There have been a few wild claims made recently, so we asked our mayoral responsibilities correspondent Angus Young to separate fact from fiction.

It’s fair to say that even as the dust settles after the first-ever Hull and East Yorkshire mayoral election, few of us actually know what the new mayor’s role entails. The same probably applies to the mayor himself. Ex-boxer Luke Campbell, who stood as the Reform UK candidate, admits he’s got absolutely no previous local government experience. So what can he do as leader of the region’s new combined authority?

Perhaps it’s best to start by listing some of the things he can’t do, despite comments to the contrary from some of his party colleagues over the last few days. For example, he can’t sack any diversity officers because there aren’t any employed at the combined authority. He also can’t demand that only a Union Jack be flown from the authority’s office because it doesn’t own the building it’s based in.

Forcing asylum seekers and migrants to live in tents isn’t an option either as it’s up to the Home Office to sort out their accommodation. Equally, he has no powers to change the way the two existing local councils deliver their day-to-day services. As such, he has no say over bin collections, adult social care, libraries or getting the fountains to work in Queen Victoria Square, even those they were used as a backdrop in one of his election campaign social media videos..

Instead, Mayor Campbell’s remit is to work alongside the region’s two council leaders with direct responsibility to lead on strategic issues such as housing development, planning, regeneration, transport and job creation. Even then, he can’t do it on his own.

Under the new authority’s governance arrangements, most of the key decisions will be made by an executive board which he will chair. The board will also include four councillors – two from each local council. They have already been confirmed as Hull’s Lib Dem leader Mike Ross and his deputy Jackie Dad and East Riding Conservative  leader Anne Handley and her deputy David Tucker.

For any decision to be approved there has to be a simple majority voting in favour of it and the rules require the mayor to be part of that majority. Hypothetically, he could propose something and get outvoted. In that scenario, whatever his proposal was, it wouldn’t see the light of day.

How it all works out remains to be seen. Not only is it a brand new public body grappling with the complexities of working in tandem with national government policies and different pots of devolved funding, it’s also the first time a Reform UK politician has held a leadership role locally. Hopefully, the checks and balances which are incorporated into the authority’s decision-making architecture will prevail. The clue is in its name – it’s a combined authority and combined working between the different politicians on the board is a prerequisite.

If you want to see this new form of mayoral democracy in action, the first board meeting is being held at the Guildhall in Hull on May 28 starting at 10am and it’s open to the public. You can also watch webcasts of each board meeting via the authority’s website.

Angus Young

Actor Rachel Dale doesn’t just pick any old building, she picks the biggest building in Yorkshire.

It was released 55 years ago this week and went on to be a cornerstone of rock music. But, as Nick Quantrill explains, it just didn’t go our way.

Burnsy returns to Artlink to talk to artist Emily Oetegenn about how it feels to be exhibited.

There’s a floater stuck in the river. What is it? Why is it? Who’s going to fix it? Our runaway watercraft correspondent Angus Young reports.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a sunken crane barge dredger stuck in the mud wedged the wrong way across the River Hull.

Having slipped its moorings from a shipyard further upriver last week, the unmanned vessel  drifted downstream going under North Bridge and Drypool Bridge before eventually ending up stuck near the former Trinity House Buoy Shed. Efforts to refloat her were due to get underway this week. It’s the responsibility of the barge’s owner – working with the harbourmaster, council and the Environment Agency – to sort the situation. Divers will be pumping the ship out soon.

The sad sight, though, of the 75-year-old barge marooned on the mudflats at low tide and almost totally submerged at high tide seems to sum up the current malaise hanging over the river and the city’s waterfront in general. Let’s recap…

The same mud has caused a delay in bringing the former Arctic Corsair trawler back to the river in a new dry dock berth. The city council has yet to secure a dredging licence after concerns were raised over the disposal of silt needed to be removed from the river to allow the ship to reach the North End Shipyard. As a result, last year’s intended opening of the new visitor attraction at the shipyard has been pushed back to an as yet unspecified date in the future.

Meanwhile, nearby Drypool Bridge is due to close to road traffic for six months shortly to allow engineers to repair corroding concrete support columns under the main bridge deck. Without the work being carried out, it’s likely a weight limit would be required to prevent heavy vehicles from using it because of safety concerns.

Work has also yet to start at Chapman Street Bridge on a long-awaited repair project. The bridge is closed to road traffic in 2020 and is only accessible to pedestrians and cyclists.

Major repairs are also due to be carried out on Scale Lane Bridge with several bearings expected to be replaced. No date for that work has yet been confirmed.

