Blackpool leader's delight as counterparts come out in support of Lancashire combined authority

Simon Blackburn chaired such an organisation in shadow form for three years from 2016, as Lancashire’s local authorities attempted to coalesce around arrangements to pave the way for a devolution deal with the government.

However, the prospect of such an agreement – which could hand Lancashire greater powers over transport, skills and strategic planning, along with extra funding of at least £30m per year for 30 years – proved elusive.

While neighbouring areas in Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region signed on the dotted line several years ago, Lancashire got bogged down in internal debate about whether it wanted an elected mayor – a post usually required by the government as part of establishing a combined authority.

At any given time, one or more district authorities – including neighbouring Fylde and Wyre - have left the table over the issue.

But earlier this week, Lancashire’s 15 council leaders unanimously expressed support for the combined authority concept for the first time.

“Party politics has frankly got in the way of this welcome development for far too long,” Cllr Blackburn said.

“After four long years, it feels like the people of Lancashire are getting closer to having a spokesperson who can make the case for the county. We cannot allow Greater Manchester and Merseyside to continue to dominate the Northern Powerhouse and devolution agenda – and I’m delighted at the maturity of the approach now being taken.”

However, the tacit approval of Lancashire’s council leaders is still subject to acquiring the consent of each individual council – and might yet become embroiled in potentially fractious discussions about the reorganisation of the county’s complex local authority map.

Lancashire is a two-tier area, in which Blackpool stands alone as a so-called “unitary” council, which delivers all services within its borders. Meanwhile, district authorities such as Fylde and Wyre are responsible for local services like parks and waste collection in their parts of the county and Lancashire County Council delivers bigger ticket items such as roads and schools across multiple areas.

The leaders are to seek advice on the subject of reorganisation from the Local Government Association – and possibly, at later stage, from two peers – after Whitehall officials suggested earlier this year that a simplified council structure might be demanded before the government would approve a combined authority and strike a related devolution deal for the county.

The county council cabinet has now voted to back the principle of a combined authority and the elected mayor to go with it.

County Cllr Driver said that he did not think that the county would be given “much choice” about whether to rethink its local authority set-up, something which would continue to exist alongside any new combined authority and also determine its membership.

“The messages that we’re getting are that the government is seeing…a combined authority and a local government review as going hand in glove, because they see the need to simplify the local government structure,” the Conservative leader said, adding that a white paper on the issue was expected in the autumn.

Labour opposition group leader Azhar Ali said that he backed both the principle of an elected mayor and some council reorganisation to avoid the risk of multiple tiers of local government “frustrating decision-making”.

“It’s now time for this council to be leading the way – we’ve got to stop dithering as we have been for the last couple of years.

“I’ve sent the same message to district colleagues to say we’ve got to wake up and smell the coffee – because if we don’t, we’re going to fall further behind,” County Cllr Ali said, praising the county’s “incredible talent”.

County Cllr Driver dismissed the charge of dithering and said that districts from both sides of the political divide had held up the process – adding that he was encouraging Tory district leaders to overcome the “significant provisos” in the agreement Lancashire’s leaders reached this week.

Papers presented to the county council cabinet meeting suggested that it might still be possible to secure a deal with government if “one or two authorities” declined to sign up to the combined authority concept, but that “undoubtedly a stronger case could be made to government if all 15 move forward together”.

A detailed proposal is now set to be prepared for each Lancashire council to consider. Existing work, initiated before the pandemic, on a Greater Lancashire Plan could be used to set out the county’s ambitions.