A NEW era is starting for the North Yorkshire lieutenancy as businessman Barry Dodd outlines new agendas following his royal appointment.

Mr Dodd, who lives near Easingwold and is chairman of global graphic manufacturer GSM Group, based in Wetherby, was appointed Lord Lieutenant for North Yorkshire in September, following Lord Crathorne's retirement.

As chairman of the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership, Mr Dodd says he is taking a new approach to the role, marking a move towards what he describes as a "modern lieutenancy".

Traditionally the Lord Lieutenant, whose role is to represent the Queen in their lieutenancy, has a number of responsibilities including arranging royal visits, presenting medals on behalf of the Sovereign, liaising with local armed forces units and cadet forces and chairing the local magistracy.

Mr Dodd said: "There are a lot of opportunities to go beyond the traditional duties.

"The monarchy has a certain fairy dust around it. The question is how do you get the benefit of that to the maximum number of people and the maximum number of organisations in our patch.

"I have got 51 deputy lieutenants, so I've got to think how do I use those people in that office to benefit people.

"I want them to actively target companies to apply for Queen's Awards for Enterprise. The more awards we can get the better.

"There are also Queen's Awards for voluntary service. There were no applications for that from this area this year. We need to be more proactive, and have more delegation of tasks."

Mr Dodd has already called a conference for the deputy lieutenants in which he will ask for their support in drawing up a business plan for the operation of the lieutenancy, with annual reports to assess performance.

He also has plans to change the website in a bid to make the North Yorkshire lieutenancy more accessible for people of all ages.

Mr Dodd, who is an OBE and CBE recipient, said: "Lord Crathorne did a great job, and he gave up a lot of his time to the job.

"When I was offered the position I didn't have the time to give, and indicated I would have to do it differently. Luckily the palace seemed very receptive to the idea of a modern lieutenancy.

"There may be criticism because it won't be like it was, but I am confident it will be a positive change, and when people see the shape of it a year from now they will realise the journey was worth it.

"I'm a businessman, business is all I know, so there's no surprise really I'm going to be doing it this way."