Elections for North Yorkshire’s new unitary authority (North Yorkshire Council, NYC) were held on 5 May 2022. This new council will replace the current county and the seven district and borough councils from 1 April 2023. There are 90 new councillors representing 89 divisions across the county. Each will serve for a five-year term (1 year on the current NYCC, then four years on the new NYC unitary authority). Click here to see an interactive map showing the new council divisions, here for a district-by-district list of electoral divisions for the new council and here for a full list of results.

​

Our new councillors will have to address urgent environmental (and of course other) challenges during their term of office. Crucially, that includes responsibility for steering the county’s decarbonisation plans. As the latest report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes clear, climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly, many of the impacts will be more severe than predicted and we must take urgent action now to switch away from fossil fuels towards a clean, green economy powered by renewables, such as solar and wind.

​

Opinion polls show that more and more people see climate change and the damage being caused to our natural world – here in North Yorkshire, nationally and globally – as key concerns that will influence the way they vote. That goes for young people in particular. A YouGov poll published on 1 November 2021 showed that 43% of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK believe “The Environment” is the most important issue facing the country.

​

Before the election, we wrote to all candidates inviting them to complete a survey (ten questions on climate and environmental issues) so that voters would know where they stand and can be confident that their chosen candidates would help to drive the urgent and ambitious actions needed. The survey was of course entirely voluntary. We received completed surveys from around 30% of those candidates who went on to be elected. We understand there may be perfectly good reasons why other candidates were unable to take part.

​

To make room on the website, the main section showing the candidate responses for each division has now been condensed into a single page of responses from the newly elected councillors in each district. Simply choose your district from the 'New councillors' tab at the top of this page and select your division. If your councillor submitted a response, her/his name will be linked to the completed survey.

​

​