With Christmas out the way for another year, festive spirit is in very short supply between Lancashire’s council chiefs.

What with being strongarmed into multi-million pound cuts and facing job losses on a massive scale, town halls might be seeking some common ground going into what promises to be a tough year.

But not between Blackburn with Darwen and Preston, where battles that raged throughout 2010 (and earlier) look set to carry on into 2011.

Preston’s New Year hangover has hardly been eased by Blackburn with Darwen’s announcement that it will appeal the decision to award planning permission to Preston’s Tithebarn dream.

For those of us who have to decipher town hall jargon on a regular basis, official quotes like this one that greeted Blackburn’s decision - from Tory Preston Council leader Ken Hudson - are a godsend:

“We are just in utter disbelief. It means more expense to the taxpayers of Blackburn and yet more delays and uncertainty for Preston.

"How Blackburn can justify spending public money on another unnecessary legal challenge to Tithebarn at a time when they are making job cuts, is quite simply beyond us and no doubt most reasonable people.”

This isn’t a row on political lines - both councils had Tory leaders until Labour regained Blackburn in September.

Instead, the insults are being traded by the officers in the background, whose relationships with each other have been all but severed by the recent row over Local Enterprise Partnerships.

At stake is the shape of the body that will bid for regeneration funding from the government.

It should either look like East Lancashire or the whole of the county, depending on who you speak to.

This has pitted Blackburn with Darwen, and its East Lancashire allies, against Preston and Lancashire County Council.

Cynics say Blackburn’s decision to drag out the Tithebarn saga is the direct result of the LEP row.

Blackburn bosses are furious with their counterparts in Preston and at County Hall for the stand-off and are in no mood to give them an easy ride on their regeneration dream.

In any case, there’s not much joined-up working on show and we can expect savage cuts to the councils’ Christmas card bill next year.