No LCC appetite for great proposal

TO Lancashire County Council, which instead of using an algorithm to get things wrong, is very good at impersonating one, with a ‘computer says no’ approach to common sense ideas.

Rossendale Council, as the Free Press reported last week, wanted to make Bank Street in Rawtenstall one way to allow alfresco dining to help bring people back to the town centre.

I believe this would be a more than acceptable predictor of how well a student could have performed in an exam setting.

The council wanted to use money from the Government’s Reopening High

Streets Safely fund to make the idea happen.

However, LCC lawyers have said no, arguing legislation isn’t there to support it.

LCC runs the roads around here, while Rossendale is responsible for administering the fund from Government. Another great example of why we need one council serving us, not two.

Now Alyson Barnes, leader of Rossendale Council, has written directly to prime minister Boris Johnson to try and get something sorted.

How utterly embarrassing for LCC that another council has had to write to the

Prime Minister to try and get support for something which is a great idea: Making Bank Street thrive again.

LCC should have embraced the idea and worked with Rossendale to make it happen, not just rejected it outright. It does say it’s looking at alternative ideas, but here’s the rub: Alfresco dining isn’t as attractive when done at LCC speed, not least because, well, winter is coming!

Questions, surely, for our five Conservative county councillors on Lancashire County Council. Are they really happy to be the local representatives of a council which seems to hold Rossendale in such low regard?