Pennine Lancashire or East Lancashire is expected to be a unitary authority area in south-east Lancashire, England. It was intended to be established on 1 April 2028. The area will cover the current districts of Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Rossendale and the unitary authority area of Blackburn with Darwen, The area's unitary council will provide all of the local government services currently provided by Lancashire County Council, the four district councils, and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. Elections to the new council were planned to take place in May 2027.
The new area will border two of the other three new Lancashire unitary authority areas: North Lancashire to the east and South Lancashire to the west; the third new unitary authority area is Fylde Coast.
Pennine Lancashire will also border the counties of North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east and Greater Manchester to the south. The settlements in Pennine Lancashire will include Blackburn (the most populated), Burnley, Accrington, Nelson, and Rawtenstall. The area's population is estimated to be 520,653.
Plans to create it were halted in September 2026 and the 2027 election was cancelled.
Background
Pennine Lancashire is being created as part of a wider reorganisation of local government in England that is intended to introduce single-tier local government in fourteen areas.
For local government purposes, Lancashire before this reorganisation comprises a non-metropolitan county, itself divided into twelve non-metropolitan districts, and the two unitary authority areas of Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen. In Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen all local government services are provided by their respective councils, whereas in the rest of the county the provision of services is divided between Lancashire County Council and the twelve district councils.
Local government in Lancashire will be reorganised by abolishing all of the areas and councils mentioned above and replacing them with four new unitary authority areas, the councils of which will provide all local government services.
In September 2026, the Lancashire proposals were halted by the government and placed under review.
Governance It will be run by Pennine Lancashire Council, which will comprise 95 councillors.
Parishes Accrington, Bacup, Blackburn, Burnley, Church, Clayton-le-Moors, Great Harwood, Haslingden, Oswaldtwistle, Rawtenstall, Rishton and the Edenfield and Hoddlesden areas are currently unparished. These towns will likely become parishes or establish equivalent town councils providing lower tier community services such as allotments, parks, cleansing, managing community venues and becoming statutory consultees on planning applications or will become Charter Trustees if they hold a mayoralty such as Blackburn and Burnley. The rest of the area is parished.
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