Ribble Valley 'must retain identity' after merger with Preston and Lancaster, leader says

Ribble Valley must not lose its identity when its district council merges with Preston and Lancaster to form a huge new local authority area.

That was the warning from Ribble Valley Borough Council leader Simon Hore after the government announced that Lancashire will be carved into four new authorities from April 2028, after the biggest shake-up in the county for more than 50 years.

Lancashire’s 15 existing main councils - including Ribble Valley and the county council - will disappear and be replaced with standalone ‘unitary’ authorities.

One of those - provisionally named ‘North Lancashire’ and which will bind together Ribble Valley, Preston and Lancaster – had been backed by the trio of current district councils that cover the places it will incorporate.

Cllr Hore said that while he would have “preferred to stay as we were” - with Ribble Valley as a council in its own right - he was pleased that his favoured merger option had been approved. Lancashire had collectively put forward five possible configurations as part of the government-ordered overhaul.

Nevertheless, the Conservative leader stressed the need for Ribble Valley to retain its own identity within the broader new local authority structure, which will see Ribble Valley become part of a council that serves 374,000 people - compared to just 66,000 currently.

“It’ll be important to us to maintain the Ribble Valley brand in some way, because it’s a big tourist area – and we will want to [continue to] promote that,” Cllr Hore explained.

“It’ll be a new council and so [none] of the three of us will be dominant over the others. We are by far the smallest in terms of population, but in fact we’re the largest of the [individual district] areas of Lancashire.”

He also told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that while there was a clear contrast between Ribble Valley as Lancashire’s most rural district and the status of its two new partners as the only cities in the county, there were also genuine connections.

“Lancaster, in particular, has a very rural area and we adjoin in the Trough of Bowland. So we have significant synergies with Lancaster and likewise with Preston, we’re linked through Longridge and people do use that [as a] commuting route,” Cllr Hore added.

The changes will bring to an end the so-called ‘two-tier’ system in Lancashire, under which responsibilities are divided between the county council and the dozen district authorities - of which Ribble Valley is one.

County Hall looks after major services including adult and children’s social care, roads, transport and schools, while the districts take care of the likes of waste collection, housing, parks and the majority of planning applications.

The new councils will be responsible for delivering all local services in their area.

Ribble Valley Borough Council and Lancashire County Council will continue to operate until 31st March, 2028.

The replacement unitary 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: Chorley, South Ribble and West Lancashire; Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre; and Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Rossendale and Pendle.