Lancs councils look to pool senior officer resources

Proposals for the further sharing of roles including chief executive between Chorley, South Ribble and West Lancashire’s local authorities will go before full council meetings this month.

Starting with Chorley next week, the meetings will be asked to sign off an outline plan on how the three councils sharing a chief executive and monitoring officer would save money, and act effectively as a bridge to the impending reorganisation of Lancashire councils.

The report to be considered at the meeting comes from Hollie Walmsley, Chorley’s head of people, policy and partnerships.

Although there are still five options under consideration for how Lancashire’s councils will be combined into unitary authorities, each of those on the table features these three councils together in the same proposed body.

A further factor is that two roles are currently vacant – West Lancashire has been without a chief executive since October 2025, and Chorley and South Ribble without a monitoring officer/director of governance

West Lancs’ top officer position has been empty since October 2025, when Jacqui Sinnott-Lacey retired. Deputy Christopher Twomey has been filling the role, but is leaving to join Warrington Housing Association in June, meaning Alan Leicester is now serving as acting deputy chief executive.

If the plan is signed off, the chief executive’s salary, along with an honorarium of £10,000 per year, would be met equally by the three councils.

Chorley and South Ribble already share some functions. One of those, serving since 2023, is chief executive Chris Sinnott.

However, the two councils have been without a monitoring officer since April 2025, going through two unsuccessful rounds of recruitment – potential candidates have cited the uncertain future of the councils as a reason for not applying, the report said.

The upshot is that Kay Lovelady, chief legal and democratic services and monitoring officer at West Lancs, is proposed to fulfil monitoring officer duties for all three councils, with West Lancs paying 50% of her salary and the others 25% each.

On top of Lovelady’s £89,000 salary, a £10,000 honorarium will be added per year., for a fixed term up until 31 March 2028.

As only the monitoring officer part of the role will be shared, the currently uncovered remainder of Chorley and South Ribble’s director of governance duties will pass to the director of finance, who will become director of finance & governance. This role will also receive a £10,000 annual top-up.

According to Chorley’s officer report, the saving to the council by sharing the chief executive role will be £37,000. The overall impact on Chorley’s budget of the changes suggested would represent an underspend of £67,000, the report said.

Chorley’s council meeting is on Tuesday 19 May, with both South Ribble and West Lancs due to hold their sessions the following day.