Warning 'nice-to-have' services at risk if Lancashire councils are slashed, amid call for 'balance'

That was the warning from two leading politicians during a debate ahead of next month’s Lancashire County Council elections.

Under government plans, the authority – along with Lancashire’s 14 other councils – will be scrapped within the next three years and replaced with a handful of new ones.

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The move will end the two-tier split that exists across most of Lancashire between the county council – which is responsible for major services like the roads, social care and schools across the wider area – and the dozen more local district councils which look after doorstep issues in their own smaller patches.

Reform UK’s Stephen Atkinson and Green Party county group leader Gina Dowding said the so-called ‘discretionary’ work done by those authorities – in Preston, South Ribble, Chorley, West Lancashire, Fylde, Wyre, Lancaster, Ribble Valley, Burnley, Hyndburn, Rossendale and Pendle – could be lost.

The standalone councils to be formed under the new system would each be responsible for all services in their respective areas.

Cllr Atkinson, the outgoing leader of Ribble Valley Borough Council, said: “Social care – adult and children’s – is about 65 percent of the county council’s budget, growing every year. All that will happen when you join [all services] together…[is] you’ll start to lose your parks and…your weekly bin collection [which] only we do in Ribble Valley.”

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He added that the geographical footprint of the districts gave them a local knowledge that larger authorities lacked, which had proved vital for the distribution of government support schemes during the cost-of-living crisis and emergency help for businesses at the height of the pandemic.

Although not against redrawing the council map in principle, County Cllr Dowding – who is also a Lancaster city councillor – said there was “no evidence” the new set-up would save money and that it was being rushed through by the government when it was not even in Labour’s manifesto for last year’s general election.

She added: “I think the local council[s] will be missed. [People] value those things that the council provides which aren’t mandatory…[such as] leisure services, pools, culture, arts events.

“[They] are the things that are at risk when you put them in the same [overall] budget…as adult social care and children’s services, which…are underfunded [and] are absolutely vital services.”

Asked how many new council areas Lancashire should be divided into – an issue currently being thrashed out by all 15 local authority leaders in the county to meet a November deadline for a local proposal to be put to the government – County Cllr Dowding said “four or five”, while Cllr Atkinson would not be moved from the status quo.

Labour and the Liberal Democrat representatives at the debate each suggested four, while the Conservatives said the main issue was one of ensuring value for money.

The government has indicated it wants new councils to cover populations of at least 500,000 people – which would mean a maximum of three in Lancashire. However, it has also promised to be flexible so that the new arrangements make geographical sense.

Liberal Democrat county councillor John Potter said a “happy middle” had to be found when it came to the size of the new authorities.

“What we have at the moment are district councils that are generally too small…but the problem with Lancashire County Council, which is obviously very large, is it’s not efficient enough.

“There will always be weird oddities in any sort of political boundaries, but…what [people] care about is whether the new structures drive services in a more efficient way – and that’s what the end goal should be.

“If you talk to councils that have gone through [abolishing a two-tier system]…they will say that, yes, it’s…messy, but ultimately it gets us to a better place,” said County Cllr Potter, who is also a Preston city councillor.

Labour county council opposition group leader – and long-time South Ribble borough councillor – Matthew Tomlinson agreed.

“If you were designing a local government system to serve the people best, [the current one] would not be it.

“You would not have a council who is responsible for collecting your rubbish and a different council who’s then responsible for dealing with that rubbish. We’ve got 15 different waste collection systems across this county – it’s barmy.

“What we need to do is strike that balance between efficiency and representation. The danger is that if [a new council] is so big, then you lose that local representation,” County Cllr Tomlinson said.

Meanwhile, Scott Smith, representing the ruling Conservative group on the county council, said he was less concerned with the number of new councils and more worried about whether the reconfiguration made “financial sense for Lancashire”.

“It’s got to at least pay for itself. If this is going to go ahead, it’s got to be value for money for Lancashire taxpayers,” County Cllr Smith said.

As the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed last month, a high-level analysis of the potential financial implications of sweeping away the two-tier system in Lancashire found that only the creation of three or fewer new councils would generate any ongoing savings.

In contrast, four new all-purpose authorities were estimated to be £11m a year more expensive to run than the current 15 – the county, 12 districts and the already standalone councils in Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen – because of the need for the full suite of services to be provided by each of them.

County Cllr Smith, who also sits on Rossendale Council, cautioned the government against “imposing” changes on Lancashire – and joined with the others on the panel in calling for an outcome that ensured good representation of the people.

“Whatever solution we reach has to retain a certain local identity,” he said.

The ‘Lancashire Decides’ debate was staged by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Lancashire Post, Blackpool Gazette, Lancashire Lead and Blog Preston – and held at the MacDonald Tickled Trout Hotel on the outskirts of Preston ahead of local elections on 1st May.