CIVIC leaders from West Yorkshire will this week visit Chancellor George Osborne to press for more powers.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority is pushing for more control over the local economy and transport network, after the Scottish referendum thrust the issue of devolution into the spotlight.

On Wednesday, a delegation from the Combined Authority will travel to the capital to meet Mr Osborne in person and put a list of demands to him.

The contents of that list have not yet been made public, but they are thought to include calls for tax-raising powers and the ability to overhaul the transport network in the north.

The chairman of the Combined Authority, Wakefield Council leader Councillor Peter Box, will be leading the delegation.

He said the authority wanted more decisions to be taken within the Leeds City Region, as well as other City Regions in areas like Greater Manchester and Liverpool.

He said: "That means a fundamental reorganisation of how Government deals with the City Regions.

"Not a symbolic tinkering at the edges, so-called commissions or imposed gimmicks that some current ministers might want to see, but real changes that enable us to make our own decisions based on local experience and expertise rather than have them made for us by civil servants 200 miles away."

But groups campaigning for the creation of an elected Yorkshire Assembly have argued against this idea, claiming that this type of devolution would be undemocratic and ineffective.

Harold Elletson, chairman of the Campaign for the North, said: "City regions will leave London firmly in the control of the purse strings. They’re yet another establishment con trick.

"We need a federal Britain and the transfer of real power away from Westminster to the north of England."

And Richard Carter, leader of Yorkshire First, the political party campaigning for a Yorkshire Assembly, added: "City regions are another example of the centre not listening – or even engaging with the issues facing many regions in the UK.

"At a time when Scotland is set to gain tax-raising powers and when the whole constitution of the UK is under review it is vital that the north of England is not fobbed off with second-rate devolution."

William Hague, the leader of the House of Commons, is chairing a cabinet committee examining how to address the consequences of the Scottish referendum result for Westminster.

During a Commons debate last week he revealed he is to intensify moves towards introducing so-called English votes for English laws at Westminster after announcing that a Commons vote would be held by the end of the year if the main UK parties failed to reach agreement.

That move represents a severe challenge to Labour, which fears that restricting the ability of Scottish MPs to vote at Westminster could limit the party’s ability to form a UK government.