“For the purpose of clarity and transparency, and further to the discussion at the Policy and Resources Committee of 18 March 2021, can the Chairman of Policy and Resources Committee please confirm whether he has spoken to any persons representing North Yorkshire County Council (including Councillors and Officers) in relation to the current local government reorganisation proposals in North Yorkshire, and if so could he please confirm:
(a) the names of those individuals;
(b) the dates he spoke to those individuals; and
(c) the details of the discussions with those individuals, including whether this involved any discussion about persuading Ryedale councillors to support the county council’s proposal.”
Minutes:
To Councillor Clark, Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee, from Councillor Duncan:
“For the purpose of clarity and transparency, and further to the discussion at the Policy and Resources Committee of 18th March 2021, can the Chairman of Policy and Resources Committee please confirm whether he has spoken to any persons representing North Yorkshire County Council (including Councillors and Officers) in relation to the current local government reorganisation proposals in North Yorkshire, and if so, could he please confirm:
(a) the names of those individuals;
(b) the dates he spoke to those individuals; and
(c) the details of the discussions with those individuals, including whether this involved any discussion about persuading Ryedale Councillors to support the County Council’s proposal.”
Councillor Clark, Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee, replied:
“I have talked to Councillor Carl Les. I don't know and I haven't recorded the dates. I can give you a generalisation if you like. As Chair of P and R, I talked to the Leader of Council shortly after I became Chair of P and R, about a week ago and Tuesday evening. The first discussion was to ask for a large print copy of the North Yorkshire proposals. The second discussion was to check that he had been invited and the meeting and telling him how I intended to run the session on Tuesday night. In brackets not in answer to the question but for information, I did the same with all the other speakers. And the third one was to ring up on Tuesday night to apologise.”
Councillor Duncan then asked the following supplementary question:
“Councillor Clark has in his question failed to mention the occasions on which he has spoken to Councillor Les prior to his appointment as Chair of P and R. And I have it confirmed by Councillor Les that several conversations have taken place between Councillor Clark and Councillor Les prior to his appointment. So I would like to ask the Chairman of Policy and Resources, why he has not been fully transparent about those conversations. Why he is not telling the Council the full story. And what does he have to hide?”
Councillor Clark, Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee, then replied:
“Any questions before I was Chair of P and R are not answered under questions to the Chair of P and R because I have had conversations with all sorts of people from North Yorkshire about unitaries including you, Councillor Duncan. So if you know, right off the top of your head what day and date that was and what we discussed, good luck. I don't keep a record of every conversation that I've had with every Councillor everywhere. I have answered my conversations in relation to the question that we've got here and I don't think I ever will get to the administrative skill of recording every conversation I have with everybody as an individual. But I will of course record conversations I have as Chair of P and R.”