West Lancs’ days may be numbered
WEST Lancashire Borough Council could be abolished under radical plans to transform the way Lancashire is governed.
Lancashire County Council has revealed plans which it says would “strengthen the county” through more devolution of powers and would see all 15 existing local authorities swept away. That would include the aboloition of the county council itself, 12 district authorities including West Lancs and South Ribble, and the standalone councils in Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen.
In their place, three new councils would be created, one of those would cover Preston, South Ribble, Chorley and West Lancashire.
This would then pave the way for the election of a mayor for the whole county and the creation of the Lancashire Combined Authority.
However, West Lancashire leader Cllr Ian Moran has expressed caution over the plan and fears that the borough will not benefit from the changes.
The authority’s chief executive has now been tasked with putting together a more detailed proposal for government approval, possibly as soon as the beginning of September.
A majority of county councillors would also have to support the changes before they could be pitched to ministers.
The move comes little more than a month after Lancashire’s 15 council leaders tentatively agreed to take the next steps along the county’s four-year long journey towards striking a devolution deal with the government to gain additional powers and cash for the county.
They made an in-principle commitment to the creation of a combined authority and elected mayor - and agreed to ask experts from the Local Government
Association (LGA) to help draft plans to reorganise the county’s complex council structure.
However, tensions have already broken out and were evidenced when four council leaders, including Cllr Ian Moran, left a virtual meeting in response to comments from county council leader Geoff Driver that, “You could all stand outside in the pouring rain - and you would take all day to decide whether you were getting equally wet or if some of you had more shelter than others”.
The county council’s proposals have since been drafted without consultation of the district authorities, some of which favour the status quo.
But the government does not require unanimous agreement amongst councils for any proposed changes and, under a convoluted arrangement, each authority is free to ask the government to be invited to put forward its own proposal for ministers to consider. Geoff Driver CBE said: “For far too long Lancashire has missed out on the benefits of devolution because of internal squabbles about how our structures are organised. “It’s time to set aside petty politicking and break that logjam. “These bold and ambitious proposals represent a once-in-a-generation change that will transform Lancashire and benefit everyone who lives in this great county.” However, opposition leaders at
County Hall have condemned the timing of the reorganisation proposal.
Cllr Moran told the Advertiser that the borough council will support any changes which benefit the area but was sceptical about these proposals.
He said: “For many years Cllr Driver refused to engage with the district leaders on the issue of a combined authority and he very rarely attended meetings.
“When he did start to engage, after we made him Chair of the shadow combined authority, he did nothing but scheme to create a Lancashire super authority.
“I, along with opposition leaders here in West Lancashire, am concerned with Cllr Driver’s plans and whether it will help West Lancs residents or the businesses that operate here.
“The danger is that local democracy will be even further eroded just so Cllr Driver can be called the Mayor of Lancashire. We will support proposals that are in the best interests of West Lancashire”.