DEVO LATEST for Leeds City Region
West Yorkshire, and York are studying the latest information from the treasury as to the "offer". The "offer" that is still conditional on acceptance of a Directly Elected Mayor. Officers have been tasked with publicising the "Offer" as soon as we are allowed to, accepting that this might not be the final offer. The treasury have moved a long way towards accepting the "Wants" put to them, but the devil may well be in the detail.
As to the "Geography", it appears that North Yorkshire have indicated that they will prevent the three districts who have been invited to join the Leeds City Region, Harrogate, Selby and Craven from joining. A compromise of "associate membership" has been suggested, but it is acknowledged that this could create a great deal on confusion, not least in who would vote for "The Mayor".
The Conservatives continue to lobby for their ridiculously misnamed "Greater" Yorkshire. This is Yorkshire less South Yorkshire, in every version of English I understand this is "Lesser" Yorkshire. We can only speculate why they favour this gerrymandered geography, is their attempt to create a Conservative safe seat for a Mayor connected to the fact, that whilst councillors are to be banned for standing for Mayor, no such ban has been applied to MP's, it is rumoured that some Yorkshire Conservative MP's have threatened to vote against the government unless they get their own way, surely this can't be true.
The next few weeks are set to be hectic, and for those of us opposed to Directly Elected Mayors we are going to have to make a difficult decision, one way or the other. I have asked for a special full council meeting to be held so we can continue the discussion.
