WHILST Councillor Myers may be correct that the Conservative Party’s Mayoral candidate, Keane Duncan’s proposal to have an experimental period of free two hour parking in Skipton will not come out of council tax funds some of his other observations are much less sound (Parking suggestion is ‘simply wrong’, Craven Herald letters, April 25).

It is true, the money will come from the Mayoral Fund – this is worth over £540 million over the next 30 years to North Yorkshire. This is, of course, money that successive Conservative governments have taken from local government.

The amount of money local authorities had to spend from central government grants fell by 17.5 per cent between 2010 and 2020 (Institute of Government, 2020). This is therefore not new money – it is money local authorities should have had earlier.

The North Yorkshire Mayoral Fund’s initial tranche is supposed to be spent as follows - £12.7 million to deliver 700 new homes on Brownfield sites, £10 million towards helping unlock net zero whilst creating business growth and better paid jobs.

Councillor Myers’ letter justifies the free parking policy idea as part of this attempt to create this economic growth! This idea that free parking in Skipton is a serious attempt to meet this wholly laudable Green agenda is laughable. Where are the properly costed, ambitious schemes to help North Yorkshire achieve net zero and bring new Green jobs to the area? They are not in the Conservative Mayoral candidate’s prospectus that is for sure.

Phil Lee

Elslack