Devolution deal to be torn up as new MPs say 'we need a mayor'
Plus: The out-of-use building costing its council £1m a year and terminal cancer patient left on hospital floor
Hello and welcome to today’s edition of The Lancashire Lead. Some of our new MPs have been given an early reminder of facing them as public transport problems hampered their first journeys to Westminster.
Paul Foster, the newly elected South Ribble MP, was among those to complain after experiencing the realities of trying to relying on unreliable train services to get to work.
Foster confirmed this week that he will step down as South Ribble Borough Council leader following his election as MP and he’s also spoken out about his desire to change the devolution deal on offer to the county. More on that below.
Facing a very different challenge on her first trip to Parliament is new Hyndburn MP Sarah Smith as she travels with her new baby. Eli accompanied her on long campaigning days and Smith has expressed her gratitude for the family-friendly facilities which only recently became a thing
One MP with much more experience in Westminster is Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle. The Chorley MP was re-elected as Speaker yesterday, having been nominated by Lancaster and the Wyre representative Cat Smith.
Leading her tribute to her Lancashire colleague, she joked: “The best thing as far as I’m concerned about having Lindsay is how good it is to have someone in the chair who doesn’t have an accent.”
Due to the quite frankly bizarre conventions in our Parliament, Hoyle was literally dragged to his seat by Smith and David Davis before receiving glowing welcome speeches from the leader of each party (only Nigel Farage derailed things by using his turn to attack previous speaker John Bercow).
Hoyle also paid tribute to his late father, who died in April. He said:
“Of course, it was the first time in my political career that I campaigned without hearing the wise words of my late father Doug, giving me his opinions on how to campaign.
“He was always going to give me that, whatever the polls were doing and whatever needed to be said. I can still hear him now, saying, ‘Don’t stop now. You have to keep going.’ I must say, after 25,000 steps a day during the campaign, I certainly did that.”
In Preston, Ed Walker has been examining the jaw-dropping cost to the council of its flagship Preston Guild Hall building. The venue was once home to live music and comedy events, Snooker’s UK Championship and community activity such as graduation ceremonies for the University of Central Lancashire.
It’s been largely closed since 2019 when Preston City Council seized control back from businessman Simon Rigby, a decision which would spark a lengthy legal battle and ultimately defeat for the authority. Re-opening hopes were then hampered by the discovery of RAAC - a situation which remains unresolved.
A Freedom of Information request by Blog Preston showed since 2019, the council has put almost £4mil into the building, while receiving little over £557,000 at a loss of £3.4m.
It’s worth reading the full piece to get a picture of exactly what’s gone on there and what the council plans to do next. Thankfully, most of the response is more reassuring than these words from deputy leader Cllr Martyn Rawlinson:
“It is important to remember when we sold the Guild Hall to Simon Rigby it was losing more than £1million a year for us.
“So although, yes, it is costing us money now it is not costing us as much as it did back in the period of 2010 to 2014 when we were trying to work out a future for it beyond mothballing the venue.”
Ed has also been speaking with businessman and General Election candidate Yousuf Bhailok who says he tried to buy the venue back in 2014 and remains interested in doing so now.
Staying with important buildings facing funding problems, Blackpool Victoria Hospital was back in the news this week as a woman with terminal cancer spoke of how she spent hours lying on the floor during her last admission.
The BBC reports that Madeleine Butcher has visited the hospital seven times over the past year to be treated for sepsis related to her ovarian cancer. On her last visit in June, she was told she faced a 36 hour wait with no trolley or comfortable chair available and was left to request a blanket and pillow to lay on the floor.
Blackpool South’s Labour MP Chris Webb said of the incident: “The treatment that Madeleine Butcher has endured is absolutely unacceptable and it fills me with horror. No individual, especially someone who is facing the end of their life, should ever be subjected to sleeping on the cold, hard floor of a hospital."
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust apologised and said it was conducting a "thorough investigation".
