Winning the first ever mayoral election of its kind for York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA), Mayor-elect David Skaith said “I think we have a great opportunity to bring York and North Yorkshire together and really grow as one collective. I think the message is clear in York and North Yorkshire and across the country, that we want change.
“I believe that the Labour party, and under [Sir] Keir Starmer, have huge potential for this. I hope this continues, thank you everyone for your support. Thank you.”
Skaith won 66,761 votes across York and North Yorkshire in total.
Addressing the crowd at Harrogate Convention Centre, he added, “as someone who grew up in this town and has a business and my family in this region, I want it to be the region that I could grow up in, that my children can grow up in… a fantastic prosperous region.”
Skaith also thanked his family and campaign staff saying, “[It’s] really nice to be here in the place where I was born.”
The Mayor will be given a budget of £540 million to be spent over the next 30 years, dealing with issues of transport, housing, regeneration, finance and policing.
While 640,012 people were eligible to vote in this election, turnout this year was pretty low at 29.89%, with 191,279 votes cast in total.
In a brief interview before results were announced, the Liberal Democrat candidate, Felicity Cunliffe-Lister (30,867 votes) spoke with Vision about why turnout was so low.
She says council policies about campaigning during election period could have something to do with it:
“I was trying to attend markets on market days so on busy days people could meet me. But the council doesn’t allow it.
“If I had my way, I’d really challenge the council on that going forwards, in all our elections. You get a low turnout, and you wonder why?”
She also said that a lack of resources behind independent candidates and her own party affected engagement levels with voters.
“It’s really difficult if you don’t have a machine behind you to engage.”
When all of the candidates were invited to Central Hall to debate, all but David decided to show up. Student turnout will continue to be disappointingly low until candidates from the main parties demonstrate that facing young people’s issues is on their agenda.