Concerns have been raised the number of councillors on the government-backed Nelson Town Deal Board, which currently has a £25 million budget and could get an extra £20 million, could fall to just two.

The Nelson Town Deal is one of more than 100 government-approved town deals, and rules mean town boards must be created to manage the schemes, designed to boost local economies.

Boards must include people who are not publicly-elected, such as from private businesses or community backgrounds.

Now, the government says extra funding is proposed for a new phase of long-term town plans. Councils and existing town boards are being told to create or ‘repurpose’  boards by April and submit long-term plans to the government by August, described by levelling up secretary Michael Gove as ‘new-style politics’.

The latest developments were among topics discussed at Nelson Town Deal Board’s annual meeting, held at the regenerated Northlight Mill in Brierfield.

The current Nelson Town Deal Board includes Pendle Councillors Nadeem Ahmed (Conservative), Mohammed Iqbal (Labour), David Whipp (Liberal Democrat), and council leader Asjad Mahmood (Lab).

Business members include Dennis Mendoros, chair of Pendle Vision Board; Joel Rosenblatt. of Buoyant Upholstery Ltd; and Lara Oddie, of Oddie’s Bakery.

There are also community members and others including Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson.

Non-voting advisers to the Nelson board represent the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), government agency Homes England, the Department of Work and Pensions, and Brookhouse Group, a private property developer working with Pendle Council in a Nelson joint venture called Penbrook Development. Pendle Rise shopping mall’s future, plus other Nelson land and property ideas, are part of the remit.

A Pendle Council officer’s report had recommended the Nelson board to take note of the new government’s proposals and the existing board be re-purposed, in line with the plans.

The government announced the Long-Term Plan for Towns in October with funding guidance in December. The government says £20 million will be released over seven years. Councils have flexibility to spend it over 10 years.

The government guidance states: “For too long politicians have focused on cities and businesses have been encouraged to invest elsewhere.

"Local communities have been eroded and too many young people have concluded that the only way to get on, is to get out.

“We’re putting towns back into the hands of local people, so they can decide on local priorities and what’s best for the long-term future of the places where they live.

"Each town will have a new town board of local community leaders and employers, who will draw-up their town’s long-term plan for the next 10 years.

“Our Long-Term Plan for Towns fundamentally changes the way politics works to support local communities – putting them in control.”

Michael Gove added: “I look forward to working with town boards as partners in this new-style politics.”

At the Nelson Town Board, Cllr Whipp said: “I could wax lyrical. What I heard at a meeting yesterday, I could not help guffawing about this.

"It’s the sense that councillors somehow don’t represent the community. That’s the embodiment of what councillors do.

“I understand it’s intended there is be two councillors. One from Pendle Council and one from Lancashire County Council. Or if we don’t want them, have someone from Nelson Town Council.

“But how do you get representation from the community without elected councillors? There is a discontinuity in thinking.”

Nelson town board chair Stephen Barnes, a former Pendle Council chief executive, said: “The report back said it’s for the council and community to decide, and the council has to decide how it constitutes this.

"I don’t think the government will worry if there are more than two councillors. In the end, it’s for the council.”

Council leader Cllr Mahmood said: “My understanding is that we can incorporate things, instead of this [existing] board doing one thing and another board doing another. I think that would get messy and overlapping.”

Mr Barnes said: “I think it’s good to have a discussion.”

Pendle Council’s new chief executive. Rose Rouse, added: “I think more detailed information will come in the next few weeks. This was the first we had heard of it. We thought ‘wow’. It would be premature to look at it yet.”