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Plans to expand Preston’s borders have been abandoned.
The idea of creating a ‘Greater Preston’ council area – by drawing in parts of neighbouring South Ribble, Wyre and Ribble Valley – was first floated in December.
As revealed at the time, Preston City Council approached the government with the suggestion, which would have seen 89,000 residents added to the city’s population, taking the total to around 250,000.
Read more: Sessions to get thoughts on new Preston and Lancaster hospitals cancelled
The blueprint proposed that Penwortham, Longton, Bamber Bridge and Samlesbury move into Preston from South Ribble, along with Garstang from Wyre, and Longridge, Mellor and Balderstone from Ribble Valley.
However, city councillors will be told this evening (6 March) that the plan is no longer being pursued, because it would be unlikely to secure government support under the terms of its plans to restructure councils across large parts of the country.
The proposal was initially drawn up in response to a call from the vast majority of Labour’s Lancashire MPs – including Preston’s Sir Mark Hendrick and South Ribble’s Paul Foster – for a radical redrawing of the local authority map in the county as part of a push for Lancashire to get an elected mayor.
Just weeks later, the government’s devolution white paper revealed places like Lancashire – which boasts 15 councils – would be required to slash their total number to just a handful, covering much larger areas.
The Greater Preston proposal also followed a suggestion from the leaders of Chorley and South Ribble councils, Alistair Bradley and Jacky Alty, that their authorities should merge with West Lancashire – thereby ruling out the possibility of a four-way tie-up with Preston.
However, the white paper stipulated that the replacement councils to be born out of the reorganisation process should have a population size of at least 500,000 residents.
Although the document stated that “exceptions” could be made, the LDRS understands Lancashire has received strong indications that the government is not prepared to dip below a 300,000-350,000 population size for the new authorities, all of which would be standalone councils responsible for delivering all services in their area – ending the current split between the county council and district authorities that exists across most of Lancashire.
Preston leader Matthew Brown said the Greater Preston concept was still his ruling Labour group’s “favoured” idea – and one which he would want to revisit if the opportunity arose.
However, he added: “We obviously need to work with what we have and look positively [towards the new arrangements].”
A paper to be presented to a Preston City Council meeting on Thursday posits the possibility of a merger between Preston, Lancaster and Ribble Valley councils – although that is not a formal proposal at this stage. Such a move would create an area with a population of 366,000 residents and so potentially be more palatable to the government.
Local government minister Jim McMahon has given council leaders in all affected parts of the country until 21st March to come up with initial proposals for a streamlined council set-up in their areas, ahead of final suggestions being submitted for consideration by 28th November. He has implored local areas to work together to submit a joint plan for their patch, but conceded that such consensus might not be possible.
It is understood that the Lancashire Leaders’ Group – made up of all 15 council leaders – has significantly increased its usual schedule of meetings in attempts to reach a common position before the deadline for preliminary submissions.
Although the county’s 1.5m population would suggest a three-way split would be the ideal maximum number of councils from the government’s perspective, it is believed configurations with as many as five and as few as one are all currently being considered by local leaders.
Jim McMahon said in an interview that he was prepared to be flexible in order to strike “a balance” over the new-look local authorities in Lancashire.
“Efficiencies have got to be met with a council that has a clear enough anchor that people can recognise – and there are tensions in that,” he said.
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