You can read more about the hospital’s troubles in Michael Holmes’ deep dive for The Blackpool Lead:
Urgent review at Blackpool Victoria Hospital adds to litany of issues
Whistleblower numbers surge at under-fire Blackpool Victoria Hospital
You’re probably used to hearing Ofcom discussed in the contexts of a Tory MP or panellist causing trouble on GB News or maybe because someone on reality show has done something particularly egregious. The regulator’s remit actually stretches well away from those scenarios right down to the community radio stations - and it has found two Lancashire ones in breach of their licences.
As reported by Radio Today, Juice FM - formerly Beat Radio - has failed to meet its obligation to broadcast local news and sport content. Items about a Dizzee Rascal performance in Liverpool, a bottomless brunch at a local venue and Taylor Swift performing at the Manchester O2 were not considered sufficient and changes have been ordered.
And spare a thought for the Radio Leyland presenter who accidentally broadcast an X-rated song at 10.34am. The station played an uncensored version of Let’s Go Fishing by Aaron Lewis containing no fewer than three uses of the word “fucked”. The full lyrics are here if you want to see why the song - which is probably more at home in US Republican circles than British community radio - was such a bad option.
Devolution was a hot topic during the election campaign and it looks as though some of Lancashire’s new MPs are ready to rip up the agreed deal and start afresh. A deal has been signed off by the leaders of Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council and Blackburn with Darwen Council but it never became law before the General Election was called.
With Labour keen to empower English regions with more control and money, there is hope that a more rewarding and less contested agreement could be put on the table. Paul Foster had opposed the deal in his time as South Ribble Borough Council leader and has promised to do the same now as the area’s MP.
Speaking to Graham Liver on BBC Radio Lancashire, he said:
“You won’t be surprised to know that there’s already been discussions had yesterday with other Lancashire MPs about this and we’re looking to speak to government ministers hopefully this week, if not early next week, to speak about this.
“You only need to watch the news this morning where all the metro mayors, all the elected mayors of this country, are going in to see Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer about devolution and additional powers and Lancashire isn’t represented and that’s because the deal that was negotiated by the previous government didn’t allow for that.
“I’m adamant we need and an elected mayor and we need a voice.”
Those sentiments were echoed by new Blackpool North and Fleetwood representative Lorraine Beavers who agreed having an elected mayor is “the only way forward”. She’s also hoping to see greater collaboration with those nearby:
We need to work with Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram on transport links and everything else because together we will be powerful.
I will be supporting a mayor. The deal we had previously was not a good deal, it didn’t give us the powers that we need and I’m sure working with a Labour government, Lancashire County Council will deliver a far better deal than was on the table before.
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💰 Blackburn with Darwen Council’s forecast £3m deficit has been turned into a surplus thanks to unexpected extra income from investments (Lancashire Telegraph).
🚸 Safety improvements will be made at a notorious junction where a 10-year-old boy was run over by a van. It comes after years of campaigning and a request from the nearby college. (Blog Preston).
🍺 A bid to open a pub called ‘The Rovers Return’ on Coronation Street - in Blackpool - will go before a licensing panel after objections from neighbours (LancsLive).
🏥 Morecambe Bay hospitals bosses have appointed new specialists to tackle domestic violence (Lancaster Guardian).
🏏 A 21-year-old estate agent has secured a summer break from her day job - to take part in cricket’s The Hundred competition (The Negotiator).
🏗️ Work has begun on a £31m housing development that will see 205 homes built in Blackburn (The Business Desk).
🥂 The ‘master of ceremonies’ at a Gisburn wedding venue has been named the best in the North West (Lancashire Telegraph).
📽️ A cinema could be included in modified plans for Colne’s market redevelopment (LancsLive). ↪️ Meanwhile, a report discussing introducing parking charges in the town has been described as ‘atrocious’ amid warnings it would cause ‘chaos’ (LancsLive)
Thanks for reading today’s edition of The Lancashire Lead. Please share and subscribe and I’ll be back with the next publication on Sunday evening.
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