Ministers flexible over proposals

Ministers have indicated that they would like newly-formed councils to cover populations of at least 500,000, but have said they would be flexible over proposals which came in below that level, and have also set no upper limit.

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Lib Dem County Coun David Whipp - who also leads Pendle Council, which is backing a five-authority option - said he was “appalled” at the suggestion the county council would ideally like to see a single Lancashire-wide body for almost 1.6m people.

He said that recent experience of reorganisations elsewhere in the country showed that “smaller unitaries are able to make savings [and]... change the way that they do things - and [it is] the larger councils...that [are] struggling”.

The Liberal Democrat group leader at County Hall, John Potter, said the two proposed new councils would face a “democratic deficit” - because of how many residents each councillor would have in their patch, with the number of elected members set to be capped at 100 for each new authority.