Lancashire council shake-up proposal 'will not suggest specific merger options'

All 15 local authority leaders in Lancashire are currently trying to agree the wording of the correspondence, which has to be submitted to ministers by Friday (21st March).

It comes after the government announced late last year that Lancashire’s county, district and unitary councils would all be abolished as part of nationwide shake-up - and replaced with just a handful of new authorities covering much larger areas.

Leaders of the existing bodies have been ordered to come up with an “interim plan” for how the government's vision could be implemented in Lancashire.

However, sources close to the discussions have told the LDRS that the letter will not propose any geographical configurations indicating which parts of the county could be bound together under the new streamlined system.

While a historic lack of consensus on the controversial subject in the county was always likely to preclude a single option being suggested at this point, the document is set to be so high-level that it shuns specifics altogether.

Indications from early drafts of the letter - of which there have been several, the LDRS has been advised - will instead focus on offering broad-brush commitments that Lancashire will work together to try to deliver what the government wants by the deadline for a final, detailed submission on 28th November.

The issue is continuing to prove so divisive in the county that it is not yet clear whether this week’s letter will even put forward all the possible numerical permutations of how many councils might be created to replace those whose days are now numbered.

That much, at least, is contained within a report to be presented to a meeting of Lancashire County Council’s cabinet on Thursday, which reveals that authorities across the county have identified options for between just one and as many as five new councils.

The paper states that the deadline for an initial submission to the government has made it impossible even for the county authority alone to settle on a “preferred” number.

It acknowledges that it is “unlikely that any proposal attracts a majority of support across Lancashire at this stage” - and adds that an initial assessment by County Hall officers suggests all five options “have their strengths and merits, but also weaknesses”.

The document explains that no single suggested set-up “offers “unequivocal benefits” - and each will require “trade-offs” against the government's own criteria for redrawing the local authority map.

Although Lancashire will not be sending a single collective proposal for the government to consider this week, several of its authorities have already floated detailed ideas of their own.

Chorley and South Ribble councils last year proposed a tie-up with West Lancashire and, earlier this month, Preston city councillors were briefed on the possibility - although not a formal proposal - that their authority could merge with Lancaster and Ribble Valley.

Meanwhile, last week, Burnley Council's cabinet resolved to send a five-council proposal to the government in an attempt to ensure that it did not have to enter into any new local authority area that included Blackburn with Darwen.