Preston City is facing unprecedented cuts to its budget and we could run out of money with two years. The problem isn’t going to go away, and needs to be tackled it now. £3.6m of savings a year, are needed from now, but even if they close the Bus Station and the Guild Hall tomorrow (and they can’t move that quickly), that would only save £1.6m a year – not enough to solve the problem. “No-one wants even to think about closing the Leisure Centres, or the Harris, or stopping maintaining the parks, or stopping planning for the development of the markets and the rest of the city centre – but that’s what is facing us if we don’t act now to reduce our overheads. Quite simply, once you’ve paid for the councillors, the head office and all the unavoidable overheads, there soon won’t be enough money left to pay for the statutory services, let alone the other things we want to do for the city. “The answer is simple –we must start sharing services with neighbouring councils—and we must reduce the number of councillors”, says Cllr Bill Shannon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Preston City Council

Did you know that in Lancashire there are 668 county or district councillors? That compares with only 650 MPs down in Westminster. It’s crazy, and it’s got to stop—before we run out of money for what matters.