Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.
Reform UK has made national headlines with its vow to pull out of refugee resettlement schemes.
They are the first local authority in Lancashire to do so - and they say it is evidence that they are putting the people of Lancashire first.
But critics argue strongly that the only tangible difference the move will make is to take Home Office funding away from Lancashire County Council. It will have no impact on refugee numbers, housing and certainly no impact on asylum seekers which is a separate matter.
In short: their argument is Reform UK is putting headlines first.
We unpick the latest on the topic. The debate will continue next week because the decision to pull out of the scheme has been “called in”. That means Reform UK will be asked to reconsider their stance on Afghan refugees on * checks calendar * September 11.
Lancashire briefing
🤝🏻 Blackburn with Darwen’s council leader has called for East Lancashire politicians to unite ahead of local government reorganisation, amid continuing tensions with Burnley over the creation of the new Pennine Lancashire authority.
While the new unitary authority will not take power until April 2028, the council’s chief executive Denise Park and leader Cllr Phil Riley told a scrutiny committee this week that a ‘mountain’ of work was already underway to prepare for the biggest shake-up of county politics in a generation.
That includes standardising the myriad of services provided by Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn, Rossendale, Burnley and Pendle councils before May 2027, when elections will be held to select the councillors who will run the ‘shadow’ authority that oversees the transition into the new mega-council.
But it is not just issues regarding bin collections and the forecasted £43m budget shortfall that need agreement from local leaders, as in recent months Burnley Council’s leader Cllr Afrasiab Anwar has voiced concerns about the ever-increasing ‘centralisation’ of services 11 miles away in Blackburn.
Last month, Cllr Anwar’s challenge to the presumed dominance of Blackburn with Darwen in the new authority led to some concessions over the joint committee that will oversee part of the transition.
This committee was set to be dominated by Blackburn politicians, but has since been modified to provide a better balance between East Lancashire’s largest town and only existing unitary authority, and the other smaller second-tier councils.
🛥️ Lancashire County Council has indicated it could be willing to pay more to keep the Fleetwood to Knott End ferry in operation – but first wants convincing that an increased subsidy for the service makes sense for the public purse.
The authority’s cabinet member for highways and transport, Warren Goldsworthy, floated the possibility that “progress” could be made on the subject during a meeting at County Hall on Thursday morning.
His comments were the first indication that there could be a way through an ongoing dispute with Wyre Council over funding for the cross-river connection which would enable it to continue.
Wyre Council leader Michael Vincent says he will set up a meeting between the two authorities – and the current operator of the ferry – “immediately” to try to thrash out a solution.
However, there remains plenty of clear blue water between the councils over the issue and time is not on their side – nor that of the passengers who want to travel between the two communities while avoiding a 24-mile round trip by road.
🌳 One of East Lancashire’s most recognisable landmarks could be set for a major overhaul after Burnley Council submitted plans to improve access to the Singing Ringing Tree ahead of the borough’s Year of Culture celebrations in 2027.
The council has lodged an application to itself seeking permission for a package of improvements around the award-winning sculpture, which stands on Crown Point above Burnley and attracts visitors from across the UK and overseas.
According to planning documents, almost 20 years of exposure to harsh Pennine weather has left footpaths, fencing and other infrastructure in need of significant refurbishment.
Designed by architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu and completed in 2006, the Singing Ringing Tree is a three-metre-high wind-powered sculpture made from galvanised steel pipes that harness the wind sweeping across the moorland to produce haunting musical notes.
The sculpture was created as part of a wider East Lancashire arts and regeneration initiative. A year after it was erected atop Crown Point, it won a prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) National Award for architectural excellence.
It has since become one of Lancashire’s best-known visitor attractions, featuring regularly in lists of Britain’s most remarkable landmarks and offering panoramic views across Burnley, Pendle Hill and the wider Pennines.
However, council documents say the environment surrounding the attraction has deteriorated over the years due to weathering, water erosion and the decay of fencing and gates.
Reform UK ‘abandons pretence of delivery for Lancashire’ in refugee funding decision
By Luke Beardsworth
The first Afghan refugees arrived in Lancashire in August 2021.
In Afghanistan itself, the Taliban had stepped up attacks in response to US and NATO withdrawals. The speed at which peoples’ lives became at serious risk was eye-watering, and prompted Ben Wallace, then-Conservative MP for Wyre and Preston North but also Secretary of State for Defence, to call it ‘rotten’ and a ‘mistake’.
So began Operation Pitting - the biggest evacuation carried out by the British since the Second World War. 5,000 British nationals were evacuated, along with 8,000 Afghans who were deemed to be vulnerable to attack due to their role in assisting British forces. 2,200 of them were children, the youngest one day old.
A number of legal routes were established. People in danger of death, women, girls, human rights defenders and people who were deemed to be compatible with British values were brought to the UK. They did not arrive illegally, there were no boats, they have indefinite leave to remain.
Views on migration to the UK are complex. YouGov data from August 2026 says that 45% per cent of people want more or the same volume of arrivals to the UK when the people are fleeing persecution or war in other countries compared to 42% who want fewer or no migration for those reasons. People in the 18-24 age group are, as you would anticipate, more open to it.
Back to Lancashire in 2021, and the first refugees began to arrive in the Haslingden area of East Lancashire. Cllr Samara Barnes, county and borough councillor in the area for Labour, said she immediately started to receive messages to see if she was arranging collections for them.
Books, bikes, clothes, shoes, food and toiletries were all arranged by the local community to help those who had arrived.
In 2024, Lancashire County Council itself shared the story of the dozen or so Afghan women who gathered once a week in Weeton to sew incubator covers to help premature babies born at Furness General Hospital in Cumbria.
Fast-forward to 2026 and, ahead of the May local elections, Reform UK county councillor Joshua Roberts made his promise to withdraw Lancashire County Council from facilitating the refugee schemes specifically relating to Afghan and Syrian refugees. Cllr Roberts was not successful in being elected to Fylde Council.
It landed national coverage for Reform UK and was not an inherently unpopular policy announcement. It is a fact that there are people that do not want people to come to the UK at all and believe immigration - even for good reasons - to be the main issue facing the UK.
Cllr Barnes told The Lancashire Lead: “Reform UK think they are speaking for the silent majority. They’re really not, definitely not in my community and not around Lancashire.
“We are better people than this and they have got it wrong on this occasion.”
The detail was called into question. Lancashire County Council withdrawing from its role in managing the schemes was unlikely to mean fewer refugees in Lancashire. It was definitely not going to impact on a matter that people care about on a much broader scale - people seeking asylum and living in communities while waiting for a decision.
Cllr Roberts claimed in one of his Facebook posts that the schemes were costing £7m per year of ‘your money’. That is likely drawing on the £6.4m Lancashire County Council received from the Home Office in the 24/25 financial year, and it has not been that high before or since.
The details became clear ahead of Thursday’s (3 September) cabinet meeting where Lancashire County Council vowed to end its role coordinating some refugee resettlement schemes from March 2027. It is the first council in the UK to make that decision.
But the council’s own report into the decision, along with the debate, made a number of matters clear. The decision will have zero impact on the number of refugees in Lancashire and is not in any way related to asylum seekers.
Lancashire County Council has no legal duty to fulfil a co-ordinating role for the schemes. However, it is expected that it will need to find a further £1m in funding to replace what the Home Office will no longer provide. In short: withdrawing from the schemes will not affect the volume of refugees but will incur a cost.
So what’s the point?