THE Government has decided that following Scottish and Welsh devolution, there will be devolution of at least some degree of decision-making to the English regions.

The reasons for this are simple. Yorkshire with a population of over five million people – bigger than many small European countries and with a strong sense of its own identity - is not getting its fair share of Government investment. Cuts in local government funding are leaving both district and county councils starved of cash, with insufficient funding for the kind of infrastructure and service support essential for economic development and the wellbeing of its people.

The Government believes that there needs to be a single body capable of speaking out for Yorkshire, to champion investment, private and public, to the benefit of its people, on such matters as industrial investment, transport, economic development, and crucially also environmental protection.

What kind of regional body will emerge from this debate, and what impact could it have on the Yorkshire Dales?

At the moment, there are three competing proposals for the new regional body. The first, so-called Greater Yorkshire, combines most of the authorities in the old Yorkshire and Humber Region, to include North Yorkshire, the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Districts, York and East Riding, but excluding South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. A second led (predictably) by North Yorkshire County Council suggests, in effect, a greater rural North Yorkshire, simply adding East Riding and York to the their area.

The third option – which many commentators believe is the most likely – is for a stronger Leeds City Region, which would basically be what is now the area of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which is West Yorkshire itself, plus Craven, Harrogate and York, all part of the main travel-to-work catchment areas into what is the economic centre of the region.

The Yorkshire Devolution Movement, established in 2012 to champion what it describes as genuine devolution of powers to Yorkshire, wants something rather better than this. It has suggested “devolution to the whole of the traditional county of Yorkshire and the establishment of a directly elected Yorkshire Parliament”.

For whatever option is chosen, what the Government is offering is a compromise - a regional body of elected members, with a directly elected mayor to spearhead and champion a new Northern Powerhouse. This reflects the huge success of the London Mayors as champions of investment in the capital.

To those that argue this would simply create another layer of bureaucracy, the answer is quite simple. In 1974 a decision was taken to split the old West Riding County Council – one of the most progressive authorities in Britain - into three: the present densely populated West and South Yorkshire Metropolitan Counties and a totally artificial North Yorkshire County created by adding the old rural West Riding to the North Riding.

This was in total contradiction of the much more sensible Redcliffe-Maud proposals, intended to link, not divide, town and countryside. It was largely the result of pressure from well-heeled rural dwellers to avoid having to pay rates to the urban authorities. With its County Hall in Northallerton 50 or more miles away, for many Dales people, it is a remote bureaucracy, seemly existing to mainly cut public services – libraries, police stations or local buses.

Abolishing this unpopular tier of Government, would allow the emergence of a network of smaller, locally-controlled unitary authorities, probably based on existing districts. But major strategic planning, transport and economic decisions would be given to the new regional body.

Visitors to the Yorkshire Dales National Park come predominantly from the adjacent conurbations but their spending power supports the businesses on which Dales communities depends. Most Dales residents regularly travel into the conurbations for work, education, shopping, and leisure. Good two-way transport links - road and rail – are essential for this prosperity. Yet parochial North Yorkshire is currently busily cutting the very bus services that bring the visitors and also allow its own residents to access to jobs and education. Latest proposals are to replace regular bus services with volunteer-driven minibuses for locals only, even terminating some services at the county boundary. Thankfully, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority is in charge of regional rail services, otherwise most trains from Leeds would now terminate at Steeton or Horsforth.

It is utterly wrong that most of the population of Yorkshire, living in our great towns and cities, have no democratic voice, not only in deciding transport priorities across arbitrary boundaries, but in safeguarding the countryside on their borders, which is so vital for health giving recreation. This includes those magnificent, nationally important landscapes, the green lungs of our cities, our two great National Parks – the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. These great national assets currently face catastrophic reductions to their budgets dictated by the cost cutters of Whitehall. Only strong, regional Government can countermand Whitehall and ensure adequate resources are prioritised to protect our countryside, for the benefit of local residents and visitors alike.

As local MP Julian Smith has argued, the whole of Yorkshire working together would be a far stronger and more effective body than smaller authorities competing for dwindling resources. It is important for the people of Craven that everyone contributes to this debate to ensure that a strong voice for Yorkshire, and for the Yorkshire Dales, emerges, to achieve what is perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity for positive change.