“King of the DEVO Castle”
It looks as though InToon has his money on hot favourite County Councillor Carl Les[Con.], presently Leader of North Yorkshire County Council, to scoop the DEVO pool and become ‘King of the DEVO Castle’ – and, by extension, seeing Scarborough Borough Council Leader, Councillor Steve Siddons [Lab.], (already in hot water over alleged GDPR/Data Protection abuses) heading for the political scrap heap.
A nail in the coffin of Siddons’ preferred “East/West” split (Scarborough, Ryedale, York, Selby [East] versus Harrogate, Craven, York and Richmondshire [West]) is that his plan is in direct conflict with the vision of Harrogate Borough Council Leader Councillor Richard Cooper [Con.] – a “North/South” split (Richmondshire, Hambleton, Ryedale, Scarborough [North]) versus Harrogate, Selby, York, Craven [South] – though even he has no confidence in that version.
On top of which, City of York Council Leader Councillor Keith Aspden [Lib.Dem.] is determined that York (already a Unitary Authority, since 1996) must continue to go it alone.
Under a Conservative government looking to consolidate sweeping Conservative gains in the North East at last December’s General Election, no wonder InToon sees NYCC’s Carl Les [Con.] as heir apparent to the title of ‘King of the DEVO Castle’.
Rock on, Carl – job’s a good ‘un! (If you like that sort of thing . . . many don’t).
