News

| Submit CommentSubmit Comments | View CommentsView Comments(4)

advertisement

People power wins day for Harwood

Exclusive by Stuart Pike
13/ 6/2008

A NEW town council for Great Harwood looks set to become reality after council bosses revealed the results of a public consultation to bring power closer to the people.

Great Harwood could get its own "shadow" council as early as next summer, and is being treated as the jewel in the crown for other townships in Hyndburn to follow in a so-called "devolution revolution".

The next ones are likely to be Rishton, Oswaldtwistle and Clayton-le-Moors – calling the borough council’s current constitution into question.

The borough-wide consultation produced 1,571 responses, of which over a third were from Great Harwood, where the overwhelming majority (94.6 per cent) were in favour of the idea.

Council leader Peter Britcliffe, who first proposed a Great Harwood town council last year, insisted the consultation was a worthwhile exercise, even though just 2.7 per cent of the borough’s voters responded, with 2.2 per cent voting "yes".

He said: "It’s confirmed what we thought. As we expected the response was quite small but there was an area where we had a significant number of responses and that was Great Harwood.

"We have been very anxious to devolve power to our townships. It’s a very exciting development and we’re already looking at the possibility of setting up a contact centre – hopefully in the old Town Hall building. From that we’re hoping we will be able to build a town council on it."

The exact remit of the new body – including composition of councillors, electoral boundaries and tax-raising powers – will be established by a council feasibility review, but Councillor Britcliffe insisted it must have decision-making "teeth".

Great Harwood councillor Roy Atkinson said: "A lot of people can relate to the old urban district council and they feel they really want to take more control of the town."

Barbara Sharples, who sits on the town centre regeneration board, supported the decision. She said: "It’s about local people having a say in how the town is being governed. The contact centre and one-stop shop for people to get information and advice is great because people won’t have to trail into Accrington."

Council bosses believe Hyndburn could be among the first authorities in the country to consider devolving powers under new local government legislation which came into force in April.

All eight areas consulted received more "yes" than "no" votes, with support ranging from Great Harwood’s 95 per cent, to 52 per cent in Baxenden. In Rishton 88 per cent of respondents voted in favour of town councils, while support was at 76 per cent in Clayton-le-Moors.


| Submit CommentSubmit Comments | View CommentsView Comments(4)


Most recent 2 of 4 user comments

   I am indignant that Tim O’Kane sees fit to steal my lines. I first used the Zimbawian analogy in my letter to the Managing Director HBC before the (first) closing date for responses to Cllr Britcliffes flawed referendum. Amongst other things I drew attention to the incompetence of the organisation of the consultation and the absence of any information on which one could make a sensible judgement. Other than a council run by anyone other than anyone in Accrington, that is!!
John Duckworth, Pollensa
18/06/2008 at 17:07
   This makes Zimbabwean election returns look democratic. Mugabe Britcliffe would have us believe that 97% of the people not voting gives him a mandate to waste millions on unnecessary bureaucracy. Why not publish all the figures for all eight areas instead of misleading statistics ? Saying 76% of Claytoners were in favour could mean just 5 people voted and four said yes. My guess is that the turnout in some areas was less than 1%. And how much money is being diverted from essential local services to pay for this "council feasibilty study" ?
Tim O'Kane, Clayton Le Moors
17/06/2008 at 12:02
Have your say
 
Have your say Got an opinion you want to share?
Register now and have your comments heard.

Register now

Latest stories
 

 
Exams
 

Have GCSE exams been made too easy?

76%
24%

Personal Finance
 

Customers with a 'good' credit profile
Company Typical APR
Moneyback Bank 8.4%
Alliance & Leicester 8.7%
Halifax (Semi-exclusive) 8.8%
Bank of Scotland (Semi-exclusive) 8.8%
Barclays 8.9%
Fixed Rate Bonds
Provider AER*
ICICI BANK
HiSAVE Fixed Rate Account 		7.20%
ICICI BANK
HiSAVE Fixed Rate Account 		7.00%
ICICI BANK
HiSAVE Fixed Rate Account 		7.00%
ARRAY(0x2b62dc8a98d0)
 6 Month Fixed Rate Savings Account 		6.60%
Fees may apply