Sir, - Your leading article of September 12 about the future of local government showed a lacked of understanding about how the county council serves the people of North Yorkshire.

"Counties alone would be too remote" you stated shortly after declaring "...amalgamated districts seem the best option" and then adding rather ambiguously that "larger district councils should, of course, be considered the least worst option".

Who and what, we ask, would a unitary North Yorkshire County Council be remote from?

As just one of many examples we already provide care for the frail and vulnerable in our society directly to their own homes. What could be more local than that?

With 400 schools the county council is at the very heart of every community in the county. We deliver one of the best education services in the country, educating more than 80,000 pupils each day.

We maintain about 6,000 miles of roads in North Yorkshire - including those that link most people's household drives to the national network. Remote?

The county council already delivers services which account for 85pc of local government spending in North Yorkshire - and I mean local in every sense of the word.

Developing North Yorkshire as a unitary council is not a barrier to local services and local accountability. Our proposals for a new unitary authority provide for more delegated decision-making by local area committees and the delivery of some local services by town and parish councils. There will be a particular focus on our historic market towns.

Any amalgamation of districts would create artificial sub-divisions of North Yorkshire. They would lack the large resource base needed to meet the higher costs of delivering services to thinly populated areas. They would, in any case be geographically large themselves.

The county council has a workforce approaching 20,000, but only just over 1,000 are based at County Hall, Northallerton, the administrative headquarters.

The majority live and work in every corner of the county - delivering local, not remote services.

Coun JOHN WEIGHELL

Leader of the Council

North Yorkshire County Council,

County Hall,

Northallerton.

Sir, - Your newspaper has reported on the proposed changes in local government.

Certainly, the issue of a regional assembly for our area from the Scottish borders to North Lincolnshire is debatable, but it could unite the North-East and bring some benefits.

Comment was expressed (D&S, Sept 12) regarding the unitary authority for North Yorkshire. North Yorkshire County Council is best placed to provide the unitary authority as envisaged by the minister for local government. Members of the existing district councils, formed in 1973 and with some members serving since then, are no longer needed and are a throwback to the period before 1973.

Many of their members are so concerned to protect their heritage and "castles" they have built at taxpayers' expense they are unable to focus on the future.

It seems likely that North Yorkshire would have to be divided on an East/West split, probably using the line of the A1.

An underlying need in any reorganisation of local government must be to control costs and lessen the demands on council taxpayers. There also should be an end to the duplication of services and arguments about responsibility and who should foot the bill.

Central government needs to decide whether education (schools/ colleges) should be a responsibility of the unitary authority or a separate body, since it is so important and consumes so much money.

Central government should also determine the level of services by Act of Parliament. Until the Nineties it was a requirement for household waste to be collected at periods not exceeding seven days, this has now been changed and allows collections at other periods, which can cause problems.

The construction and maintenance of roads and footpaths needs to be governed by an Act of Parliament, which would allow the authorities to carry out much needed improvement to pedestrian footways and country roads and require central government to fund them.

With the unitary authority in place, it would be totally inappropriate to allow any more duties or responsibilities to pass to the parish or town councils who are not fit for the purpose.

R W BARKER

Ladycross Farm,

Stokesley