Three metro mayors sign White Rose Agreement and send a message: ‘Yorkshire is back in business’

Yorkshire’s three metro mayors have today (March 12) met at Selby Abbey to sign the White Rose Agreement which outlines the priority issues the mayors will work on together as well as what they will champion and advocate for Yorkshire collectively at a national and international level.

The five key areas they – South Yorkshire’s Oliver Coppard, West Yorkshire’s Tracy Brabin and North Yorkshire’s David Skaith – will focus on:

Achieving good growth

Promoting Yorkshire

Improving rail connectivity

Improving cross-border bus services

Keeping the communities safe

At the event, Oliver Coppard, the mayor of South Yorkshire, started his speech quoting David Cameron from 2015 saying “we just thought people in Yorkshire hated everyone else, we didn’t realise they hated each other so much”.

Mr Coppard said with West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin and York and North Yorkshire mayor David Skaith it was time to “put this nonsense to bed, once and for all”.

He added working with the Yorkshire mayors was a huge opportunity to bring power, influence and agency back to the region.

Mr Coppard said: “Today, standing here, working together, signing this agreement, I think it’s a huge statement of intent about our work to make that vision a reality.”

Mr Coppard added that buses, for example, don’t stop at artificial borders when crossing from one part of Yorkshire to another as the communities are connected to each other while international visitors don’t come to South or West Yorkshire but to Yorkshire.

West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin hailed today as a “historic moment” and described the three mayors as the “Three Yorkshire Musketeers” working together delivering for their regions.

She added the mayors’ plan is to let everyone know that “Yorkshire is back in business and on the move”.

During a media huddle after the press conference, Oliver Coppard said the White Rose Agreement formalises the way of working together and sends a signal to everyone about their intent that Yorkshire is a place that attracts investment and visitors.

Ms Brabin added local issues have been resolved by collective effort which is good for the whole of Yorkshire as well as the individual regions.

When asked about whether the regions will have to compete with each other for extra money or investment, Ms Brabin said “we all have to thrive”.

She said: “If there is a big investment in food manufacturing, it might come to me then I might go to David (Skaith) saying how do we work collectively together with your farmers so we can all benefit from each other.

“We’ve got to get away from this bidding war and competitive edge where David (Skaith) wins and I lose. We’ve all got to understand that the only way to do this and grow the economy is to get rid of that sort of ringfence around your patch.”

David Skaith, the mayor of York and North Yorkshire, reiterated the message that the mayors and the regions will work together, and learn from each other.

He added by creating jobs in North Yorkshire, people from West and South (and the East Riding) may benefit as well.

“People don’t care about the borders,” he said.

What does South Yorkshire and Sheffeld gain from this agreement?

Ms Brabin said there are 100,000 cars on the M1 every day between Leeds and Sheffield which is “absolutely absurd” and something must be done about it.

So South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire work together to improve public transport.

All three mayors are from the Labour Party so what happens if someone from the outside wins in the East Yorkshire election?

Ms Brabin said it doesn’t matter “they are part of the family”.

She said: “We would be very open to working cross party for the good of Yorkshire.”