A special Full Council meeting will take place tonight to discuss Local Government Reorganisation.

We wrote about this in a website piece yesterday – click here to catch up

“The government’s plan would see all 15 councils across Lancashire abolished and replaced with unitary authorities that deliver all services across a larger area from 2028.

Blackpool Council already does all council services here, but in other areas of the county they are delivered by a mixture of Lancashire County Council and a district council like Fylde or Wyre.

We have proposed a model that sees four councils delivering services across Lancashire in the future. In the proposal, the areas of Blackpool, Fylde and Preston councils would combine along with the western half of Wyre borough up to the River Wyre, to reflect how people on the Fylde coast live their lives.”

You can watch the full meeting live from 6.30pm at:

Live Blog

We will be keeping track of the meeting and posting any updates in this post. Check back later for a summary or watch along live from 6:30

Blackpool’s Mayor Kim Critchley holds the meeting to order.

No apologies for absences

Declarations of interest – None declared

2 announcements
Great sadness – passing of former Cllr Val Hargreaves (cllr hawes side)
Former Cllr and former Mayor Sue Wright and her husband were involved in a car accident and stan has sadly passed away.
The chamber stood for a moment of reflection.

Mayor – This is an extraordinary council meeting.

members are asked to agree that following a report – the council leader will present a report – there’s no time limit – all members are to sit through and wait for any questions. Leader will answer or will pass over to others.

All cllrs in agreement.

Cllr Lynn Williams

I’m sure we’d all agree that Blackpool should continue to deliver services but –

No change is not an option
Opening speech to follow

Chief exec invited to go through details

Groups have been briefed – summary of proposals in their paperwork

on monday the detailed business case was published

all the other councils have put their proposals out into the public domain last week.

Other options will be heard.

Scott

(These notes will be tidied up later – this is a live blog)

Scott’s speech will be transcribed and submitted afterwards

Next slide

Next slide 2 area proposal

This would be a very large area and would find 50% of lancashire living on that dividing line

next is the 3 council option

That would require a constitutional change from initial proposal

Next slide – Developed by Blackpool Council

This is the 5 council option

Here’s what the people wanted at consultation

Key stakeholders were engaged

more from consultation

Fiscal position forecast

subject to significant variation and change

Here’s what it means for the area

Transformation –

Opportunity to improve engagement

Proposed representation

Timeline for devolution

Transitional info from Lorraine

potentially no elections in 2027

shadow election

Council will continue to provide services during handover / shadow time

must be leader and cabinet style of governance

Vesting day –

New unitary authority will hand over on that day including all of blackpool council’s companies

Next Steps

closed out by Scott Butterfield

transitional costs could be significant – and a request would be made for transitional funding.

Open for Questions

Update – We’ve saved the content of the rest of the meeting and are working on a transcript of the main points.
Please check back tomorrow on this article for an update.

Thanks for reading along so far.