A BARNSLEY councillor has praised voters’ turnout in the recent Yorkshire devolution poll.

The vote saw 22.4 per cent of Barnsley residents have their say last month, with 84.9 per cent of those voting backing the Wider Yorkshire proposal, with just 15.1 per cent opting for Sheffield City Region.

Barnsley had been due to join the Sheffield deal under a South Yorkshire Mayor - still due to be elected in May - which would bring £30m a year over the next 30 years.

But earlier this year Barnsley Council said it wanted to explore the options of a bigger Yorkshire devolution deal instead after smaller councils in Derbyshire pulled out of the Sheffield City Region deal.

The council sent ballot papers to all 179,618 registered voters in Barnsley to gauge the public’s view, which was discussed by Barnsley Council’s ruling cabinet on Wednesday.

Coun Roy Miller said: “It’s a good result and I’d like to put on record my thanks to those who cast their vote. Hopefully now progress can be made thanks to them and I have hope that we’ll see similar votes taking place in Sheffield and Rotherham.”

In total 40,280 cast their votes, with 32,968 doing so by post and 7,312 choosing to vote online.

Wider Yorkshire was the clear winner with 34,015 votes to Sheffield City Region’s 6,064.