A Lancashire MP has suggested ways in which the county’s council areas could be merged – with one option involving Preston and Fylde ending up in the same local authority as Pendle. Burnley MP Oliver Ryan released a document last week containing a raft of ideas about how to slash the overall number of councils from the current 15 to just three or four.
In the document setting out his vision for the “rationalisation” of Lancashire’s councils, Mr. Ryan acknowledges that the geography of some of the alternative options is “interesting”, but stresses the financial stability of all the suggestions as a result of separating out the larger population centres of Preston, Blackburn and Preston into different council areas.
“There’s a big going on about the regions and nations of the UK having a council under this government – and Lancashire is nowhere near it, we’re not even in the room.”