BURNLEY MP Peter Pike is only sticking up for his constituents with his last-ditch call for neighbouring Blackburn not to be given independence from the County Council.

It would harm Burnley, he says.

We support his right to make the claim, but do not accept the argument.

For even if, as expected, the opt-out of Blackburn and Blackpool from Lancashire goes ahead, the county authority will still be big enough and powerful enough to defend the interests of the district councils like Burnley.

Nor is Burnley Council itself likely to let the town lose out.

The point, surely, is: why should major towns not have control over their affairs - Burnley included?

Mr Pike, we note, seems to agree that point, but does not like the possible upshot of the "hybrid" solution to local government reform now on the cards.

We agree that it might have been better, as he suggests, for all district councils in the county to have been given self-ruling unitary status.

But was not one of the reasons the idea was knocked on the head the bid by some of these councils to swallow their neighbours in order to justify their own claim to unitary status?

And, though Burnley may have not regained the independence it had until 1974 in this shake-up, at least it is not threatened by being swallowed up by its bigger next-door neighbour.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.