Barnsley votes overwhelmingly for wider Yorkshire devolution deal

People in Barnsley have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a wider devolution deal for Yorkshire.
Barnsley backed a Wider Yorkshire devolution deal.Barnsley backed a Wider Yorkshire devolution deal.
Barnsley backed a Wider Yorkshire devolution deal.

84.9% of votes cast in the community poll were in favour of a Wider Yorkshire devolution while 15.1% were in favour of the Sheffield City Region deal.

Coun Sir Stephen Houghton, leader of Barnsley Council, said: “The will of the people is for wider Yorkshire. We’ll work to make that happen and we’re confident that this is the right move for Barnsley.

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“Our next step is negotiating a way forward for wider Yorkshire.

“We’ll call on Government to enter into discussions on wider Yorkshire with the coalition of the willing.

"This includes not imposing a Sheffield City Region Mayor on the will of the people and we’ll work to push back any Sheffield City Region mayoral elections until 2020. We would also want to find an alternative deal for those who wish to remain in the Sheffield City Region devolution deal.

“We now know the direction that our residents want the borough to take, and people living in Barnsley now know much more about devolution and the benefits it will bring.”

RESULT

Wider Yorkshire: 34,015 (84.9%)

Sheffield City Region: 6,064 (15.1%)

Turnout: 22.4%

Total number of votes cast: 40,280

Total number of valid votes to be counted: 40,079

Votes cast by post: 32,968

Votes cast online: 7,312

Number of votes found to be invalid: 201

People in Doncaster have also been voting with the result due to follow.