Blackpool ratifies proposed local government merger with Preston

Blackpool Council has formally confirmed its proposals to merge with Preston to form a new council.

The Labour-led authority has opted for the creation of a new local authority which would also include Fylde and western parts of Wyre – and serve 475,000 people.

A meeting of Blackpool’s Executive committee last night ratified the proposals and now local authorities across the country must wait for the process to enfold.

it is all part of the Local Government Reorganisation proposals, the biggest shake-up of local governments since the dramatic upheaval of 1974.

The proposal has been put forward by Blackpool Council in response to a government call for suggestions about how to streamline the local authority system right across Lancashire.

Ministers have resolved to abolish all 15 of the county’s existing councils in 2028 – including the standalone authority for Blackpool, Lancashire County Council and the districts of Fylde and Wyre.

Although Fylde and Wyre councils have made it clear they would rather keep the status quo, both have reluctantly made their choices too – they have put forward plans to join up in a combined authority of Wyre, Fylde, Blackpool -and Lancaster. Presto is not part of their favoured scenario.

Blackpool Council’s Labour leader Lynn Williams said it made sense on many levels.

She said: “Blackpool and Preston are areas that are really pushing the issue of regeneration and [we both have] that urbanness – so there is far more in common [between us than not].

“I think [the proposed area] also reflects how people live and how they travel to work – a lot of people who live in Blackpool work in Preston and vice versa. You’ve got the connectivity of the M55, so there’s [west-east travel] as much as there is up to Cleveleys, Poulton and Fleetwood [which we have] a lot in common with.

“So there’s a real feeling of connectivity, work and community,” Cllr Williams said.

The bid document trumpets the ”large-scale regeneration programmes and ambitions” found in Blackpool and Preston – with a coming together of the two areas being promoted as an opportunity to bring “a clarity of purpose” on projects that could be developed between them, “together with consideration of the complementary roles of west Wyre and Fylde”.

However, the proposal also acknowledges the challenges posed by deprivation across the suggested new council area – pointing to the particularly concentrated pockets of poverty found in parts of Blackpool, Fleetwood and Preston.

But it posits that the footprint of the new council would promote “innovation” in what would be better co-ordinated and “scaled-up” efforts to help those areas facing “systemic inequalities and interlocking disadvantages across health, education, employment, housing and access to services”.

Timeline for proposed changes

26 November – Executive Council approval

28 November – Submission to Government

Spring 2026 – Statutory consultation

Summer 2026 – Government decision

May 2027 – Shadow elections

1 April 2028 – New councils go live