Residents seek link-up with Hambleton (From Gazette & Herald)

Residents seek link-up with Hambleton

RYEDALE residents are out of sync with the rest of North Yorkshire when it comes to their vision for local government reforms, an independent survey has found.

According to a MORI poll, Ryedale is the only district in North Yorkshire in which residents' main preference is for option D in the boundary committee's proposed shake-up.

Under that option:

Ryedale, Hambleton and Scarborough districts combine;

Craven, Harrogate and Richmondshire districts combine;

Selby district and the East Riding of Yorkshire combine.

Apart from Selby, which wants a unitary body for North Yorkshire, all other districts favour the 'gemini' option B:

Craven and Harrogate districts combine;

Hambleton and Richmondshire districts combine;

Ryedale and Scarborough districts combine;

Selby district and East Riding of Yorkshire combine.

30pc of Ryedale residents polled said they preferred option D, with many reasoning that it would best reflect local geography. Only one in seven backed a single unitary government based on the present North Yorkshire County Council.

Ryedale District Councillor Robert Wainwright agreed with this view, commenting: "My own personal preference would be the three combined districts because it's large enough to be viable. My fear with Scarborough and Ryedale is that it would be too small to run itself without buying in a lot of services.

"I think people towards the north-west of Ryedale, towards Helmsley, have an affiliation with Hambleton. There is an alliance between agricultural communities, with many Ryedale farmers naturally taking their cattle to Thirsk market. It would not be fair to say that the whole of Ryedale naturally flocks to the east coast for shopping and leisure."

Commenting on the proposed reforms in local government generally, he said: "I think it's shake-up for shake-up's sake and I think we are looking at another tier of local government which nobody can really quantify the price of.

"We are delivering reasonably well, as the MORI poll shows, and I don't think people would identify with a regional assembly based in the West Riding, which is where it would be."

The Boundary Committee will make final recommendations on the shake-up to the office of the deputy prime minister on May 25. A referendum on whether there should be an elected regional assembly for Yorkshire and the Humber will take place in the autumn. If it backs the assembly, local government will have to change. The ballot will contain at least two options for voters to chose from for the shake-up in local councils.

Two out of five polled (42pc) said they had not heard about the review of local government. Of those who had heard of it, most learned the details in local newspapers.

Those who favoured one county-wide government said they thought it was the most economical option; those opposed don't want a council to cover such a large area.

Updated: 10:33 Wednesday, May 05, 2004