Headlines in tonights Telegraph

[Madhatter]

YES, they will be changed, join them and those field will go, you'll become a suburb as blackburn grows with all the necomers comming in to the country. As jambutty says they've already built up to the boundary, and thats why they're eager to their mits on your land.

[g jones]

Critically most of Whitebirk Ind Est is in Hyndburn. This side of the dual carriageway. The proposed (extensive) Knowledge Park is also in Hyndburn and any thoughts of a new Railway Station would include Hyndburn.

Would working with Blackburn (buying in their services) force compromises on this and other issues??

[colinj]

YES, they will be changed, join them and those field will go, you'll become a suberb as blackburn grows with all the necomers comming in to the country. As jambutty says they've already built up to the boundary, and thats why they're eager to their mits on your land.

Presumably you are in the know then or is that just guesswork ?

[Madhatter]

The fact that they have already built on hyndburn land says it all. Why on earth did Hyndburn let that happen?
Before you know it all the green belt will be gone.
Here Tamworth have built up to the green belt and are constantly trying to get permission to build on it right up to the county boundary.
North Warwickshire will not budge and quite rightly so.
Tamworth have for the time being gone of to build on their green meadows in the pretty anker valley. Residents are fighting a losing battle to stop that too.
Build Build Build, when there's plenty of in town land that should be redeveloped first.

[shillelagh]

A point here: If Hyndburn wasn't big enough to be a unitary authority a few years ago when blackburn & darwen & blackpool went solo - how can they do it now?

I live in Rossendale and if hyndburn did go solo as in buying their own services where would that leave us? Does that mean Hyndburn would come after us to join them or Burnley as they are joined onto us further down the valley or Manchester as we join onto them all over the place or Rochdale or even Blackburn seeing as we already have a Rossendale & Darwen constituency mind you part of Rossendale is already in the Hyndburn constituency (Haslingden wards Greenfield & Worsley)

[claytonender]

As Shillelagh said, Hyndurn wasn't big enough to be a unitary authority several years ago when Blackburn and Blackpool went unitary. So how could they be now? Also the implications for Rossendale and the other East Lancashire boroughs are important.
I am sure Hyndburn would become a very small suburb of Blackburn, which I am sure no one wants, it would receive even less funding than now, because Blackburn would make sure its needs were seen to first.
Also would you like Peter Britcliffe to have control of spending on highways, socail services etc (as these would be part of the functions of a unitary authority).
I wonder if Peter Britcliffe would have had the same views on unitary authority staus if he had been elected to LCC last year. Thankfully the people of Oswaldtwistle were sensible enough to elect Dorothy Westall, just a pity St Oswald's ward electorate haven't shown the same sense.

[claytonender]

Originally Posted by g jones

Critically most of Whitebirk Ind Est is in Hyndburn. This side of the dual carriageway. The proposed (extensive) Knowledge Park is also in Hyndburn and any thoughts of a new Railway Station would include Hyndburn.

Would working with Blackburn (buying in their services) force compromises on this and other issues??

This is a very important consideration as well.

[Gayle]

Originally Posted by claytonender

just a pity St Oswald's ward electorate haven't shown the same sense.

St Andrews

[Gayle]

Originally Posted by g jones

Critically most of Whitebirk Ind Est is in Hyndburn. This side of the dual carriageway. The proposed (extensive) Knowledge Park is also in Hyndburn and any thoughts of a new Railway Station would include Hyndburn.

Would working with Blackburn (buying in their services) force compromises on this and other issues??

What sort of compromises? What is the Knowledge Park (have I missed something)?

[g jones]

Originally Posted by Gayle

What sort of compromises? What is the Knowledge Park (have I missed something)?

A field at Whitebirk that will be developed into a HiTec business park. It is suppoed to enable prosperity and bring quality jobs, business and economic growth in prosperous industries. Obviously on Hyndburn land this has implications for other Borough's. Notably Blackburn, Pendle, Burnley.

Questions remain though. High paid jobs simply encourage higher property prices in the Ribble Valley and spending elsewhere other than Accy Town Centre. I am not sure it is a prosperity ticket for the many as it is being sold as. Maybe for the educated mobile few.

[chav1]

i always thought that out of town retail parks killed town centeres ?

asda managed to kill off quite a lot of local buisness and although not out of town exactly it sure keeps customers away from the center

currys , dixon etc moved from broadway to the new arndale center but also set up shop at whitebirk and soon closed their shops in accrington

what else is going to leave accrington to set up on this new estate

pounland and scope ?

[SPUGGIE J]

Originally Posted by chav1

what else is going to leave accrington to set up on this new estate

pounland and scope ?

Crikey they go and there will be nowt. Mind you suprised that the sport shops are still open. I wonder why that is.

[BillGreene]

The CBI has said communities need to be more involved in public service provision if local government reform is to work. The business lobby group said the government's plans to devolve power down to lower levels can only be turned into reality if local authorities take steps to make tax payers' views the foundation of reform.

Instead of having Education, Social Services, etc run from Preston would it not be better to be run from Accrington!

[g jones]

Originally Posted by BillGreene

The CBI has said communities need to be more involved in public service provision if local government reform is to work. The business lobby group said the government's plans to devolve power down to lower levels can only be turned into reality if local authorities take steps to make tax payers' views the foundation of reform.

Instead of having Education, Social Services, etc run from Preston would it not be better to be run from Accrington!

Yes it would in some ways. But what with Bill? The Council can't even keep the streets clean as we speak..

This is as an unworkable as space travel to the sun if you think about it for a while. Its not the high street; if we don't like Blackburn's services we will not be able to go elsewhere such as Burnley.

Think about contracts, employment, continuation of services and staff, monitoring of contracts and monitoring of service level performances, senior recruitment, job transfer, salaries, pensions, departmental structures and emphasis, ethical decisions, poor service level performance decided by who, Blackburn as the employer, Hyndburn as the customer of Blackburn ... its just a botch job. We are talking about thousands of people in Hyndburn currently employed by LCC in education and Social Services looking after the vulnerable and young.

All this will do is multiply the army of bureaucrats, solicitors, accountants and administrators in Hyndburn (checking on Blackburn) and leave a big hole in Council Tax payers pockets in Hyndburn. The only workable cost effective division of County is into 2. West Lancashire and East Lancashire (minus Blackburn who won't join an East Lancs).

What your statement says and what The Tories are proposing locally are two different things entirely.

[SPUGGIE J]

Would consolidation on such a scale work even without Blackburn? Sometimes the bigger it is the more beauracratic and unwielding it becomes. Sometimes something this size just creates desk jobs to try and solve a problem and therefore sets a trend to such a point its top heavy and will topple.