Cabinet agrees to consult on plans to reshape services with fewer buildings

Lancashire County Council's Cabinet has agreed to seek 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.

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.

As part of implementing savings agreed by Full Council in February 2016, the council is proposing to bring services 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 and the number of places at which some services are available would reduce.

The Cabinet today (Thursday 12 May) gave the go-ahead to a 12-week consultation period, beginning on Wednesday 18 May, to invite comments and suggestions about the proposals, before taking a final decision later this year.

County Councillor Jenny Mein, leader of Lancashire County Council, said: "The severity of the county council's financial position cannot be overstated, and the ongoing cuts in central government funding combined with rising demand for our services mean the only way we can maintain the services that people rely on is to deliver them in a different way.

"Whilst people can have a strong connection to individual buildings, our focus has to be on how we deliver our services effectively. Although these proposals are very difficult ones for councillors to have to consider, our aim is to come up with a solution that still gives everyone in Lancashire good access to good services, even though some will have to be further away than they are now.

"These proposals are the result a lot of hard work to assess where services should be located, taking account of things such as geographic spread, the needs of different communities, and access issues such as how easily they can be reached using public transport.

"We're very keen for people to express their views and help shape the final proposals. We'll be holding a comprehensive 12-week consultation to make sure everyone has the chance to tell us what they think, and will have the information people need available at libraries and children's centres throughout Lancashire and online."

The plans which form part of the council's property strategy propose changes to where some services including libraries, children's services, children's centres, young people's centres, youth offending teams, older people's daytime support services, adult disability day services and registrars are delivered in the future.