The alliance of independent and Green councillors that has come together to form the official opposition at Lancashire County Council is “undemocratic” – and an insult to voters.
That is according to the leader of the authority’s Tory group, which secured the second-largest number of seats at this month’s local elections – but which has been prevented from becoming the main opposition as a result of the creation of ‘Progressive Lancashire’.
As the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) revealed last week, that arrangement will see the seven independents and four Green Party members of the county council combine to sit as the main challengers to the new Reform UK administration, which won a commanding majority at the polls.
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However, Aidy Riggott – who leads the eight remaining Conservatives at County Hall – has blasted the alliance, claiming it has no mandate and is incapable of representing a broad cross-section of public opinion in Lancashire.
“This is clearly undemocratic – and it’s just wrong. Reform won fair and square – they are the administration and we, the Conservatives, came second, and we should be the [official] opposition group.
“This option of a ‘Progressive Lancashire’ just wasn’t on the ballot paper for residents to show their support for it.
“From what I’ve seen, the independents – especially those in Preston and Burnley – seem to be entirely focused on their own specific areas, which, of course, is what they’ve [been] elected to do. But how they’re going to represent the views of all of Lancashire when challenging this new Reform administration, I just don’t know.
“[The Conservatives] have a wide network of councilors at district and parish level for ensuring proper county-wide representation of views. Progressive Lancashire and their smaller sub-groupings do not have any of this.
“They have no way of getting down to the grassroots and understanding what residents are raising across the county,” said County Cllr Riggott, who was a cabinet member in the previous Tory administration.
He said the alliance had taken advantage of legislation designed to be used to form ruling coalitions on councils that are in no overall control.
He also launched a blistering attack on the Progressive Lancashire leadership – the Labour-turned-independent, Azhar Ali, and his deputy and Green Party leader, Gina Dowding.
“I think those involved should be ashamed of their actions,” he said.
“[The Tories] got the second-highest number of votes, way more than this group – even when you combine [their constituent parts].
“The Green Party also secured [fewer] seats and votes than both Labour and the Liberal Democrats did in the local elections.
“I thought County Cllr Dowding’s political career was supposedly built upon ideals around fairness…but they suddenly seemed to have deserted her when CC Ali has come whistling.
“It’s mind boggling…[that County Cllr Ali believes] standing as a solitary, individual representative in Nelson gives him a mandate to form this new grouping and be the leader of the opposition. It is just absolutely outrageous to think that is an appropriate position for him to occupy.
“We haven’t, nor would we, approach any other party about forming a bigger, new grouping. The results should be respected.”
In response, Progressive Lancashire’s leaders defended the formation of their new opposition grouping.
County Cllr Dowding said: “How can we possibly trust the Conservatives in Lancashire to hold Reform to account when, at a national level, the Conservative Party seems to want to be more like Reform as every day passes.
“Plus, the [election] statistics County Cllr Riggott is quoting all point to the fact that he thinks there should be a fairer voting system. But he’s never argued for that in the past, because it’s always suited him.”
Meanwhile, County Cllr Ali said it was “tragic that the Conservatives haven’t woken up to the fact that they were were kicked out of office only a few weeks ago and lost [heavily] – they went from 48 seats to eight”.
He added: “It is absolutely democratic for groups to come together to hold the new Reform administration to account – and the last thing people would want is, after eight years of Conservative rule of Lancashire County Council, for them to be marking their own homework.
“County Cllr Riggott was [involved in] making those decisions – and now wants to scrutinise his own decisions, which is farcical.”
While Progressive Lancashire has made overtures about their desire to work closely with other opposition groups, it seems unlikely that any of them will officially be signing up to the new alliance.
Although County Cllr Dowding said last week that the group was “open to other people joining us, if they have our values”, Michael Lavalette – one of the three county independents representing Preston – previously said he had his city colleagues would never sit in a formal block with Labour, the Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives, because of past policies they have implemented at a national level.
Asked for his thoughts on the new progressive alliance, Labour group leader Mark Clifford – who now heads five county councillors – would not be drawn on any discussions that may have taken place with the Greens and independents, but said: “It would have been good if the majority of opposition groups could have joined together.”
However, John Potter, leader of Liberal Democrat group – which also now holds five seats at County Hall – said he believed an opposition coalition was “a bit weird and plays into the Reform ‘them vs us’ mindset”.
“I do wonder how much of this argument is actually about the extra money that comes with being the leader of the largest opposition group.
“Yes, extra money would be nice, but what is more important is changing the structure of scrutiny within Lancashire County Council.
“The system under the previous Tory administration was very undemocratic – and that was when we had two large groups occupying the vast number of seats. After 1st May, it makes no sense at all.
“What everyone should want is for LCC to function better for the people of Lancashire,” County Cllr Potter added.
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