A REPORT has been published updating people on plans to slash the number of councillors in Blackburn with Darwen following upcoming elections.

There are 64 members across the borough’s 23 wards but the number is set to fall following local government elections in May. Members will be updated on the changes at a council forum meeting in Blackburn Town Hall tomorrow.

A boundary review was carried out and as a consequence of that and the changes to wards, the numbers of councillors will be reducing from 64 to 51 and the wards from 23 to 17. The blueprint was drawn up by the borough’s Labour leadership after a cut to the number of elected politicians by a fifth saving £100,000 a year.

Several well-known names including Highercroft, Meadowhead, Marsh House, Fernhurst and Sunnyhurst will vanish as polling divisions are merged and redrawn. But a new Central ward, similar to the pre-1997 Cathedral ward, reappears.

At a meeting in December, the authority’s policy council agreed the retention of the leader and executive board structure. Leader, Cllr Mohammed Khan, will see his term of office end alongside other councillors in May. A leader will then be appointed at the annual council meeting following the election.

After the appointment of the leader, the composition and the individual executive board members will be confirmed. The board can be a maximum size of the leader plus nine executive board members or a minimum of two members including the leader.

Given the reduction in the number of councillors overall, the policy council recommended the leader review the composition of the executive board with the new board comprising the leader plus eight members.

At the meeting, members will decide whether to recommend to the leader following the elections that there should be seven executive members, with the final decision confirmed by the leader at the annual meeting of the council on May 17.

Director for HR legal and corporate services, David Fairclough, said: “In December 2017, policy council received a report and approved changes to the council’s governance arrangements consequent of the reduction of wards and the new council elections due to take place on May 3, 2018. This report presents recommendations for consideration which will, if adopted, require the council’s constitution to be updated and re-published in May 2018 The constitution is the key document setting out the governance framework of the council.”

The current portfolio responsibilities have been reviewed and it is suggested that council forum considers that the current children’s services and schools and education portfolios be merged, and also that young people’s services transfer into the new portfolio from the current leisure, culture and young people portfolio.

The revised seven executive members portfolios would then be children, young people and education, environment, health and adult social care, leisure and culture, neighbourhoods and prevention, regeneration and resources.