In addition, there’s still no sign of the promised scheme at the site of the old Scott Street Bridge to mark the fleeting appearance of a Banksy artwork there in early 2018. Meanwhile, the artwork itself – Draw The Raised Bridge – remains under lock and key in a secret council-owned location. Maybe it will finally be put on public display soon. It’s been seven years since it was painted.

Back on the riverside, the council recently announced the wooden West Bank boardwalk next to the Museums Quarter will remain closed to public access for another two years while contractors carry out a structural survey before deciding on its future. It’s only been four years since it closed due to safety concerns. Had it been open, the boardwalk would have provided the perfect place to view the sunken barge. As it is, the public footpath on the opposite East Bank comes to an abrupt halt next to the former Dock House hostel with access to the riverfront blocked by a locked metal gate.

The old hostel and the adjacent empty Buoy Shed form part of the proposed East Bank Urban Village development. At the moment though, both buildings and most of the surrounding land remain derelict.

Then there’s Victoria Pier, closed to the public since 2020 on safety grounds and awaiting a similar structural examination before the 200-year-old landmark discovers its fate.

If all this wasn’t enough, repairs are still being carried out further upriver near Wilmington Bridge following the collapse of a large section of piling last December.

You might think that being Yorkshire’s Maritime City, our civic leaders might be keen on showcasing the ancient watercourse which the city is named after. Then again, maybe not at the moment.

Angus Young

Another of the backroom jobs at Humber Street Gallery that you may not realise exist but are so important. As Matt explains.

Librarian Tom reports from the Freedom Centre Library on his favourite flights of sci-fantasy.

Behind this slightly confrontational question is a fascinating tale of the contribution of immigrants, reported by our Celtic diaspora correspondent Angus Young.

When the Romans rocked up in this neck of the woods – around 70AD – they steered clear of the marshland that would eventually become Hull and instead established a settlement in Brough. As a result, we can’t really answer the question about what they ever did for us. However, we can say with some degree of certainty that Hull owes a considerable debt to the Irish. As local historian and writer Rob Bell puts it: “The Irish came to Hull for the harvest, then to dig the docks and lay the rail tracks.”

Much of the city’s key infrastructure was originally put in place by Irish migrants, working in construction gangs who moved from one building scheme to another. Millions left Ireland after the 1840s Famine and while the majority headed to America and, closer to home, Liverpool, the lure of work in the rapidly-growing port of Hull eventually led to the establishment of an Irish community here.

Some of the navvies who came to Hull lived in temporary camps. One was set up in Pearson Park for workers hired to construct the nearby Hull to Barnsley railway line. Once the docks were built, many navvies stayed on to become the first generation of dockers. The first residential neighbourhood – known as Little Ireland – developed between Paragon railway station and Spring Bank and included a warren of terraced streets, many of which were eventually swept away with the development of Ferensway in the 1930s. The Irish influence even led to a pub in Brook Street called the Acorn being re-named the Dublin Hotel in 1882.

A reminder of those days can be seen in Spring Street where the former St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, built in 1905, still stands. The larger, more grandiose St.Charles Borromeo in Jarratt Street is also still in use as a church having first opened in 1829. Two Irishmen who settled in Hull in the mid-19th century also played a key part in improving public health in the city.

Originally from County Meath, Dr Owen Daly came to live in Hull in the 1840s when he became a physician at Hull Royal Infirmary. He also worked as a lecturer at the Hull and East Riding School of Medicine and was a founding member of the Hull Medical Society. Daly led the public health response to a deadly outbreak of cholera in the city and was joined by fellow Irishman Edward Collins who, as editor and owner of the Hull Advertiser newspaper, campaigned to clear long-standing slums where the disease thrived.

Collins called for physical improvements such as surfaced roads, new drains, street lighting and the opening of more public baths as well as advocating measures to control and eradicate disease such as regular collections of refuse and tougher regulation on certain trades. He was considered a radical by campaigning on behalf of the poor, many of whom were Irish cotton spinners working in mills near the River Hull.

Unusually for the time, he put the importance of public health ahead of religion and was duly criticised for his stance. In one editorial he wrote: “We cannot but regret that, whilst so many of the clergy of Hull take great trouble to inoculate the minds of the people with uncharitable and ignorant prejudice  against the imaginary danger of the Popery, not one of them has come forward to organise a movement against the prevention of sickness by the frequent use of excellent public baths.”

The work of Daly and Collins would pave the way for a public health revolution in Hull. As Rob Bell observes: “Hull’s Irish contribution – navvies, infrastructure, education and above all the earliest campaigners for public health – is an object lesson in how the challenge of absorbing a migrant community translates into being an essential ingredient for innovation and progress.”

Angus Young

Playwright Maureen Lennon takes us on a lesser-used footpath to the place where the history of Hull is revealed.

Burnsy nipped down Preston Road for us to take a look at one of the most modern libraries in the city.