Your Council, Your Choice: Why 2027 Matters for Lytham
19th of August, 2026
In July, we reassured residents that Local Government Reorganisation will not touch Lytham Town Council. While boundaries and responsibilities are being redrawn elsewhere in Lancashire, your Town Council stays exactly as it is — the level of local democracy closest to you.
That stability raises a fair question: if nothing's changing, why does it matter who sits on the Council?
What does the Town Council do?
Currently, Lytham sits within three tiers of local government.
Lancashire County Council handles roads, education and social care.
Fylde Council manages council tax, bins, planning and allotments.
Your Town Council is the tier closest to home — supporting local events, managing community assets, reporting issues like potholes and litter, and speaking up for Lytham to the authorities above.
That's meant real, visible work since May 2025 by our volunteer Councillors, which includes:
- Establishing a Community Grants Scheme,
- Demonstrating a proper guardianship of the tax payers' money entrusted to it, including setting the local precept for Council Tax and showing a sound Quarter 1 financial position for this year (2026/27),
- Undertaking this year's Christmas lights tender process for new illuminations which might be used for a number of years, and
- Progression on transferring the Mythop Road allotments from Fylde Council so they're managed closer to the people who use them.
Working within the law
Everything the Town Council does is grounded in legislation, not just tradition, local interests or good intentions.
Councils can't simply decide to act — every power and duty comes from an Act of Parliament, and part of the Clerk's role is making sure the Council stays within those bounds.
This does not mean that local interests are not a key component in decision making; but rather that this interests are delivered through the correct legal channels.
Some of that legislation sets out what the Council must do.
For example the Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 12, Part III, Section 14(a) states that an Annual Town (or Parish) Meeting has to be held each year, giving every elector the right to attend and have their say — which is exactly what happened on 27 May 2026, when residents raised concerns about pavements and pedestrian access.
Other examples include:
- That meetings themselves have to be open to the public and properly recorded[1],
- As a public authority the Council has a duty[2] to have due regard to the needs of different groups in the community and,
- Perhaps reassuringly, how the Council is able to spend public money[3].
None of this is red tape for its own sake. It's what keeps the Council accountable, transparent, and spending residents' money properly — and it is part of why the role of a Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer exists for the council in the first place.
What is actually changing above us?
The reorganisation itself is a merger of the other two tiers, not ours.
Fylde Council and Lancashire County Council are both being abolished, along with the rest of Lancashire's 15 councils, and replaced by a single new unitary authority covering Fylde, Blackpool and Wyre. That authority — likely to go live on 1 April 2028, with shadow elections in May 2027 — will take on everything currently split between the County and the Borough: roads and social care alongside bins, planning and allotments, all delivered by one body instead of two.
It is the biggest shake-up of local government in this area for decades, but it happens at a level above your Town Council, which continues on exactly as it does now.
None of that happens without residents willing to stand, turn up, and decide.
Your Council is up for election in May 2027
Every seat is up for grabs next year:
Who can stand?
Any registered elector can nominate someone — including themselves. You need to be 18 or over, a British, Commonwealth or EU citizen, and meet a local connection test under s.79 Local Government Act 1972: living, working, or being on the electoral roll here for the past twelve months.
Nominate someone you trust — a neighbour, a local business owner, whoever is always first to raise an issue at the school gate, for example.
Vote. However the seats are filled, the Council only represents Lytham properly if residents use it.
No experience? That's not a barrier.
You don't need a background in local government to stand. Every new councillor, whatever their experience, is supported through induction and ongoing training under the Council's Training and Development Policy — covering everything from council procedure and finance to the day-to-day realities of the role. Nobody is expected to know it all from day one.
As a newly established (May 2025) Council, we have all had to learn (including our Clerk) 'on the job', so to speak.
Key dates:
- 30 March 2027 — Nominations open
- 8 April 2027, 4pm — Nominations close
- 6 May 2027 — Election Day
- 12 May 2027 — Annual Council Meeting, start of the new Council year
Before then, come along to a Council meeting and see how we work.
Dates for future meetings are shown on our website here
You are also welcome at the Festive Celebration at Lytham Institute on 16 December, or the next Annual Town Meeting on 17 March 2027 — good chances to meet your current councillors and see the Council in action.
If you have questions about the role, please speak with one of your Councillors in person.
Alternatively, so seek more information about the process, or the Council as a whole, please contact our Clerk via their email address clerk@lythamtowncouncil.gov.uk and please look at some of our published material on this website.
[1] Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014
[2] Equality Act 2010, s.149
[3] Local Government Act 1972, s.137