Council                                                                          20 July 2023

Report of the Deputy Leader

It is a continuing honour and a privilege to support the Leader, Cllr Claire Douglas, as we build on our work in opposition with city and region wide stakeholders to best represent the residents of our fine city.

Our first six weeks in administration have been busy and I personally have engaged with over one hundred organisations and individuals. These range from Reverse the Ban to the Sherriff of London, from Education Unions to up and coming entrepreneurs at the Inaugural University of York Enterprise Awards, from Community Groups to York Central Partners.

We attended and spoke at the recent Big Tent festival, advocating for residents, our communities and the sustainability of our economy and the planet. We continue to forge links, build relationships and lobby for the investment and improvements that will benefit all of the residents of York.

We maintain our focus on communities who are economically and socially excluded and make no apologies for directing resources to where they are most needed. We press the case that future growth and economic development must be genuinely sustainable and inclusive and will do all in our power to ensure that no York resident is left behind. When we lift from below, everything is raised.

To that end I recently attended the New Constellations training course, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The course is part of their Emerging Futures programme that seeks to “address the underlying drivers of poverty, as well as tackling its more immediate manifestations.” We look forward to working with JRF on this ambitious programme that aims to bring real benefits to the people of York and beyond.

We continue to listen, reflect and lead in the areas that matter to the people and organisations of the city. Working with residents, communities, businesses, unions and city partners we are keen to ensure that York becomes once again a place that every resident feels belongs to them and in which they have a stake.

The inclusion at Full Council of the Deputy Leaders Report is very much a hangover from the old Liberal Democrat Party/Green Councillors administration with its nine or ten Executive Members. York is now being governed by one political party, representing all residents from the villages and suburbs through to the city centre.

The Deputy Leaders Report was not previously a necessary part of the council agenda and often prevented us from having meaningful discussion on a wide range of important issues.  It was repetitious of the former Leader’s report and usually strayed inappropriately into Executive Member content. As the new Leadership Team works consistently together, to avoid repetition and free up time for Full Council debate we propose removing this report in the near future, in line with how council meetings operated until 2019.