Fylde Council leader welcomes devolution deal

The leader of Fylde Council says Lancashire’s devolution deal will help high-tech manufacturing businesses in the borough find the skilled workers they need from within the local population.

Karen Buckley was responding to the announcement last week that the government had signed off on an agreement that will bring more powers and cash to the county.

Amongst the most significant areas of responsibility to be devolved to Lancashire is control over the adult education budget.  Starting in 2026/27, the new combined county authority (CCA) – shortly being established to implement the deal – will oversee the kind of courses on offer to adults aged 19 and over.

“We have long-established advanced manufacturing industries in Fylde that rely on a highly skilled workforce, so I am particularly interested to have an influence on the plans for adult education and skills to ensure opportunities are maximised for these businesses to thrive,” Cllr Buckley said.

Fylde Council was amongst the three Conservative-run district authorities in Lancashire to have written to the new Labour government over the summer to call for implementation of the ‘level 2’ deal provisionally agreed with the previous Tory administration.

It followed pressure from Labour and coalition-controlled districts for ministers to rethink that plan and pursue “a more ambitious” ‘level 3’ agreement.  That would have meant the creation of an elected mayor for Lancashire – an idea to which Fylde has long been opposed.

Back in 2017, under a former leader, the borough withdrew from a shadow combined authority – which had been established the previous year in an attempt to put the county on the road to a devolution – because it felt there was not enough to be gained from a deal.

However, Cllr Buckley told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that she welcomed the arrival of devolution in Lancashire. She added that the district authorities now had a responsibility to make the current deal work for their residents – even though they were not involved in drawing it up and will not have any voting rights on the CCA.

“Whilst the deal is modest, it is a significant first step to bring decision-making on key areas such as adult education, skills and transport, closer to the communities that are affected by those decisions.

“The deal may have been struck with the three upper tier authorities of Lancashire County Council, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool, but there is a clearly stated willingness to engage with the districts – and it is up to us as district leaders to get the very best out of combined authority working for the betterment of our areas, which is what I intend to do,” said Cllr Buckley, who also acknowledged that Lancashire devolution had been “a long time coming”.

The districts will have two representatives on the CCA, sitting as ‘non-constituent members’, and they will also have places on the committees set up to scrutinise the work of the new body.