Agenda item

The Council received a report which informed Members of the appointment of the Council’s Chief Executive, Johanna Miller, as the Local Returning Officer for the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield Combined Authority election to be held on 3rd May, 2018.

It was reported that the Combined Authority had appointed its Chief Executive, Dave Smith, as Returning Officer for the election, but each voting area (Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield) were required to appoint a Local Returning Officer to ensure that the election was administered appropriately in its own area.

Following recent issues surrounding the Combined Authority and the desire of Doncaster and Barnsley Councils to join a Wider Yorkshire devolution model, rather than a smaller South Yorkshire arrangement, a Community Poll was held during December 2017, which overwhelmingly demonstrated that the preference of the people of Doncaster and Barnsley was to join a Wider Yorkshire rather than the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority. 

It was noted that following the outcome of the Community Poll, Ros Jones the Mayor of Doncaster and the Leader of Barnsley Council, both wrote to Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, proposing that the May 2018 election be postponed and that the desire of Doncaster and Barnsley to join a Wider Yorkshire proposition be respected. 

Unfortunately, these discussions had not, to date, been successful and in May 2018, the Combined Authority election would take place at an estimated cost of £2m. It remained the ambition of Doncaster Council, and almost all of the other Local Authorities in Yorkshire, to establish a Wider Yorkshire Combined Authority. In order to achieve this aim, Doncaster Council would need to leave the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority.

In commenting on the report, the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Glyn Jones, whilst being supportive of the recommendation, felt that it was unfortunate that  £2m of public money was being spent on the election, when there could have been an interim Mayor for two years, as in Greater Manchester, before Andy Burnham was elected in May last year. The election was nonetheless going ahead, despite the Council’s Community Poll which showed Doncaster residents, alongside the business community, to be firmly in favour of a wider Yorkshire deal.

The Deputy Mayor stated that he was backing Dan Jarvis to be Labour’s Mayoral candidate, not least because he would deliver on the Wider Yorkshire ambitions. 

The Deputy Mayor updated Members in relation to two meetings that had taken place during the last week.  Firstly, the Deputy Mayor reported that he had attended an All Party Parliamentary Group session for the Yorkshire and Humber in the House of Commons, together with 70 other people from across Yorkshire, representing the public and private sectors, trade unions, MPs and the House of Lords.  They had met with Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and all the 18 Councils present had confirmed their support for One Yorkshire, during which the Secretary of State invited Councils to submit firm proposals thereon. The Deputy Mayor reported that whilst the Secretary of State didn’t confirm whether or not a wider Yorkshire deal would be accepted, but that ‘his door was clearly open’.  The Secretary of State had asked the Group to show him what they had agreed.The Secretary of State was clear that South Yorkshire Councils could be part of Wider Yorkshire from the very outset. The Deputy Mayor expected that meant that a South Yorkshire Mayor would only be in place until the Yorkshire deal was finalised, which meant that we were working towards Yorkshire Devolution by 2020. The Deputy Mayor undertook to provide a copy of the briefing note from the meeting of members of the All Party Parliamentary Group session for the Yorkshire and Humber and the Secretary of State on 27 February 2018, in relation to a One Yorkshire approach to Devolution, to all Members following the meeting.

The Deputy Mayor further reported that this morning, he had attended a meeting with Yorkshire Leaders in Leeds on behalf of Mayor Ros Jones.  He stated that again, 18 out of 20 Yorkshire Councils were represented (except Sheffield and Rotherham) and that it was an extremely positive meeting and the Yorkshire Leaders had agreed a high level set of Devolution proposals to submit to the Secretary of State.  The Deputy Mayor added that these proposals were being finalised and were being sent to the Secretary of State within the next few days.  As soon as, that was finalised, the Deputy Mayor gave an undertaking to senda copy of Yorkshire’s Devolution Submission Agreement to all Members of the Council.

RESOLVED to note the appointment of the Council’s Chief Executive Johanna Miller, as the Local Returning Officer for the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield Combined Authority Election to be held on 3rd May, 2018.