The executive decision-making body of North Yorkshire County Council has been reshuffled, less than nine months before elections are due to be held.
Its leader Councillor Carl Les said while the majority of the positions on the authority’s executive would remain the same, he wanted to give more of his 54-member Conservative group “the chance to serve” ahead of the first North Yorkshire Council elections on May 5.
The reshuffle comes as the authority agreed to set up a working group to develop a proposal for government over the number of elected members and the areas they should represent on the new council.
While there are calls to double the amount of councillors currently serving on the county council due to the additional responsibilities, it is understood many believe having 144 councillors would be unworkable.
Instead, some cross-party support has been expressed for limiting the new authority to 90 elected members, just 18 more than serve on the county council.
Meanwhile, the executive changes which are set to be considered by the executive on August 24 will see former Scarborough Borough Council leader Councillor Derek Bastiman brought onto the administration’s leadership group of ten members for the first time as the Open to Business portfolio holder.
The current Open to Business executive member, Councillor Andrew Lee, who represents Cawood in Selby district, is scheduled to take over the public health brief, which Northallerton councillor Caroline Dickinson has undertaken for several years.
Over the past 18 months Councillor Dickinson has faced scrutiny with one of the heaviest workloads of any of the authority’s members, having responsibility for the county’s public health response to the Covid pandemic.
Councillor Les said the decision to replace Councillor Dickinson on the executive did not reflect her contribution or efforts, but the fact that the administration had been given a “bonus year”, due to local government reorganisation.
He said: “This is no indication of Councillor Dickinson’s performance whatsoever. She has done very well. If you leave everybody in the same positions all the time the people who haven’t got those positions don’t have an opportunity to serve.
“It is a truism that if you don’t make changes other people don’t get a chance to serve. There’s got to be some change built into the system. I wanted to make some changes over a year ago, but Covid got in the way and I didn’t think it was appropriate at that time to make some changes. Now we have got bonus year.”
Councillor Les said responsibility for climate change action was being officially added Pickering councillor Greg White’s customer engagement portfolio as he was already undertaking the majority of the work in that area.
With 54 Conservative members, opposition councillors said Councillor Les faced a difficult task keeping all of his group happy and while balancing representation on the executive across the county’s six districts. In addition, they highlighted the changes meant just one executive member was a woman.
Opposition councillors also questioned whether the reshuffle was designed to prepare the way for North Yorkshire Council, but Councillor Les dismissed suggestions the changes signified any shift in direction for the council.
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