote for most of its residents.

County council leader Councillor John Weighell said while he would “support the move 100 per cent”, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles had indicated the Government would not consider creating new unitary authorities until after 2015.

Coun Weighell said most of the savings associated with creating a unitary authority would come from cutting district council back room staff.

He said: “It is not on the agenda, but there is no doubt that it would be of benefit to the taxpayers of North Yorkshire.”