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| A screenshot of Lancashire County Council’s interactive map identifying planned cuts to local services – as well as those that are continuing |
There are just days left to have your say on Lancashire County Council’s property review.
Their consultation is seeking people’s views on plans to change the way frontline services are delivered and save millions of pounds by reducing the number of buildings the council owns and rents as a result of funding cuts imposed by central government.
Locally, buildings under threat It include the Balmoral Children’s Centre in Morecambe, Ryelands Young People’s Centre, and Bolton-le-Sands, Carnforth and Silverdale libraries.
Other library services may also be affected with reduced or changed services.
The consultation runs until Sunday 14th August 2016 and over 5,000 responses have been received since the launch of the public consultation on 18th May.
“The aim of the review is to make sure that we have the buildings we need to provide good access to good services, with a significantly reduced budget,” insists County Councillor David Borrow, deputy leader of Lancashire County Council with responsibility for finance.
“In forming the proposals, we’ve considered a wide range of issues to assess where services should be located, including how easily people can get to them, and the needs of different communities.
“We would very much like people to take this opportunity to look at what is being proposed, and how they might be affected – and to help us shape the final proposals by responding to the consultation.”
Under the plans, services would be brought together to form a network of multi-functional buildings known as Neighbourhood Centres, which would provide a base for a range of different services in one place.
Meanwhile many buildings would no longer be used to deliver Lancashire County Council services and the number of places at which some services are available would reduce.
Most responses so far have been received via the county council website www.lancashire.gov.uk, which also features an interactive map highlighting the proposed changes.
Hard copies of the full consultation document, along with shorter versions which detail the proposed changes for each local district, have also been made available to pick up in children’s centres and libraries.
Lancashire County Council needs to save £200m by 2020/21 as a result of ongoing government cuts to its budget and rising demand for services. The proposals for buildings respond to savings agreed by Full Council in February 2016, with fewer buildings being needed to deliver reduced services.
Proposed Local Closures
Lancaster and Morecambe
- Lancaster Balmoral Children’s Centre (Morecambe) (designated)
- Lancaster Barton Road Young People’s Centre
- Lancaster Bolton-le-Sands Library
- Lancaster Carnforth Library
- Lancaster Firbank Children’s Centre (designated)
- Lancaster Galgate Children’s Centre (Ellel)
- Lancaster Heysham Children’s Centre and Young People’s Centre (designated)
- Lancaster Lancaster Registration Office
- Lancaster Morecambe Registration Office
- Lancaster Poulton Children’s Centre (Morecambe) (designated)
- Lancaster Ryelands Young People’s Centre
- Lancaster Silverdale Library
Wyre
- Wyre Cleveleys Library and Children’s Centre
- Wyre Fleetwood Children’s Centre (designated)
- Wyre Garstang Young People’s Centre
- Wyre Northfleet Library
- Wyre Over Wyre Children’s Centre (Hambleton satellite)
- Wyre Over Wyre Children’s Centre (Preesall satellite)
- Wyre Poulton-le-Fylde Children’s Centre
- Wyre Preesall Young People’s Centre
- Wyre Rural Wyre Children’s Centre (Garstang) (designated)
- Wyre Thornton Library
- Wyre Thornton Young People’s Centre
- Wyre Thornton Youth Offending Team (Marsh Mill)
• There’s a full list for all of Lancashire here via the Clitheroe Advertiser (heaven forfend the County Council would actually post it in an obvious position on their own web site)