Deputy Leader of the Council Report

Hopefully, this will be my last Deputy Leader’s report to Council. As we have said before this report is a hangover from the old Liberal Democrat/Green Councillors coalition. Even then the Deputy Leader report frequently duplicated much of the Leader’s report and strayed into Exec Member Territory, and in doing so wasted time that in future we can use far more productively.

I am flattered that the Leader of the Opposition has sought to prolong my presence in the papers before you, but all good things must come to an end one day, and the Deputy Leader Report is anachronistic in the days of a majority Labour administration.

This removal of the Deputy Leader Report comes along with several other proposed constitutional changes which Members and political groups have had opportunity to input on, and which we can now seek to approve and tighten up how we do business, at these meetings in particular.

Since we last met the city has, along with other parts of the country, suffered heavy rainfall and responded well.  Environment Agency works at the Foss Barrier and at Clementhorpe, while well overdue when they happened, have hopefully made York a more climate resilient city for the time being.  But we know this is temporary and we will be working on plans both within and without the city to ensure we are better prepared for protecting residents with the increasing frequency of major weather events.

I welcome Members’ involvement at Remembrance Sunday this month and the importance of remembering those who sacrificed their lives in conflicts and wars over a great many generations.  I also thank those veterans turning out year after year and making the event what it is. This year saw a high number of veterans with 150 in attendance. It is extremely humbling to review the veterans march past after the ceremony and we thank them for their service and their remembrance.

Lastly, while being careful not to duplicate the Leader’s report, I look forward to the imminent establishing of the Mayoral Combined Authority for York and North Yorkshire.  Whatever geography York ended up in as part of the devolution process, we know we are miles behind many other areas who began benefiting from devolved funding and powers years ago, some more than a decade ago.

No system of governance is perfect but we welcome decision making being taken further away from Whitehall and into York and North Yorkshire, giving us as decision makers greater influence about how public money is spent in our area.  We are working to develop our relationship with North Yorkshire, as we will with the new Mayor when elected, to ensure York gets the very best deal possible out of the arrangement.