Regionalisation House of Cards Begins to Fall

Turmoil at Yorkshire assembly as council quits
Simon McGeePolitical Correspondent
21st August 2004

YORKSHIRE'S unelected regional assembly has been branded a money-wasting "talking shop" as a leading council became the first to pull out.

East Riding Council's move is seen as a blow to the Government's regional devolution agenda.

The unelected assembly was set up to play a key part in promoting a regional outlook on policy and is widely seen as a forerunner for John Prescott's vision of an elected mini-parliament.Last month, the Government pulled the plug on plans for referendums in the North West and Yorkshire and Humber regions on the subject of elected mini-parliaments because of allegations of fraud surrounding all-postal voting.

An all-postal referendum will go ahead as planned in the North-East on November 4 and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has suggested the vote in Yorkshire could go ahead as early as next year.

East Riding Council has launched a scathing broadside on the current regional assembly, complaining of "pointless meetings with people justifying their own existence".It says the £87,500 of council tax-payers' money that it pays annually to the organisation, which has a £3.7m budget and co-ordinates regional strategy in areas like planning and economic development, was frittered away on staff and administration.

Its withdrawal has prompted other authorities to reconsider their membership, raising fears that East Riding's decision could open the floodgates to more councils looking to get out.

North Yorkshire's nine local authorities have since agreed to discuss their membership at their next meeting in October.

The assembly was created in 2001, has a staff of 39 officers based in offices in Wakefield and Brussels, and collects more than £1.5m in subscriptions from the region's 22 local authorities, even though it has little power and provides no services directly to taxpayers.

Its principal role is in co-ordinating regional planning guidance and scrutinising the work of the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward.

East Riding Council leader Stephen Parnaby said: "It's all about budgets and deciding where our priorities lie. Frankly we didn't think we were getting value for money. The whole thing's a talking shop. It's just a waste of time and money. "Whenever we attended we found ourselves in pointless meetings with people justifying their own existence. If they didn't turn up for work for six months no one would notice."

The assembly's chief executive, Liz Kerry, said she was "naturally disappointed" by the council's departure and claimed the body had made real achievements. "The East Riding has particularly benefited from the work of the assembly on a number of issues over the last two years – this has included securing more than £8m extra in flood defence to protect an extra 30,000 properties in East Riding, and working to support the council on a range of planning matters, along with practical help given to assist rural communities."She said meetings had been held to try and bring the authority back on board.

Hull City Council leader Colin Inglis, whose authority paid £91,835 to be part of the organisation, rallied to the assembly's defence, saying: "It's very shortsighted of East Riding in my view. It definitely isn't something that Hull is considering. "I think there's great value in regional arrangements, especially when we're dealing with the Government. As individual councils it would be difficult to punch at the same weight. But with a regional body like this we can."

Leeds City Council's co-leader Andrew Carter said his authority, which paid £227,500 for a year's membership, was not currently considering leaving the assembly, but he added East Riding had made it an issue for debate.He said: "As a council we're looking for value for money. That's the key. If we get it, fine. If we don't, who knows. But there's no denying the organisation is getting fatter and fatter."

An Office for the Deputy Prime Minister spokesman said: "The assembly does fulfil some important functions and it's disappointing to hear that an authority no longer wishes to be involved or contribute to its work representing the region."But Haltemprice and Howden Tory MP and Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "I approve of East Riding's action on this. It's a demonstration of the collapse of John Prescott's ill-starred regional policy."

Assembly points
The quango that grew and grew

THE unelected Yorkshire and Humber Regional Assembly has been a source of mystery and confusion for some time. The original intention was that this obscure body would form the superstructure for an elected assembly once the region's voters gave John Prescott's idea the thumbs-up in a referendum.

Considering that the referendum is not now going ahead, however, and that the Deputy Prime Minister's dream of a Yorkshire parliament is all but dead in the water, what is the point in the continuing.

With half this bloated budget expected to come from the pockets of hard-pressed local authorities, it is hardly surprising that East Riding Council has decided that enough is enough and has pulled out of the Assembly, complaining of "pointless meetings with people justifying their own existence". Indeed, the only surprise is that East Riding is the only authority to do so.

However, considering the mumblings and grumblings coming from other authorities across the region, that may not be the case for very long.

In its defence, the Assembly claims that it brings in millions of pounds of investment to the region in such areas as flood defence and support for rural communities. Yet there is no way of quantifying this.

It may well be the case that it has played a role in certain inward-investment decisions, but it is impossible to put a figure on its value to the region.

It is known how much the Assembly costs, but it is not known whether or not it provides value for money.

Clearly, East Riding Council feels that it does not.

What is known, however, is that the Assembly has been steadily expanding over recent years and has been busily recruiting and offering large salaries for jobs such as "prinicipal transport planner", "environment policy manager" and "economy and skills policy manager".

The speed with which this regional government-in-waiting has been constructed seems to fly in the face of the claim that the elected assembly would be light on bureaucracy.

The whole idea of the plan for a regional parliament was that it would democratise the quangos, yet here is just such a quango getting bigger and bigger without an elected assembly now in sight. But if the existence of unelected quangos is so worrying to the Government, why not seize this opportunity to get rid of them, the Assembly included, and devolve their powers to local councils?

Or, at the very least, force them to justify their existence through the most stringent of economic tests?