Keeping a close eye on life in the Valley

IN recent weeks, parallels have been drawn between Northamptonshire county council, which effectively can no longer afford to run itself, and Lancashire county council, which is also facing a huge financial black hole in years to come.

Government inspectors have concluded in Northamptonshire that the county council should be scrapped and replaced with unitary authorities covering parts of the county.

It’s what happens in lots of other places – and local government’s worst kept secret is that the two-tier structure in places like Northamptonshire and Lancashire is unnecessarily expensive.

Having just one council serving an area could save taxpayers in Lancashire tens of millions of pounds a year.

Council taxes in places with just one council – like Blackburn with Darwen, or Bury – tend to be lower than in places where we have to pay for two councils, like here in Rossendale, where we also fund LCC.

Pendle council is currently looking at the idea of breaking away from LCC, and there is talk of an East Lancashire-wide council too.

If I was Rossendale council I’d be putting the authority at the heart of this plan.

Politically, there could be an element of turkeys voting for Christmas in that it would invariably result in fewer councillors than we have now, but that doesn’t stop it being the right thing to do.

Jake Berry is also supportive of the unitary plan for East Lancashire.

At a time when huge cuts are being made to council services, it’s worrying that more isn’t being made of perhaps the most obvious saving of all – cutting the old-fashioned twotier council system which time and again has been deemed inefficient.