Councillor Mohammed Khan
Published Monday 3 August 2020 at 14:27
The Council Leader is asking the two local MPs to lobby the Government and press for early discussions about a brand new Pennine Lancashire unitary.
This follows on from a letter to the Secretary of State in October 2019 seeking an invitation to develop a business case to form a new unitary covering the existing council areas of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Rossendale.
A further letter has been sent to the Secretary of State urging him to issue the invitation.
The devolution White Paper, expected in September, is due to set out further details on both combined authorities and local government reorganisation. The Government have said that they expect to see more unitary authorities and directly elected Mayors coming forward. The MP Simon Clarke, Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government recently said that the Government will give generous deals, in terms of powers and funding, to those areas that have a Mayoral Combined Authority.
A combined authority and local government reorganisation are two separate matters. A combined authority will bring crucial investment into the area for regeneration and economic growth. Local government reorganisation is about abolishing councils and creating new, larger unitary authorities to deliver local services such as schools, libraries, parks, open spaces, bin collection, recycling, social care, local planning, enforcement, housing. The Government have indicated that the optimum size for unitary authorities is approximately 500,000 population. Pennine Lancashire’s population (excluding Ribble Valley) is 480,000.
Feedback from civil servants to Lancashire Leaders suggests that, for Lancashire, the current number of local authorities (15) is too many for a Combined Authority and that the Government would be keen to see simplified local governance for a Combined Authority to be most effective.
Lancashire Leaders collectively agreed to support a Lancashire Combined Authority in June this year. However, a number of councils will not support a Combined Authority if local government reorganisation is included and this has been confirmed at their recent council meetings.
This has placed Leaders in a difficult position and at this stage it is not possible to move forward collectively.
Cllr Mohammed Khan, Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said:
We have been trying to get a Combined Authority for Lancashire off the ground for four years and are still no further forward. We are falling further behind other areas as the government are directing investment through Mayoral Combined Authority or through business led Local Enterprise Partnerships.
We desperately need funding into Lancashire both for strategic investment through a Combined Authority, but also to deliver every day council services. We can achieve this by abolishing the existing borough councils and forming a brand new, larger council that will see the best policies and practices across the area align and ensure citizens receive the same good quality services irrespective of where they live.
The Government have been very clear now that, for Lancashire to have a Combined Authority, there should be fewer councils.
We have cross party support within the Council and there is growing support elsewhere in the county to abolish the 15 councils and create a new, streamlined local government system that works for all of our residents and businesses. I am urging our local MPs to get behind our request and lobby their political colleagues to ensure we can have early discussions with ministers.