Holding North Yorkshire Council to account
Lots of the things that people in the Selby area contact me about relate to North Yorkshire Council, including housing, planning, highways, schooling, bin collections and council tax.
Whilst I don't have formal powers in these areas, I think it's an important part of an MP's role to hold the local authority to account, making sure that local people are getting the service they pay for.
Background
​In 2023, Selby District Council was abolished and replaced by a new unitary authority, North Yorkshire Council. This means that the decisions which impact the Selby area are now taken in Northallerton, where a coalition of Conservative and Independent Councillors have full control of the council. In the Selby area, your North Yorkshire Councillors are as follows:
Barlby and Riccall - Councillor Stephanie Duckett (Labour)
Brayton and Barlow - Councillor Mark Crane (Conservative)
Camblesforth and Carlton - Councillor Mike Jordan (Reform UK)
Cawood and Escrick - Councillor John Cattanach (Independent)
Cliffe and North Duffield - Councillor Karl Arthur (Conservative)
Osgoldcross - Councillor John McCartney (Independent)
Selby East - Councillor Jack Proud (Labour)
Selby West - Councillor Steve Shaw-Wright (Labour) and Councillor Melanie Davis (Labour)
Sherburn in Elmet - Councillor Bob Packham (Labour)
South Milford and Monk Fryston - Councillor Tim Grogan (Conservative)
Thorpe Willoughby and Hambleton - Councillor Cliff Lunn (Conservative)
You can find contact details for each of your Councillors here. They are often best-placed to assist with matters relating to North Yorkshire Council.
I share the frustration that I often hear from constituents about a perceived unfairness in how North Yorkshire Council allocates its resources. Before local government reorganisation, residents in Selby had lower council tax than other parts of the county and also had free bin collections like residents in neighbouring authorities such as Leeds. When the districts came together, the new Council set about equalising rates and services, meaning that Selby residents paid more and got less. This is particularly frustrating given that other parts of North Yorkshire still enjoy free services like pest control as a legacy of their district's policies, and I've made my position clear to North Yorkshire Council's leadership that this unfairness needs addressing.​​
More generally, I've campaigned on a few key issues which relate to North Yorkshire Council, and I'll summarise these below:
Representation
When I was first elected as Selby's MP, our district had no representation on North Yorkshire Council's executive board. This meant that there was no voice from Selby in the room when important Council decisions were taken. I thought this was wrong, so I wrote to the Leader of the Council to call for him to appoint a Selby Councillor to his executive board. A month later, it was confirmed that Cllr Crane would join the Executive Board with responsibility for business - a move which I welcomed here.
Highways
When I hold events in the constituency, I'm always struck by the importance that people place on road safety and highways policy. That isn't a surprise - the culture wars of recent years, stoked consistently by previous Conservative governments, have incorrectly presented road safety as a 'left v right' issue. In Selby, we know it's nothing of the sort. When people step out of their vehicles they are pedestrians too, and so I'm campaigning hard for road safety improvements in Monk Fryston, Hambleton, Escrick and Selby. Importantly, I've pushed North Yorkshire Council to review their policy on 20mph outside schools - something which in most cases is simply common sense. You can read more about my work on this here:
Housing and Planning
As your Member of Parliament, I have no formal role in planning matters. I cannot approve or reject planning applications on behalf of residents. The power to do this rests solely with the local planning authority, North Yorkshire Council or the relevant Secretary of State for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. However, I believe it is vital that residents can have their say on applications. As such, I will relay concerns presented by residents to North Yorkshire Council when they have been raised with me to ensure that your voice is heard.
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Additionally, if you have an ongoing planning application relating to your own property and have concerns about the decision or process, I would be happy to raise this with North Yorkshire Council.
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On the issue of housing, we have a housing crisis in our country and the need to build more homes is clear. In the Selby District in recent years, we have seen a significant amount of housing development and often they haven’t been the right type of homes needed for our area and they have been developed in a piecemeal and patchwork way. I am keen to ensure that the Selby District does our part in tackling the housing crisis and the planning reforms enacted by the Government will stimulate development with a strategic focus, ensuring that development meets need and that the additional services that will be required will be in place.
I also recognise that we are lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world, with green spaces and nature at the heart of so many of our communities. Recently, there has been a failure to preserve our green spaces because of the patchwork quilt development we have seen. I am very clear that I will always support a brownfield first approach to development in our area, where disused sites are prioritised for re-development. I have been pushing North Yorkshire Council to be pro-active in identifying brownfield sites in our area, so that we can benefit from the Mayor’s Brownfield Fund and I was extremely disappointed that the Council only submitted a few sites, significantly fewer than City of York Council.
Education
One issue which always tops my constituency mailbag each week is the lack of adequate local provision for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
I know from my conversations with hundreds of local families just how desperately we need specialist school places for our area. The delivery of the Selby area SEND school continues to be a top priority of mine.
Parents often tell me that they struggle to communicate with the Local Education Authority. I have been clear with North Yorkshire Council leadership that the delays and barriers that Selby families face when trying to secure support for their children are completely unacceptable and wrong. I meet regularly with the Council’s officers and task them on their progress, and share the views and frustrations of constituents.
On SEND and Education issues, North Yorkshire’s Conservative group have shown little sympathy with families, choosing to ‘pause’ vital Locality hub services and refusing to listen to parents on changes to home-to-school transport policy. It’s clear that North Yorkshire’s dither and delay approach - whether that be reviewing school speed limits or uniform support or individual SEND plan decisions - is failing children in Selby, Sherburn and the surrounding villages.
Buses
Since I was first elected as Selby's MP in July 2023, we've secured funding to double the frequency of services on the Selby - Leeds and Selby - Pontefract routes. These are welcome improvements which have driven increased ridership, adding to connectivity for villages on the A63 corridor west of Selby and to places like Burn, Eggborough and Kellington.
There's a huge amount more to do, and I've consistently called for North Yorkshire Council to show a greater interest in demanding better from Arriva, particularly given the total withdrawal of services from Leeds Road in Selby. In that instance, the new, improved service is part-funded through funding linked to a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), and this funding is delivered by North Yorkshire Council. It's high time that our Council got serious about delivering better connectivity, not just for those left without a bus service on Leeds Road, but also for those in villages like Cliffe, Hemingbrough or North Duffield, who have no service at all or one that only operates a few days each week. I'll continue to lobby hard for better transport for people right across Selby and Kippax, and I hope that North Yorkshire Council follows suit.
