Lancaster City Council has become the latest authority in the county to look at breaking away from the two-tier system. The council’s local governance committee agreed last week to look at ways of becoming a unitary. Both Preston City Council and South Ribble BC are holding meetings later this month to discuss cutting free of Lancashire CC. ‘Two-tier local government means divided responsibilities and lack of accountability,’ said Lancaster City Council leader, Ian Barker. ‘It means money spent on bureaucracy rather than services. It means “one-size-fits-all” policies instead of responsiveness to local needs. ‘It’s time we modernised and had a unitary council for the Lancaster district.’ Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen councils both became unitaries during the last round of local government reorganisation in 1998. The deputy leader of Lancashire CC, Doreen Pollitt, said local government secretary Ruth Kelly had already warned that no extra funding would be made available for councils wanting to become unitary. ‘When Blackpool became a unitary authority it put an extra 14% on the council tax bill, a cost that residents are still paying today,’ she said.
