THE lone voices currently arguing for York residents to pay more council tax for disrupted services and further removed decision-making are York Outer MP Julian Sturdy and the two remaining Conservative councillors.

A new council, stretching from the outskirts of Redcar and Cleveland to those of Doncaster, along the east coast, would do the exact opposite of that suggested by Mr Sturdy. It would centralise decision-making, remove local accountability, cost more to taxpayers and cause major disruption during a global pandemic.

To suggest that a council covering such a huge geographical area, across a wide variety of disparate communities, would retain accountability to local people simply defies logic.

Mr Sturdy is keen to bring up the days when York was governed under a Conservative-controlled county council in the 1980s, with decisions made by representatives who lacked knowledge and interest in our city. This, for example, saw the building of the outer ring road as a single carriageway - against the advice of York’s councillors. We have paid the price ever since and now, thanks in part to funding being put in by City of York Council, work is to commence shortly on dualling the section from Hopgrove to the A19.

I hope that Mr Sturdy will reconsider his support for the district councils’ proposals and instead support the city of York and its residents, who he has been elected to represent.

Richard Brown,

Horseman Avenue,

Copmanthorpe