Lancashire given three months to sort devolution deal - and the new powers we could get if successful
Lancashire has been challenged to meet a turbocharged timetable for devolution which could see the government strike a long-awaited deal with the county before the next general election.
The LDRS understands that a testy meeting of all 15 Lancashire leaders, just 24 hours after the civil servant gathering, even saw an attempt to pass a motion of no confidence in County Cllr Williamson as chair of the group as a result of her pursuit of the CCA option – but the vote was not permitted.
“Time is ticking on – and the more we prevaricate, the more we are disadvantaging the county as a whole, “ County Cllr Williamson said. “As leaders, it’s incumbent on us to actually do the best for the county – and sometimes you have to be slightly pragmatic about how you go about these things. We need to do something very quickly to make up that gap [with areas that already have devolved powers] and get us to the place… that we want to be.
“We simply have to get on with this, because that’s in the best interests of the people of Lancashire. In Blackpool, [it’s important that] we don’t continue to miss opportunities and we start this journey to make progress [on]…all the really positive stuff that we want to do,” said Cllr Williams, who – along with her county and Blackburn counterparts – welcomed the government mandarins on their visit to Preston before leaving them to their discussions with council officers.
The joint committee structure would entitle an area only to the most basic “level 1” deal, while the creation of a combined county authority would elevate it to “level 2” and allow – amongst other things – for the control of some local transport functions and the acquisition of compulsory purchase powers currently held by government agency Homes England.
In spite of his ire at the idea of a CCA, Cllr Foster is not advocating dropping down a level in devolution ambition, but rather reaching for the kind of top-grade “level 3” deal seen in Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region – and for which the government would demand an Andy Burnham-style mayor. Crucially, though, such an arrangement would also lead to the creation of a more traditional combined authority which would permit districts as full members.
“Regrettably, a dozen councils like ours are now frozen out of the decision making and can’t join negotiations with the government on behalf of our residents. I will continue to meet with my counterparts from across Lancashire and hope that our collective voice is loud enough to sway the county council into returning to a more co-operative and inclusive approach.
District councils can be made non-constituent or associate members of a CCA, but they would not have a vote unless handed one by the constituent members from the top-tier authorities. It is also unclear whether the government would tolerate that status being conferred on all of a county’s districts.
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