Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.
That was a busier start to the week than I am accustomed to. It’s probably fair to say plenty of senior staff at Lancashire County Council felt the same.
On Sunday, we published a withheld report which showed that the authority could be open to a judicial review in the decision it has made regarding withdrawing from the refugee resettlement scheme. The authority - and the report - stresses that this can be mitigated against. Although no amount of mitigation will be as effective as not doing it in the first place.
Not read it yet? Now’s the time.
The disquiet, to describe it mildly, that this has caused is understandable. The report is confidential and everyone at County Hall was supposed to keep it away from the public. Can anyone tell me the last time something like this happened? Because I’m not sure?
My unsolicited advice is that anyone concerned by the publication of the report should reflect on the circumstances. A leak of this nature from County Hall is extremely unusual. And in 16 years reporting in Lancashire (I’m old), I’ve never felt the need to publish something like that.
So one of two things can now happen at County Hall.
Option one: a set of circumstances that have never happened before have happened now and it’s completely irrelevant what the topic is. The leak must be investigated at length because it can never happen again.
Option two: the contents of the report were so overwhelmingly in the public interest, the points raised against the decision so strong and poorly argued against and the decision itself so utterly devoid of positives, that it might now be time to reflect on why it happened rather than how it happened. A reminder that officers were not able to even put forward a recommendation on this - and nobody can say the last time that happened either.
Option one makes the least sense, I’m afraid. But that’s a familiar feeling now.
Back to local government reorganisation and devolution, Lancashire sits in limbo and with a worse deal than the rest of the north as result. It feels like a debate about principles to some extent.
One side, you’ve got the camp that feels that Lancashire should not need a mayor to have the top tier of funding resettlement that can have extraordinary benefits.
On the other, you’ve got the camp thinking pragmatically. Just give us the funding and if a mayor is part of that, then so be it. Anything is better than more years of debate and uncertainty that we can start again after the next local elections.
Rosette colour shouldn’t matter here - working out the best thing for Lancashire is the priority.
That is the debate we focus on in today’s edition.
Lancashire briefing
🚌 Bus passengers in Lancashire will be able to enjoy a discounted fare for longer than previously planned after the date it was due to end was pushed back until after Christmas.
The flat £1-per-journey fare in operation of an evening and all day Sunday across much of the county had, as first revealed by The Lancashire Lead, been set to come to a stop on 13 September when it was scheduled to double to £2.
The Lancashire Combined County Authority (LCCA) devolution body concluded back in June that it could no longer afford to subsidise the scheme for passengers travelling after 7pm Monday to Saturday and anytime on Sundays and bank holidays.
However, since the LCCA took its decision, the government has announced it will lower the nationwide bus fare cap from £3 to its previous £2 level from 1st January.
The move has now prompted the Lancashire authority to extend its £1 offer through to New Year’s Eve, so that all the price changes come into force at the same time.
👞 The future of a flagship industrial unit in Darwen has been secured after Blackburn with Darwen Council found a replacement buyer following the collapse of plans for a major advanced manufacturing hub.
The University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) had been expected to occupy Unit 1 at the Chapels employment development off Goose House Lane and establish a specialist additive manufacturing and 3D-printing facility.
However, the university withdrew from the scheme in July, citing financial pressures affecting the higher education sector. The decision brought an end to years of planning and left the council searching for a new occupier for the largest unit on the site.
A report presented to the council’s Executive Board said the unit had been actively marketed for six months but generated ‘little interest’, before a new opportunity emerged.
Rossendale-based LJ & R Footwear Ltd, which has traded for more than 40 years supplying products to businesses across the country, has agreed to acquire Unit 1 for £1.85 million.
🗳️ The leader of Preston City Council says he hopes the “frustrating” delay to the overhaul that will see the authority abolished will last no more than a year.
Matthew Brown was responding to the government announcement that a shake-up of Lancashire’s councils, which ministers themselves had demanded, was being paused to check that it is lawful.
Meanwhile, South Ribble Borough Council leader Matthew Tomlinson said news of what has been described as a ‘rapid review’ of the process came as “a bit of shock” – and called for clarity as soon as possible.
Under the changes – which were set in motion by the government almost two years ago before finally being confirmed in July – Preston will merge with the local authorities covering Lancaster and Ribble Valley to create a new North Lancashire Council. South Ribble is to hook up with Chorley and West Lancashire in a configuration that will be known as South Lancashire Council.
Lancashire still waiting to hear the exact benefits a mayor would bring to county
By Ed Walker
A pivotal meeting between senior politicians in Lancashire and the recently returning government minister Jim McMahon needs to happen until any certainty is given over Lancashire’s future.
The MP was restored to a cabinet post as Minister for Local Government, Devolution and Growth by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham in the summer and the leader of Reform-led Lancashire County Council county councillor Stephen Atkinson, who also chairs the Combined County Authority, said they were still awaiting a meeting with Mr McMahon to thrash out what economic benefits a Devolution deal - and any potential directly-elected Mayor - would have.
Cllr Atkinson has been cautious over any support for a Mayoral authority despite increasing pressure from MPs, businesses and other council leaders. Atkinson, speaking at a meeting of the Combined Authority last week, expressed frustration at the government’s current approach.
He said: “We have tried three times [since February] to get a meeting with the minister about understanding what settlement there would be, and it’s been cancelled three times.
“We’ll be trying again, but until we have the facts in front of us I don’t think it would be right for the people of Lancashire for us to agree to anything.”
Cllr Atkinson also criticised comparisons with areas that did have Mayors - citing how Lancashire’s growth rate was running at a similar rate to the Liverpool City Region which has one of the longest-established Mayoral Devolution deals.
His deputy at County Hall, county councillor Simon Evans, said more recent Devolution settlements were not as generous as the earlier settlements. Mr Isap fired back it was still more than Lancashire was getting now, despite the county having a larger economy than many of the places with recent Devolution settlements such as Cheshire and Cumbria who are set to have a Mayor in May 2027.
Cllr Atkinson was responding to questioning and pressure from Mo Isap OBE, chair of the Lancashire Business Board, who has been sabre-rattling for a Mayor in recent weeks. Mr Isap challenged Cllr Atkinson on the ‘opportunity cost’ of not having a Mayoral Devolution settlement, saying places such as South Yorkshire were outstripping Lancashire in government funding settlements.
