NORTH Yorkshire County Council is considering scrapping its seven local area committees - such as Craven - and replacing them with six "constituency committees" based on the six parliamentary constituencies.

It would see Skipton linking with Ripon and being made up of 13 members rather than the present seven.

County Councillor Gareth Dadd, who introduced the consultation paper to Craven area committee when it met at Herriot Hotel, Skipton, said the aim was to equalise, as much as possible, each constituency committee.

"The population of each constituency will be similar from 96,000 to 108,000 and would result in a similar number of county councillors on each committee.

"It is hoped that the advantage will be to encourage MPs to attend so that there can be the best democratic representation for the communities," he said.

"MPs will be invited to attend at least one meeting and it will provide a good vehicle for the MP and county councillors to hold each other to account."

Area chairmen and vice-chairmen had already been consulted and were broadly in favour and following the further round of consultation, it was hoped to implement the changes after the May 2018 county council meeting.

The proposal met with mixed opinions from councillors, Cllr Phil Barrett fearing the opposite of what was intended.

"When area committees were first formed it was to reach out to to the districts because North Yorkshire is a big remote county.

"By making these changes I feel there's a reduced likelihood of the public attending and participating in the meetings."

But Cllr Andy Solloway said he could see the advantages because, on the contrary, he believed it would give more decision making opportunities to the new constituency areas and more public participation.

"And it will be a chance for the public to meet the MP Julian Smith and to take him to task on local issues," he said.

Cllr Patrick Mulligan said he was not yet convinced but could see the advantages in some areas especially in bringing more power to the committee but he wanted to see more detail.

Cllr David Ireton said he saw nothing in the report which could not be done already by area committees. "We don't need to widen to constituency committees," he said.

And opponent Cllr Robert Heseltine said he believed the changes would lead to "over-politicisation" of the area committee. "I'm underwhelmed by this proposal. I see nothing in it for area committees," he said.