The Regional Monitor

The local government landscape in Yorkshire and Humber may have gone through a large number of boundary changes, but politically the Conservatives remain the dominant political party.

Of the 23 councils, the Conservatives control 10, while Labour have five councils and the Liberal Democrats are clinging to control of just one. In contrast, seven authorities are under no overall control. It is perhaps for this reason that the region has a history of cross-party cooperation for certain projects.

Yorkshire councils have come together to form the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee, paying £500,000 over the coming year to help defence schemes in the region that do not receive resources from the government’s national flood fund, an increase from £332,000 in 2005.

“Government grant is not enough to meet all local priorities,” says chairman Jeremy Walker. “Inevitably there are places in this region which would really benefit from investment to reduce their level of flood risk, but which would not be able to attract national funding.

“For people living in these places the levy the committee raises is a lifeline. Plans for national schemes are well embedded. What we decided…was to develop a parallel plan for locally important schemes that might be funded over the next 10-15 years by the locally raised levy.”

But recently, local government attention has been diverted from boundaries and party rows, to cross-party unity in Leeds for a supertram system in the city.

The supertram was first approved in 2001, and construction companies interested in building the project first submitted their bids in October 2002, when costs were estimated at £500m. But by January 2004, plans were being curtailed in the face of rising costs, to nearly £1bn, and in September last year, transport minister Derek Twigg called on the West Yorkshire public transport organisation Metro to re-examine whether the funds would be better spent on buses.

After a review, Metro concluded that trams were indeed needed, but despite cutting 4.5 miles from the proposed route in a bid to cut costs by £250m, in November last year the Department for Transport confirmed that government support for the supertram system was to be withdrawn as costs remained high, with the recommendation that the city instead focus on providing more frequent bus services with newer vehicles.

“It is clear that the tram scheme is still very expensive and the costs remain much higher than originally planned,” said transport secretary Alistair Darling. “The value today is £486m – compared with the approved figure in 2001 of £355m. Clearly it does not represent value for money for the people of Leeds or the best use of public money.”

But leader of Leeds City Council, Liberal Democrat Cllr Mark Harris, described the decision as “a slap in the face for the city”.

“This is a massive knock but we are determined it will not affect our ambition and competitive drive,” he said. “We are resilient in Leeds. We will bring expertise together and are confident that we can find an alternative way forward.”