The council has decided to take a back seat on the issue of the Policing Green Paper by not engaging with the issue of participatory budgeting, a leading opposition councillor has said. Labour's local representative on North Yorkshire Police Authority, Coun. Ruth Potter said she was both surprised and disappointed that the council did not wish to take part in what would hand more of a say back to residents. She said:

"This demonstrates a lack of foresight by the council, and also a degree of arrogance. It is effectively saying that because ward funding has been operating for some time, we do not need to properly examine the merits of participatory budgeting. This is something our Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) have been calling for, calls which seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

"SNTs could've match-funded work with ward committees to improve local communities through community safety schemes, such as with alleygating which the council is failing to fund. And spending would have been led by local crime statistics and targeted at the areas that need it most.

"It is also worth mentioning that is was the Lib Dems that cut back on ward funding, so perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that they don't want money being targeted in wards and which residents have more of a say on spending".