Chorley leader hails council that will 'do everything' after merger with South Ribble and West Lancashire

The creation of a new council for Chorley, South Ribble and West Lancashire will make services more efficient - and responsibility for them simpler for residents to understand.

That was the verdict of the leader of the soon-to-be abolished Chorley Council, Alistair Bradley, after the government announced last week that Lancashire will be split into four new local authority areas from April 2028 as part of the biggest change to the council landscape in the county for more than 50 years.

Lancashire’s 15 main councils will disappear and be replaced with standalone ‘unitary’ authorities - including one provisionally named ‘South Lancashire’. That option - binding together Chorley, South Ribble and West Lancashire - had been backed by the trio of current district councils that cover the places it will incorporate. It was one of the five possibilities that had been put forward by the county’s existing local authorities as part of the government-ordered overhaul.

Speaking to the Lancashire Post, Chorley’s Labour leader acknowledged that he has long wanted to see the back of the two-tier local authority system - under which service delivery is divided between Lancashire County Council and Lancashire’s dozen district authorities, Chorley included.

Even before the reorganisation process got under way, he had previously pushed to take charge of the roads in the borough - a County Hall responsibility - because of dissatisfaction with the way they were being looked after.

“We’ve said for a long time that the two-tier split isn’t working - it’s expensive and residents are confused by the complexity of it.

“This change makes it very clear - if you're in this area, then it’s this [new] council who [will be doing] stuff for you,” said Cllr Bradley, who has led Chorley for 14 years.

He added that the new set-up was necessarily “a bit of a balance [between] local accountability and democracy against efficiency” - and said he was delighted with the geographical shape that the new unitary authority would take.

“The sense of place seems to have been the main driver in the government’s decision - [creating] sustainable councils, but linked to the place that they represent. It also acknowledged that Lancashire is very different in its parts.”

Sources had suggested to the Post that Chorley’s political class was particularly keen to keep Preston out of any new authority of which the district was a part.

However, Cllr Bradley said Preston had itself proposed coming together with Lancaster and Ribble Valley - and that was “fine with me”.

He added that it was “heartening” the government had acknowledged that the three councils in the new authority area are already working closely together, with Chorley and South Ribble having a long history of sharing back office services and senior roles to reduce costs. Recently, West Lancashire was brought into that arrangement and the trio now share a chief executive.

However, Cllr Bradley said from a resident’s point of view, the most important thing was that the populations and demographics across the soon-to-merge districts were “very similar”.

“It’s working with the natural flow of things,” he said.

He added that he was hopeful a more streamlined council set-up would make agreeing to deepen Lancashire's devolution arrangements - and install an elected mayor - a less torturous process than it has been to date, because there would be fewer “outlier” authorities disagreeing with it.

“Greater Manchester and Liverpool [City Region] are leaving us behind every day,” Cllr Bradley concluded.

,Chorley Council, South Ribble Borough Council, West Lancashire Borough Council and Lancashire County Council will all continue to operate until 31st March, 2028.

The replacement unitary - serving 359,000 residents - will come into being in so-called ‘shadow’ form from May 2027 when the first set of elections will be held for it.

The three other new councils that will be created by the redrawing of the local, government map in Lancashire will bind together: Preston, Lancaster and Ribble Valley; Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre; and Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Rossendale and Pendle.