Lancashire will be 'left behind forever' without an elected mayor, council leader warns
Becoming the only place in the North without a directly elected mayor would not be “a smart” thing for Lancashire to do, one of its most senior local authority figures has said.
Phil Riley, leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said that was the prospect the county was facing if it opted to fight against the creation of the figurehead so favoured by the government.
The inevitable consequence was that Lancashire would continue to be “nowhere” when it came to the extra funding over which mayors are given control in their areas, he added.
The Labour politician was speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) at the end of a week during which mayor-led combined authorities – including Lancashire’s neighbours in Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region – were handed a total of £15.6bn for transport projects.
The new Reform UK leader of Lancashire County Council, Stephen Atkinson, is a longstanding opponent of the mayoral system. He argued in the run-up to the local elections last month it was the “total opposite of devolving power” – and rather an attempt to centralise it in the hands of one individual who would be beholden to the Prime Minister if they were of the same political persuasion,
County Cllr Atkinson has pledged to seek a referendum on the issue in Lancashire, but Cllr Riley says it is time for the county to “get on with” creating the role – after almost a decade of dither and disagreement between local leaders.
Based on mayoral devolution deals elsewhere, the Blackburn boss believes the post would come with £1bn of core additional cash over the course of 30 years – but would also bring other funding and much more power directly into Lancashire’s orbit.
“When you get into the world of the mayor, you can have ideas and get money [to make them happen].
“This week, a lot of money was given to northern mayors = and we weren’t there. Then there is the Great North project [a mayor-led investment initiative to harness the collective power of the North] – and we weren’t there for that either.
“So do we continue to not be there forever?
“The issue for Lancashire now is that – once Cumbria, and Cheshire and Warrington [get a mayor next year] – we will be the only area in the North of England without one. And that cannot be a smart place to be,” Cllr Riley warned.
Lancashire’s long-awaited first devolution deal, which came into being earlier this year and was signed by Cllr Riley, Blackpool Council leader Lynn Williams and then county council leader Phillippa Williamson, did not include a mayor – largely because of historical splits over the concept in the county.
The agreement was struck first with the last Tory government and then confirmed by the new Labour administration, but the latter demanded Lancashire bring forward a proposal for “deeper” devolution by this autumn – widely interpreted as agreeing to a mayor.
The final decision did, however, appear to be Lancashire’s, but in a surprise announcement at the Convention of the North event in Preston in February, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner declared every part of the pan-region would have a mayor by May 2026.
Lancashire County Council was approached for comment on the issue of the additional transport funding received by mayoral areas last week.
Although it missed out on that particular largesse from Whitehall, the authority was allocated the largest share – £494m – of a £2.5bn transport pot created by the last government for non-mayoral areas, using cash redirected from the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2.
An element of that funding specifically for highways – totalling £244m – has since been confirmed by the current government.