Agenda item

To receive and consider a written report from the Deputy Leader and, to question the Deputy Leader thereon.

A written report was received from the Deputy Leader, Cllr Kilbane.

Members were then invited to question the Deputy Leader on his report. Questions were received from the floor from the following Members in relation to the subjects listed, and replied to as indicated:

Deputy Leader’s Report

From Cllr Fenton: Congratulations to the Deputy Leader on your election as Deputy Mayor for the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA). Your report claims the administration is steering York away from what you describe as the old insular politics of the previous administration. Can you please explain how this characterisation fits with the successes delivered by the previous administration in securing funding for major projects such as York Central, the station frontage and the outer ring road dualling which are now coming to fruition?

Response: I think given the track record of the previous administration, that funding was secured almost in spite of the previous administration. The generosity of Labour-led YNYCA is funding the York Central development referred to. To give an example, when we were in opposition before last year’s election, Cllr Douglas and I met with the landowners of York Central, and in the first week post-election we met with Homes England and Network Rail and other York Central partners and were informed that we were the first political leaders that they had had a face-to-face conversation with. A project that affects the future of everybody in this city and region and there had been no political engagement with the people who were running that project, which had left officers of this Council having to second-guess what the then-Leader’s opinion might be on particular developments. That’s what happened when we went to see them; we sat down with them and said we want 40% truly affordable housing on that land, we want jobs on that land so that when people who live up on Severus Hill look down the hill they see opportunity in York Central for them and their kids. We told them we wanted it car-light because of climate concerns and in terms of the space needed there, and while they might not have agreed with everything we said they were really glad to hear a political leader telling them what it was that this city wanted, because it had been so badly lacking through the insular politics of the previous administration.

Supplementary from Cllr Ayre: Isn’t it the case that elsewhere in your report you claim to dislike a nasty brand of politics, yet your response demonstrates that this is in fact the way you like to do business?

Supplementary Response: What that refers to is the lies in Liberal Democrat leaflets in the Hull Road by-election, straightforward lies as well as the usual half-twisting of truths and ridiculous bar-charts. Putting lies through people’s doors has an impact.

Cllr Ayre: The Deputy Leader is accusing people in this chamber of lying. That is not true, and is defamatory.

Cllr Kilbane: It is true, so it’s not defamatory.

The Lord Mayor reminded both councillors to be respectful to one another.

Cllr Kilbane: Apologies if it was disrespectful, I was just trying to tell it how it is.

From Cllr Healey: This should be a much easier question to answer. When can we expect the process to be completed and a report brought to full Council so we can meet the Deputy Leader’s long-term aspiration to remove this report?

Response: The previous questions were quite easy to answer. My understanding is that this will come to the Audit and Governance Committee at the end of July; obviously you are going to miss all this enjoyment once it’s gone, but this report should be deleted from the end of July or soon thereafter.