The ruling Conservative group hailed a “historic” moment for the county
Lancashire’s long-awaited devolution deal has inched closer to becoming a reality after county councillors backed the final draft of an agreement with the government.
, but the Labour opposition decried what their leader dismissed as an “absolutely pathetic” arrangement, which her party tried – but failed – to amend further.County council leader Phillippa Williamson stressed that the recent consultation – which saw a majority of its nearly 1,900 respondents approve each of the deal’s eight key themes – was “not a referendum”, but had been a “comprehensive and exhaustive” engagement exercise.
“Rather than diminishing the role of the districts, the opposite is true. The formation of the CCA actually enhances the districts’ involvement in strategic work right across Lancashire,” the Tory leader added. County Cllr Tomlinson said the suggested changes would at least “allay some of the fears” amongst district councils, but insisted the deal was still a “poor” one.
While Labour also received criticism from the Tory side of the chamber for failing to support a deal which Labour-run Blackpool and Blackburn councils had helped develop, County Cllr Vincent did acknowledge that the party’s amendment would not need to be inserted at the stage of drawing up the regulations for the new CCA – and so could conceivably be added to the CCA’s constitution at a later date, if it was agreed in future.
While Liberal Democrat John Potter agreed with Labour that it was a “small” deal compared to what the county could have secured, he told the meeting that the two-strong Lib Dem group would nevertheless support it. However, he also highlighted the broader, related issue of parlous local council finances.
She said that there was a lack of “trust” amongst the districts about the intentions of the three so-called upper-tier authorities when it came to the deal – and also questioned its cash value. However, cabinet members queued up to extol the claimed virtues of the deal. Education and skills portfolio holder Jayne Rear said the highest level of public backing had come for the element of the agreement relating to those issues – showing that people and businesses understood that “a skilled workforce” was crucial to the county’s success.
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