Councillors back the proposals for devolution deal
Leader hails ‘Red letter day’ after years of work
ROSSENDALE councillors have approved an early set of democratic principles and funding priorities agreed by 15 local council leaders to negotiate a ‘Greater Lancashire’ devolution deal with the Westminster government.
The borough council’s leader Alyson Barnes welcomed the new ‘county deal’ devolution proposals and said reaching this stage was an important, symbolic ‘red-letter day’ for her, after years of work on devolution ideas.
She said Rossendale priorities include a new commuter rail link to Manchester, services for young ‘early years’ children, plus skills and employment support, in addition to county-wide priorities jointly identified by 15 Lancashire council leaders.
The ‘New Deal for a Greater Lancashire’ plan would keep the existing borough and county council system but bring together 15 Lancashire council leaders to decide exactly how a potential £5.6 billion budget should be spent over seven years, rather than Westminster.
Priority areas for spending. earmarked by council leaders. include the economy, skills, education, transport, digital and telecoms infrastructure.
No public poll or referendum
is proposed. But councillors in every Lancashire council have been asked to formally vote to show their consent for ongoing collaborative devolution work.
Under the new agreed proposals, there would be no new elected mayor in Lancashire, unlike Steve Rotheram in the Liverpool City Region, Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester.
The new Greater Lancashire democratic arrangements include one vote per council leader, with a twothirds majority needed for decisions. Individual borough councils can veto anything which directly impacts their area, with some exceptions. Current Lancashire borough boundaries. many of which date from 1974, are not up for negotiation.
Previous Lancashire devolution talks in recent years about other possible
arrangements have been unsuccessful. There have been disagreements about the potential grouping of boroughs and the creation of larger new authorities for different parts of Lancashire. However, the very latest proposals had found agreement among all Lancashire council leaders.
Rossendale council discussed and voted on the latest proposals at its full council meeting on Monday.
Coun Barnes gave an update and asked councillors to support the new proposals. She said: “This is a red-letter day for me. I have been working with other Lancashire council leaders on devolution ideas for six years at least.
“The aim has been to try to get to a position where we can take advantage of extra government funding, in a similar way that Greater
Manchester and the Liverpool City Region. We are getting there.
“Tonight I’m asking councillors to agree some recommendations in this new report, called a New Deal for Lancashire. It sets out the principles under which we would work on a long term plan for a ‘county deal.’ As time goes on, specific details will be developed.
“There will be opportunities for all boroughs to contribute to the deal and significant activities.”
She highlighted different parts of the Greater Lancashire report. One section said there were complex arrangements between the different types of councils in Lancashire but excellent relationships had arisen in the past two years during the covid pandemic.
Coun Barnes added: “The government’s levelling-up white paper is also on the horizon. It has been in-train for the past two years.”
The ‘levelling-up’ agenda has been promoted by the government as an attempt to address the UK’s regional inequalities. Michael Gove MP, the government minister, is expected to unveil his plans soon.
Regarding the Lancashire council leaders’ joint recommendations, Coun Barnes said: “Council leaders have got the stage where we think we need to secure the engagement and support of all elected councillors in each local authority. Tonight, you are being asked to approve the principles of how we work together and a draft strategy with priorities agreed by council leaders. The absolute deal will come further down-the-line.”
Key agreed democratic principles include one vote for each council leader, regardless of the size of each council or population, a two-thirds majority in voting needed for a decision, and a veto power for every council on anything that might impact their area in particular, with a few exceptions.
The jointly-agreed strategy currently has breadand-butter priorities around job protection and economic growth, better transport infrastructure for east-west routes across Lancashire, better broadband, digital and telecoms
infrastructure; housing, young children’s ‘early years’ services, better adult education and skills, and measures to tackle environmental issues and climate change.
Regarding Rossendale ambitions, Coun Barnes said: “Our priorities include that rail link into Manchester. We are always very keen to see dedicated early years work in Rossendale and across Lancashire, pickingup on the good work done by the Sure Start scheme.
“Our Rossendale Works scheme is also very important, regarding skills, training and employment, and we would also like to see flood prevention schemes included.”
She added: “Why am I supporting this? A big reason is the amount of money it could bring to Lancashire. This devolution arrangement could bring £5.6billion over seven years. That
could be £750million a year. That money is not coming into Lancashire at the moment. So I’m asking you to agree in-principle these arrangements for what will, effectively, be a devolution deal for Lancashire.”
Rossendale councillors were asked to formally vote on three recommendations. These were to:
Support the outline Our New Deal for a Greater Lancashire document as an initial draft basis for further discussion and development of a possible county deal for Lancashire.
Agree the principles of governance for any future deal.
Agree that the leader continues to work with other council leaders inline with the principles and any future formal proposals would require approval by the full council.
Councillors voted unanimously in favour.