A bill is currently passing through the UK Parliament entitled the “Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill 2024-2025” [link]. We wrote to Alison Hume MP, as follows
We note that the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill 2024-25 is scheduled for its second hearing in the House of Commons on 2nd September 2025.
The Act should benefit local communities and groups such as ours. We particularly welcome the objective to empower communities to have a voice in local decisions by introducing a requirement on all local authorities in England to establish effective neighbourhood governance.
However, we wish to draw several issues to your attention that, in our opinion, the proposed Bill does not address adequately. Our website details our concerns about the effect of delays in the audit of the Scarborough Borough Council accounts since 2015/16. There are on-going objections to the accounting treatment by North Yorkshire Council of the municipal Statutory Harbour Authorities for Whitby and Scarborough. In the light of these local issues, we consider that the proposed Act should include specific provisions which would better safeguard individual local electors and improve audit oversight and transparency.
We also suggest that the transport planning functions of Strategic Authorities should include municipal Harbour Authorities, as well as land-based Local Transport Authorities. This would improve co-ordinated transport and infrastructure planning for some 40 coastal communities in England. These are almost all smaller, isolated towns with a heavy economic dependence on tourism. Their accessibility to visitors depends on land-based transport options.
- Local Audit Reform
- We welcome the establishment of the Local Audit Office (LAO) as the body responsible for overseeing local audit, but consider that the wording of the Bill should specifically include granting the LAO the power to require local bodies to make changes to their accounts.
- We suggest that the LAO should also be granted the power to establish an “Ombudsman” service. This should be authorised to investigate and determine, on behalf of individual local electors, formal objections raised to Local Authority draft accounts.(c.f. the Local Govt. and Social Care Ombudsman Service)
- Strategic Authorities: Transport Planning Responsibilities. The Bill defines “transport and local infrastructure” as one of the seven areas of competence required of Strategic and Mayoral Authorities. Schedule 9 confers them the functions of Local Transport Authorities and makes provision about other functions relating to land-based transport. But the Department for Transport is also responsible for harbours and coastal transport. The Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 has a strong focus on the sustainable use, protection, and access to marine and coastal activities.
- We suggest that Municipal Harbour Authorities should be specifically included as an integral part of the Transport Planning functions of Strategic and Mayoral Authorities.
We would be happy to provide further information, if required, and would welcome the opportunity to discuss any of these issues with you, in person, as the Bill progresses through Parliament.
Whitby Community Network
