Lancashire County Council

History

Elected county councils were created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over many administrative functions that had previously been performed by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions. Fifteen boroughs were considered large enough for their existing councils to provide county-level services, and so they were made county boroughs, independent from the new county council. They were:

• Barrow-in-Furness
• Blackburn
• Bolton
• Bootle
• Burnley
• Bury
• Liverpool
• Manchester
• Oldham
• Preston
• Rochdale
• St Helens
• Salford
• Stockport (part)
• Wigan

The 1888 Act also placed each urban sanitary district which straddled county boundaries in one county, and so Lancashire gained the parts of Ashton under Lyne, Stalybridge, and Warrington which had been in Cheshire, and the parts of Mossley which had been in Cheshire and Yorkshire. Lancashire ceded its part of Todmorden to the West Riding of Yorkshire. Lancashire County Council was elected by and provided services to the parts of the county (as thus adjusted) outside the county boroughs. The county council's area was termed the administrative county.

Three more boroughs were later elevated to become county boroughs: Warrington in 1900, Blackpool in 1904, and Southport in 1905.

The first elections were held in January 1889 and the county council formally came into being on 1 April 1889. It held its first official meeting on 4 April 1889 at County Hall in Preston, the courthouse (completed 1882) which had served as the meeting place for the quarter sessions which preceded the county council. John Tomlinson Hibbert, a Liberal who had previously been the Member of Parliament for Oldham, was appointed the first chairman of the council.

In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 abolished the administrative county of Lancashire and reconstituted the county as a non-metropolitan county. There were some significant changes to its territory, notably ceding significant areas in the south to Greater Manchester and Merseyside and in the north to Cumbria, whilst gaining more modest areas from Yorkshire to the east. Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley and Preston were also brought into the non-metropolitan county, losing their former independence from the county council. The lower tier of local government was reorganised as part of the same reforms. Previously it had comprised numerous boroughs, urban districts and rural districts; they were reorganised into 14 non-metropolitan districts.

In 1998 two of the districts, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool, were both made unitary authorities, making them independent from the county council, leaving 12 districts within the non-metropolitan county.

In 2025, the council became a member of the new Lancashire Combined County Authority.

Governance

Non-unitary authorities

Lancashire County Council provides county-level services. District-level services are provided by the county's twelve district councils. They are:

• Burnley Borough Council
• Chorley Borough Council (styled as 'Chorley Council')
• Fylde Borough Council (styled as 'Fylde Council')
• Hyndburn Borough Council
• Lancaster City Council
• Pendle Borough Council
• Preston City Council
• Ribble Valley Borough Council
• Rossendale Borough Council
• South Ribble Borough Council
• West Lancashire Borough Council
• Wyre Borough Council (styled as 'Wyre Council')

Unitary authorities

Two unitary authorities, which are functionally independent from Lancashire County Council, provide their own county-level services. They are:

• Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
• Blackpool Council

Civil parishes

Much of the county is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.

Political control

The county council has been under Reform UK majority control since the May 2025 election.

Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:

Leadership

The leaders of the council since 1974 have been:

Composition

Following the 2025 election, and subsequent changes of allegiance up to January 2026, the composition of the council was:

Five independent councillors, three Green councillors and three Your Party councillors sit together as the "Progressive Lancashire" group. The next election is due in 2029.

Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2017 the council has comprised 84 councillors representing 82 electoral divisions. Most divisions elect one councillor, but two divisions elect two councillors each. Elections are held every four years.

There are sixteen parliamentary constituencies in Lancashire. The Labour Party holds 13, the Conservative Party holds one, independent MP Adnan Hussain represents Blackburn, and the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, represents Chorley.

Premises

The council is based at County Hall on Fishergate in Preston. The original part of the building was a courthouse completed in 1882, which also served as the meeting place for the quarter sessions which preceded the county council. The building became the meeting place for the county council on its creation in 1889 and was significantly extended in 1903 and 1934 to provide additional office space.

