WITH reference to the scrutiny committee for corporate policy and audit and review matters at North Yorkshire County Council, the Labour group is refusing to participate in this committee because it will have a Tory chair when cabinet-style local government starts in the county in September.

All of the other scrutiny committees will have opposition chairs and this should be no exception.

The row about this committee is typical of the behaviour of the Tories on the whole issue of modernising local government in North Yorkshire.

When the current council was elected in 1997, no political party had overall control of the council. As we started to move towards the new system, the Tories saw their chance to control the process if they took control of the council. They recruited two 'independents' and have since used their position to promote their own group, disregarding the views of the people of North Yorkshire.

Their behaviour is in stark contrast to that of the Labour group on Selby District Council, which as the largest group on a no-overall council have sought to be fair to everyone. Led by Geoff Lynch, Selby is to have a Labour cabinet with scrutiny committees made up of those who are not in the cabinet and all with opposition chairs. Labour in Selby despises the backroom deals of North Yorkshire Tories.

Labour councillors both at district and county see these new arrangements as an opportunity to open up the decision-making process at local level and to ensure that decisions are put under the microscope in the best interests of local people. We will not participate in a committee which leaves the people who elected us high and dry. It is our duty to expose this Tory sham.

John Duggan,

county councillor for Cawood,

district councillor for Riccall with Kelfield,

Lucerne Close,

Riccall, York.