Hyndburn area councils could be replaced

Hyndburn Borough Council is reviewing whether to redistribute thousands spent on running area councils such as Peel and Barnfield, Rishton, Clayton and Altham, Spring Hill and Central Accrington, Church and West Accrington.

The council is assessing whether the five area councils are duplicating work carried out by Neighbourhood Management Boards which were set up in 2005 to help communities through large scale demolition and rebuilding.

A row has broken out between council leader Peter Britcliffe, who claims the review will lead to the sharing of £18,000 in funds more fairly with other areas, and the opposition leader who claims the bid ‘robs’ some areas of vital funds.

Plans involve merging area councils with neighbourhood boards, creating new ‘Area Management Councils’, which would meet publicly three times a year.

If given the go-ahead, funds saved on staff and costs would be redistributed to councils covering areas without neighborhood boards, such as Oswaldtwistle, Great Harwood, Baxenden and Huncoat.

But opposition leader Coun Graham Jones said: “Approximately £320,000 will be taken away from these areas, and neighbourhood boards will be tasked with managing all community issues, without any extra staff or resources.

“The neighbourhood boards do a great job of overseeing terraced housing, but they would also have to manage everything from CCTV to park benches and dog fouling issues.

“The new councils would be overworked and effectively undemocratic. Without proper resources, they will only be useless quangos. Countless residents are being abandoned.”

Coun Peter Britcliffe said: “The figure we contribute to area councils is £18,000, nothing like £320,000. Coun Jones must be celebrating April Fool’s Day. Our aim is simply to strengthen area councils with a large-scale review and share funds more fairly. Clearly there will be winners and losers, but overall it will be a more efficient and fair use of resources.”