County Library

Lancashire adopted the Public Libraries Act, 1919, in 1924. Library services were slow to develop as the average ratable value of the area outside the county boroughs and the other local authorities which had already adopted the act was relatively low. In 1938/39 the average expenditure on urban libraries per head was 1s. 9d., but that on county libraries was only 8 1/4d. (about two fifths of the former amount). Another disadvantage was that government of libraries was by a libraries sub-committee of the education committee of the council (the librarian having to report to the education officer who might not have been sympathetic to libraries). The central administration of the county library is at Preston where there are special services, special collections and staff to maintain a union catalogue.

Biological heritage sites

"Biological heritage sites" are, according to Lancashire County Council, "'local wildlife sites' in Lancashire...(that) are identified using a set of published guidelines." The published guidelines dictate the necessary parameters in which a piece of land can be properly considered a "biological heritage site" by the "(Lancashire) County Council, Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside and Natural England."

Coat of arms

Notable members

• Richard Kay-Shuttleworth, 2nd Baron Shuttleworth (1937–1940), a fighter pilot killed in the Battle of Britain

References

References

1. (26 July 2024). "Acting chief taking over as council boss next week". [[BBC News]].
2. (11 February 2025). "New chief executive for Lancashire County Council". Lancashire County Council.
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4. (1889). "A Handbook for County Authorities". W. Clowes and Sons.
5. (1991). "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England: Volume 2". Royal Historical Society.
6. (1889). "A Handbook for County Authorities". W. Clowes and Sons.
7. (6 April 1889). "Lancashire County Council". Burnley Express.
8. {{cite legislation UK. (1972)
9. {{cite legislation UK. (1996)
10. (5 February 2025). "County's combined authority officially launched". BBC News.
11. "Local Authority Profiles". Lancashire County Council.
12. "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey.
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15. (23 May 1973). "The men in County Hall". Liverpool Echo.
16. (10 April 1981). "No extra cash for council members". Manchester Evening News.
17. (14 May 1981). "Leader-elect lists her county priorities". Ormskirk Advertiser.
18. (27 February 1997). "The Red Rose queen gives up her empire". West Lancashire Evening Gazette.
19. (28 February 1997). "Council leader's new challenge". Lancaster Guardian.
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22. (7 June 2009). "New Tory leader at county council". BBC News.
23. (3 May 2013). "Labour fails to reclaim overall control of Lancashire county council". The Guardian.
24. (12 February 2021). "Geoff Driver: Lancashire County Council leader to resign". BBC News.
25. "Council minutes, 23 May 2013".
26. (5 May 2017). "Lancashire County Council election: Tories gain control". BBC News.
27. "Council minutes, 25 May 2017".
28. (8 May 2021). "Election results 2021: Tories hold on to Lancashire County Council". BBC News.
29. "Council minutes, 27 May 2021".
30. (2 May 2025). "Reform UK take control of Lancashire County Council". BBC News.
31. "Council minutes, 22 May 2025".
32. (22 May 2025). "New Lancashire Reform cabinet has three from county's East". Lancashire Telegraph.
33. "Open Council Data UK - compositions councillors parties wards elections emails".
34. "Lancashire". Thorncliffe.
35. {{cite legislation UK. (2016)
36. (1 November 2015). "Fishergate Hill Conservation Area Character Appraisal". Preston City Council.
37. Cotton, G. B. (1971) "Public libraries in the North West"; ''North Western Newsletter''; Manchester: Library Association (North Western Branch), no. 116: Libraries in the North West, pp. 5-24 (p. 8)
38. Council, Lancashire County. "Biological Heritage Sites".
39. "Lancashire County Heritage Sites Scheme - Biological Heritage Sites - Guidelines for Site Selection".
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41. ''[[Burke's Peerage]]'', volume 3 (2003), p. 3616