Scarborough MP opposes merger

The Scarborough Evening News reports that the delay has been welcomed by the local MP, Robert Goodwill.

Mr Goodwill accused Mr Reid of kicking mergers "into the long grass" and suggested that mergers would now be a long way down the Home Office agenda.

"I can understand your wish to kick this into the long grass which, in the case of Yorkshire and the Humber, I hope is elephant grass," he said, before calling for a referendum before any enforced mergers took place.

Mr Reid told him: "I do accept that people want to discuss at greater length and in greater detail a lot of the questions arising from it and I have therefore decided ... that this merits further and slower consideration.

"I can't promise a referendum but I can promise discussion, dialogue and listening throughout."