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Council proposes radical change to local government structures

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Chorley Council is leading the calls for radical changes to the structures of local government in Lancashire as the county council runs out of money.

The borough council, which first made calls for a district unitary model two years ago, says councils must act now otherwise residents across the borough will be receiving sub-standard services.
It comes as the county council has openly admitted that it can no longer afford to run its services and will run out of money by 2019.

Councillor Alistair Bradley, Leader of Chorley Council, said: “As a council we’ve been very proactive in making ourselves sustainable to the point where we have a fairly unique story in the county in that we have been able to maintain services despite the huge reductions in government grant.

“We first floated the idea of local government reorganisation a couple of years ago and at the time there was an acceptance among all public sector partners that we all needed to work better to achieve sustainable public services.

“We were happy to see what change could be managed within the current structures of local government but with the county council facing huge financial challenges and local services being affected we need to act now.”

Since last November, when the issue was last discussed, there have been a number of further developments and challenges facing public services.

The council feels local government reorganisation is likely to provide the best catalyst for change and is proposing a new model:

* New single tier local authorities (based on borough footprints)

* Networked boroughs based on the local health economy – for example Chorley, South Ribble and Preston sharing back office functions customer services and the commission and provision of health and social care services

* The Combined Authority responsible for economic growth, skills, education, transport and waste disposal across the Lancashire footprint

“We are reaching a tipping point where we have to act now otherwise public services will not be able to deliver what residents want,” said Councillor Bradley.

“This would represent a radical change to public services. It is, however, important that these options are considered as there is otherwise a risk that the collective decline of public services is managed by individual organisations making decisions that help them balance their budgets over the short term but damage services in the long term.

“While there is uncertainty following the recent changes to national government, the best route to reorganisation is still likely to be through a devolution deal.

“This means that the majority (if not all) of the Lancashire district councils need to agree to a single proposal for change. The reason for this is that it is likely that the government would want to contain reorganisation within the existing county boundaries.

“We’ve stated our position and now we need to seek to build support and engagement from other Lancashire local authorities but I believe we’re better off sorting this out ourselves rather than having something imposed on us from central government.”

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