'East Lancs councils must drop rivalries' (From Lancashire Telegraph)

What he means is, surrender local control to an east lancs single authority, which in reality would be accountable to nobody, You would then see the local career politicians taking over. Local people would have all sorts of nonsensical ideas forced on them by people who have never had a proper job or lived in the real world of the people of east lancs.
We are not all in this together or will we ever be. Keep your unitary authority ideas. People have voted against regional type assemblies in the past, perhaps politicians and their council officers are not listening again, A sharp reminder at the ballot box is in order.

At present NE Lancs is represented b a mishmash of relatively small local authorities many of which only have control of some of their services having to rely on LCC which itself covers a wide and very range of areas from rural to densely urban. Each local authority competes with the others for funding and has its own agenda when meeting with central government. Each wants to protect and control its own mini empire with staff and councillor hierarchies.
As a result NE Lancs is off the map as far as its profile in the wider scheme of things despite the noises made to the contrary by its representatives. It is lagging in educational, commercial, social and transport terms and will never be able to compete on anything like equal terms with its neighbours in Greater Manchester or West Yorkshire made worse by the fact that it is in a geographical cul de sac.
Not until it speaks with one voice through one single unitary authority will it ever stand a chance of real and sustained revival.

The sooner Pendle becomes independant the better, The LCC is like a millstone around our neck. I have long thought that the county council is quite happy to let us go into a state of managed decline! Obviously it will never happen because there are too many jobsworths at County Hall.

mavrick wrote:
What he means is, surrender local control to an east lancs single authority, which in reality would be accountable to nobody, You would then see the local career politicians taking over. Local people would have all sorts of nonsensical ideas forced on them by people who have never had a proper job or lived in the real world of the people of east lancs. We are not all in this together or will we ever be. Keep your unitary authority ideas. People have voted against regional type assemblies in the past, perhaps politicians and their council officers are not listening again, A sharp reminder at the ballot box is in order.

What planet are you on?? how would having a single authority be accountable to nobody? It would still have local councillors representing local people but without the constant battling with the rest of the County. East Lancashire has long been forgotten by Geoff Driver who is full of nothing but empty promises for any district council not controlled by the Tories. Having a single authority would mean that we could control our own funding for transport and education which has sadly been lacking in this part of the County. I for one am sick of living in the shadow of Preston and seeing us lose out time again to the more affluent areas where Geoff can keep his Tory voters happy.

You're quite right that local people shouldn't have nonsensical ideas forced on them by people who have never had a proper job or lived in the real world of the people of east lancs..... isn't that how the County Council operate now?

mavrick wrote:
What he means is, surrender local control to an east lancs single authority, which in reality would be accountable to nobody, You would then see the local career politicians taking over. Local people would have all sorts of nonsensical ideas forced on them by people who have never had a proper job or lived in the real world of the people of east lancs. We are not all in this together or will we ever be. Keep your unitary authority ideas. People have voted against regional type assemblies in the past, perhaps politicians and their council officers are not listening again, A sharp reminder at the ballot box is in order.

what’s this got to do with regional assemblies! surely one council would reduce bureaucracy and increase transparency – not to mention save money by not having so many highly paid council officers and councillors… the county council have done nothing for east lancs and it's time to break up this ridiculous structure and take control of our own destiny

You are the one on a different planet Shirley. Even together, Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale and Hyndburn would not have the capacity to 'compete' with the likes of Greater Manchester etc - just like Blackburn struggles now. They didn't want the countywide LEP but they are more than happy to pick up the benefits all of which are provided by LCC. And izanears, have you forgotten who saved the jobs at Silent Night? Oh yes it was LCC who put the £1m in - not bad for someone who is a millstone around your neck! And by the way is the CX retiring from Blackburn and picking up his LG pension the same Graham Burgess who has just been appointed as CX of Wirrall.

I agree totally that there should be three unitary authorities in Lancashire - one of which should cover the six East Lancashire boroughs. This would be big enough to achieve efficiencies and economies of scale but small enough to be sufficiently responsive. Local politicans, however, would not take this step because of vested interest - this would need to be mandated nationally....

OK in principle leelancs but just see how much extra LCC spends in East Lancs compared to the Council Tax and Gov Grant received. Where would that money come from? They would love it in the East and Centre Unitaries because at the moment they (especially in the West) subsidise East Lancs.

rilistic wrote:
You are the one on a different planet Shirley. Even together, Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale and Hyndburn would not have the capacity to 'compete' with the likes of Greater Manchester etc - just like Blackburn struggles now. They didn't want the countywide LEP but they are more than happy to pick up the benefits all of which are provided by LCC. And izanears, have you forgotten who saved the jobs at Silent Night? Oh yes it was LCC who put the £1m in - not bad for someone who is a millstone around your neck! And by the way is the CX retiring from Blackburn and picking up his LG pension the same Graham Burgess who has just been appointed as CX of Wirrall.

no-one is suggesting that the East Lancs authorities could compete with Manchester, it's the biggest city in the North! But given the cuts that the government are forcing on local authorities surely it makes sense for them to work more efficiently with the limited resources they now have, economies of scale and all that. The challenges East Lancs face are very different to those in the Ribble Valley or Wyre so why shouldn't they work together to tackle the issues and spend the money where residents need it rather than where LCC want it.

I'd be interested to know what benefits LCC are providing to the LEP which is meant to be private sector led...

Captain America - you should read my second post. LCC provides all the admin support for the LEP as well as matching some of the funding - unlike Blackburn who contribute nothing.

Same old BS from Burgess. If you want to save money and heaven forbid have a say in your local area just do away with Local Councils.
Lets face it they provide only 20% of the services you and I use, but do collect the County Precept. Not a lot of people know that 65% of Local Councils budgets are spent on Salaries whilst only providing the meagre 20% of services. Just give ALL the services to the County Council absorb 20% of Council Staff and sell off all the Town Halls and sack all the highly paid Chief Executives like Burgess and his cronies on anything above £40,000/year along with the self interested amateur politicians.
Now that's how to save money and have a one stop shop for services.

Nice one NoPolitics. It will also be interesting to see what the Health Authority has to say about the way BwD has been ripping them off by 'sharing' GB with them. Watch this space!

NoPolitics wrote:
Same old BS from Burgess. If you want to save money and heaven forbid have a say in your local area just do away with Local Councils.
Lets face it they provide only 20% of the services you and I use, but do collect the County Precept. Not a lot of people know that 65% of Local Councils budgets are spent on Salaries whilst only providing the meagre 20% of services. Just give ALL the services to the County Council absorb 20% of Council Staff and sell off all the Town Halls and sack all the highly paid Chief Executives like Burgess and his cronies on anything above £40,000/year along with the self interested amateur politicians.
Now that's how to save money and have a one stop shop for services.

This is about right.

Most people do not realise that the majority of their council extortion bill is basically funding a jobs-for-the-boys gravy train.

The majority of council employees are simply benefit cheats par excellence.