CONSERVATIVE council leaders have spoken of their dismay after efforts to devolve power to Yorkshire were dismissed by a Tory minister.

Hambleton and Richmondshire district council leaders Councillors Mark Robson and Yvonne Peacock said the rejection of the One Yorkshire devolution plan by Communities Secretary James Brokenshire represented a huge blow after several years of work to develop the plan with 16 other local authorities.

The Conservative councillors were speaking to members of their councils hours after Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry told the Great Northern Conference in Leeds that local authority leaders needed to revise plans in Yorkshire to transfer powers from Whitehall.

Cllr Peacock said she had been left dismayed by Mr Brokenshire deciding to send the rejection letter to Sheffield City Region Mayor Dan Jarvis.

She told a full meeting of the Richmondshire council: “We were all very disappointed when James Brokenshire decided to send a letter via Dan Jarvis, not even directly to the leaders.

“I myself have been working on this for the past three and a half years and have spent a long time on it. I do think we were treated very badly.”

Cllr Robson told a full meeting of the Hambleton authority the Government had “killed off” something that the authority had wracked up costs and wasted considerable amounts of time developing, involving “nearly five years of going backwards and forwards”.