Lancashire County Council has stated its intention to proceed with local elections next year, despite the government's plan to abolish all two-tier local authorities in the county.
Lancashire County Council has no plans to seek the cancellation of elections to the authority next year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands. The possibility of scrapping next May’s vote was opened up by the government last week when it revealed its intention to abolish all local authorities in ‘two-tier’ areas like Lancashire.
The move will result in the county council – and Lancashire’s 14 district and standalone councils – being wiped from the map in the foreseeable future. They will be replaced with, at most, four new authorities which will be responsible for delivering all council services across vast expanses of the county.In spite of the short shelf of Lancashire County Council in that scenario, the government indicated that their “assumption” was that any local elections due next summer would nevertheless go ahead. However, speaking in the Commons after the launch of the devolution white paper last Monday, local government minister Jim McMahon said local polls could be postponed if an authority set to disappear under the forthcoming revamp “actively approach” the government to say it wanted to discuss proposals for a new council set-up. He has since written to leaders in areas including Lancashire to tell them that he needs to know by 10th January if they want their elections to be cancelle
Local Government Elections Devolution Lancashire County Council Government Plans
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