'Performative' Reform UK told to grow up after unveiling DOGE plans
PLUS: Cuadrilla accused of breaching planning rules and failing to achieve results
Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.
DOGE is on the way to Lancashire - what a [truly harrowing] time to be alive. Anyone who expected Reform leader Stephen Atkinson to bristle at outside help given he’d already started his own spending review at County Hall is sorely mistaken.
He welcomes the pro-bono help from outside parties to help identify council wastage. And while that doubtless exists (especially if you don’t like Net Zero initiatives), Elon Musk, Donald Trump and the disaster that has been DOGE in the US means all of this risks being an unpopular move.
We also report on the ever divisive Cuadrilla - who may have their tails up a little now that Lancashire County Council is under new management - but have been accused of flouting planning regulations.
DOGE strategy sets alarm bells ringing at County Hall
By Luke Beardsworth
Reform UK’s Elon Musk-style DOGE units have been branded performative and a sign that the party needs to grow up ahead of a trial in Kent that will be later rolled out to Lancashire.
The Kent DOGE, short for department of government efficiency but also a term shared with a form of cryptocurrency, was announced this week where the party said they would bring in an outside team to go through the expenditure of councils.
Reform UK indicated the pilot in Kent would be rolled out at all councils where they have control and this has now been confirmed for Lancashire. No date has been given for DOGE’s work to begin in Lancashire.
Stephen Atkinson, Reform UK leader of Lancashire County Council, said: “Residents gave us an overwhelming mandate to root out waste and reinvest in frontline local services. I’m excited to see how this unit can deliver for the people of Lancashire.”
Aidy Riggott, the Conservative group leader at County Hall, said he would welcome the exercise on the basis that it would highlight the difference between Reform UK on the election trail and in power - though that he expected it to be a waste of time and money.
He told The Lancashire Lead: “I think we should welcome an early visit by Reform’s self-appointed 'DOGE' unit in Lancashire. Inevitably it would be a distraction for a short period as well as being a waste of officer time and money in answering their questions, especially when so much of the information they are interested in is already public domain (and always has been).
“Something which I know is not lost on Reform’s leader here in Lancashire, due to his experience as a long-standing District Council Leader, prior to serving on the County Council.
“Will 'DOGE' uncover any scandal or ridiculous waste of tax-payers money? That’s highly unlikely in my view. What it will do however is start to shine a light on the gulf between Reform’s rhetoric during the local elections and what they find and do in once elected.
“Hopefully then the new Reform administration at County Hall will then get on with delivering for the people and businesses in Lancashire and confirm what their policies actually are, rather than simply hiding behind performative politics.”
Azhar Ali, leader of the official Progressive Lancashire opposition group of independents and Green county councillors, branded the installation of a DOGE-style team in County Hall “undemocratic”.
“It’s not right for any unit to come into the council unless it’s from the auditors or is sent in by the government to inspect particular services.
“What skills and experience do they have that’s any different to the 84 elected members within the council or its [employed] officers?
“I don’t think we need people coming up from London and telling us what to do and then leaving. Councillors were elected to make these decisions, not a unit like Trump’s in America – because we’ve all seen what’s happened there,”
A letter to Kent County Council, signed by the council leader, Linden Kemkaran; the party chair, Zia Yusuf; and the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, said: “Should you resist this request, we are ready to pass a council motion to compel the same and will consider any obstruction of our councillors’ duties to be gross misconduct. We trust this will not be required.”
Labour’s Samara Barnes asked what the policy says about the level of trust Reform UK has in its local politicians.
She told The Lancashire Lead: “Having been a councillor for just over four years now, I can tell you that the Reform group here in Lancashire need to be concentrating on improving our SEND services and repairing our highways, rather than political posturing and pushing an American DOGE-style scheme at County Hall.
“I agree that every penny of our council tax payers needs to be well-spent, but we already have processes in place to monitor spending. Layers of scrutiny – so I would not support bringing in a team of 'young tech experts' (the description used by Farage) and threatening officers with gross miscount should they not comply with their demands.
“It begs the question - does the national Reform party not trust their councillors to apply effective scrutiny and lead the departments they have been charged with?
“This loses any level of local decision making, which is something that the Lancashire Reform leader Stephen Atkinson says is so important to him!”
Cllr John Potter, leader of the Lib Dems at County Hall, said that he mistook the initial announcement to be from a parody account.
He said: “When I first saw the Reform Kent DOGE press release online, I thought it was from a joke or parody account. Given that DOGE in the US has been a chaotic and clueless failure, why would we want that in Lancashire.
“What Reform is wanting to do is waste vast amounts of time and money to pay consultants to find mythical financial unicorns that don’t exist. The vast majority of the information they want is publicly available anyway.
“People were concerned when Reform won power, that their inexperience would lead them to make rookie mistakes. This isn’t a great start. In fact it’s embarrassing that Reform has such a poor understanding of how local government works.
“Reform need to grow up, stop messing about and get on delivering services for the people of Lancashire.”
Recommended reading this week
🖨️ A former printworks dating back to Victorian times is to become a new creative hub in Preston city centre. Built in 1858 the Snapes Printers building in Boltons Court is just off Church Street. Preston-based hospitality mogul Jeremy Rowlands – who owns the Continental pub and Plau bar, as well as being part of The Ferret CIC – has bought the building. Full story from Blog Preston here.
🚔 Detectives hope they can uncover “in the coming months” the identity of a baby girl found in a field near the M61. Six months ago her tiny body - named by police as Ava - was discovered in a frozen field. The child has not yet been laid to rest and as yet her parents remain unknown. Jon at LancsLive reports on this.
🥊 A video has emerged of a Blackburn boxer making cruel and racist remarks towards women on a street in Blackburn. The video was reportedly posted to Jack Fay’s Instagram reels. It now appears to have been deleted, but screen recordings have been viewed by the Lancashire Telegraph.
Cuadrilla accused of breaching planning rules
By Jamie Lopez
Cuadrilla has been accused of breaching planning rules and failing to achieve any results as it seeks permission to continue operations in Fylde for another five years.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Lancashire Lead to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.