PARISH councillors said they feel 'frustrated' by the lack of support shown to rural areas by County Hall bosses.

Members of Wiswell, Chatburn and Gisburn parish councils said they are often kept waiting for up to three weeks for a response from Lancashire County Council on matters important to the villages and in some cases they claim they do not even receive a reply at all.

The issue was raised at a recent parish council liaison committee meeting at Ribble Valley Council.

Councillors in Wiswell described how they had sent an email regarding a signpost replacement had been sent to Lancashire County Council via email in February this year and apart from being told it had been received councillors were still waiting for response.

Members from other parish councils also reported difficulties in obtaining responses.

Sheila Sturrock, the clerk of Chatburn Parish Council, said: “Parish councils in the Ribble Valley are all aware of the lack of liaison with Lancashire County Council.

“Any matters raised receive the standard reply that there will be a response within 20 days.

“This just does not happen and Chatburn now has an ongoing list of items, with dates, to which there has been no resolution.

“It appears that officers are frequently transferred to other departments resulting in a lack of continuity."

Cllr Richard Sherras, who represents Gisburn, said: “There has been a clear lack of communication over the last couple of months.

“We send an email and seldom receive a prompt reply from them. It gets very frustrating."

In response to the issues raised by councillors, County Hall’s parish champion, County Cllr Paul Rigby, said: “Even as a county councillor I would say the county council does not always respond well to personal emails.

“They have 20 working days to respond and in all honesty that’s not good enough in this day and age.

“This is something the administration intend to put right but we are struggling at the moment.”

County Cllr Albert Atkinson, who is the deputy leader of Lancashire County Council and represents part of the Ribble Valley, said: “We have a parish champion who councillors can liaison with to deal with any issues they have.

“County councillors go down to parish councils to speak to them if it’s urgent.

“If it’s something important I will go down to deal with it.

“Parish councillors also have my phone number if they want to get in touch.

“I do my best to go to most of the annual general meetings but you can’t go to them all.”

"If it's something important I will go down to deal with it.

"Parish councillors also have my phone number if they want to get in touch.

"I do my best to go to most of the annual general meetings but you can't go to them all."