West Lancs seeks consultant for Delf House options appraisal
The future of the 100,000 sq ft Skelmersdale building soon to be vacated by the Co-operative Bank is up in the air after the local authority voted against a plan to use it as offices for council staff.
West Lancashire Council is seeking to appoint a consultancy team to conduct a review into Delf House, located off Southway.
The appointed team should provide a “robust report” into the future usage of the buildings and a final recommendation, according to tender documents.
The building is owned by the council and leased to the Co-op for use as a call centre. Last year, the bank announced it would be closing the site.
Following that announcement, Delf House was at the centre of a row earlier this year when the then-ruling Labour Group approved plans to close the council’s offices on Derby Street in Ormskirk and relocate staff to the Skelmersdale building.
West Lancs’ independents group and Conservative councillors opposed the move, claiming it would be a waste of money, and successfully moved a motion to abandon the plan.
The authority is now run in coalition between the Tories and independents following May’s elections.
A council spokesperson said: “West Lancashire Borough Council is currently exploring all possible options with regards to future occupancy of Delf house given the current tenants have announced their departure from the building in October this year, and all options will be considered at a meeting of full Council in due course. At present the Council has no plans to relocate staff to Delf House.”
WLDC moving to Skem should have happened years ago given the clear regeneration benefits, and should be even more of a no-brainer since the only big non-retail employer said it was pulling out of a town centre that needs all the help it can get.
Given the Ormskirk site is an absolutely prime resi or PBSA redevelopment site and Delf House belongs to the council, there can be no real doubt that any financial justification is just there to give cover to a parochial, political decision which was always on the cards once the Conservatives had to do a deal with the Little Ormskirkers to take control.
By Town Clerk
@ June 23, 2026 at 1:10 pm
By Town Clerk
Parochial? Or as I call them, localists. Besides, West Lancashire will (probably) be dissolved in the next two years and a different set up to this (dreadful) building required. Perhaps new town councils with hubs for the new unitary.
By Rye
It’s already been vacated. The carparks have been blocked off with huge concrete blocks for at least the last 3 weeks..
By Rik
I don’t suppose I’m on my own here, but I’m struggling to understand why WLDC aren’t pushing to be removed from Lancashire, and join Merseyside? From media comments, it appears comments below are correct, local councillors aren’t seeing the big picture here. What benefit to someone living in Skem, is having a new unitary authority governed from Chorley, South Ribble or Preston? I don’t agree with councillors from those areas having any say in what happens in areas in which they don’t share locality. Surely as residents you would want the people making the decisions to understand the area, and for your council tax money to be used where you spend most of your time, which in this case is essentially the rest of Merseyside.
By Geoff
Why can’t they make it into a hospital/medical centre. We are a town of 50,000 plus and have no hospital .
By Anonymous
@June 25, 2026 at 8:17 am
By Geoff
It is a fair point. Many areas in West Lancashire such as Skelmersdale have not of an affinity to Merseyside.
That said, setting up town councils in Skelmersdale and Ormskirk and pulling down assets from the new unitary would be important. Town councils understand their patch and can feed back to the larger authority.
By Rye
What about a hospital skem not got one and ormskirk children’s moving to Southport I went to Southport hospital my self and waited 12hrs to be seen xx
By Paula Turner
Re: Geoff. Complete lack of interest in pushing for this from the previous not very good Labour administration in West Lancs (now being pushed out in Skem by Reform); a focus instead by them and the previous MP on pushing for an eye wateringly expensive rail spur into Skem town centre from the slow Headbolt Lane-Wigan line that would supposedly solve everything and be funded by Westminster; and no interest either from the Liverpool City Region end, I think partly because it isn’t clear extra funding would necessarily follow and also because West Lancs isn’t big enough to be a unitary authority so would probably have to be chopped up between Sefton and Knowsley, upsetting now fairly fragile Labour control of those authorities.
By Town Clerk
@ Geoff totally agree West Lancs already had observer status on the LCRCA. It make a lot of sense to merge N Sefton with West Lancashire. The hospitals straddle the border as do the main transport links. It would be useful if the people involved would make a statement
By Frank
@ Town clerk, the Officer core at LCRCA that I know recognise and encourage the links with West Lancashire. The travel to work area covers the District. Not sure about Steve’s view but it might be the time for the Boundary Commission to undertake a review of the area the last one re Sefton was in the mid 90s
By Frank