Towns 'should align with Merseyside, not Lancs'

COUNCILLORS have called for Ormskirk and Skelmersdale to align with Merseyside - rather than Lancashire - as part of a shake-up of local government in the region.

- BY ROBERT MACDONALD

But a debate at West Lancashire Borough Council heard that this was “not really an option” - and that the more likely scenario was that West Lancs would join forces with Chorley and South Ribble.

West Lancashire’s boundaries adjoin areas including Merseyside, Wigan in Greater Manchester, Chorley and South Ribble. Towns such as Ormskirk and Skelmersdale, rural areas, local economies, housing, transport links, education such as Edge Hill University, social and cultural links reflect a range of historic and contemporary factors and identities.

Now, councillors are being asked to think about preferences for a potential future council shake-up. But within limits.

The government wants to reorganise local councils in England over the next few years by 2028. It wants to end the current two-tier county and district council system which has existed in Lancashire and some other counties since 1974. The aim is part of the government's wider English Devolution White Paper, published in the winter.

The government wants to ‘reset the relationship’ between central and local government, create new funding and decision-making arrangements, expand regional devolution and have more elected regional mayors. It says the current council system, created in 1974, is out-dated, inefficient and confusing.