Three North West councils to share chief executive and monitoring officer ahead of local government reorganisation

Under the plans the current Chief Executive of Chorley Council and South Ribble Borough Council, Chris Sinnott, will also take on the role of Chief Executive at West Lancashire Borough Council.

This will take place following the appointment of a shared Deputy Chief Executive for Chorley and South Ribble.

West Lancashire Borough Council will meanwhile appoint a separate Deputy Chief Executive, responsible for day‑to‑day operational management and delivery of corporate priorities of West Lancashire.

The current Monitoring Officer at West Lancashire Borough Council, Kay Lovelady, will take on the role of shared Monitoring Officer across the three councils, focusing on statutory governance responsibilities.

The areas of West Lancashire, Chorley and South Ribble Borough will form part of one of thes new authorities post LGR from 1 April 2028.

The new plans follow the recent retirement of West Lancashire’s Chief Executive.

In a report to Chorley’s full council, it was noted that in all of the proposals which have been submitted for LGR in Lancashire, the three boroughs are contained within the same proposed council.

The report also said that Chorley and South Ribble share a Monitoring Officer, which is currently part of the vacant Director of Governance role.

“Chorley and South Ribble have covered the Monitoring Officer post through interim contracts since April 2025. There have been two unsuccessful rounds of recruitment, with potential candidates identifying the uncertainty caused by local government reorganisation as a reason for not applying.”

Only the Monitoring Officer role will be shared, rather than the other elements of the current Director of Governance role already shared between Chorley and South Ribble.

The Director of Governance role will be deleted and the management of the services currently within the governance directorate will move to report to the Director of Finance. A new role of Director of Finance and Governance will be created.

Cllr David Whittington, Leader of West Lancashire Borough Council, said: “This proposal is about taking sensible, proactive steps to ensure West Lancashire is well placed for the future. By working more closely with Chorley and South Ribble, something I have personally been advocating and raised in meetings for many years, we can strengthen leadership capacity, maintain strong local decision‑making and provide stability for our workforce and residents as we move through Local Government Reorganisation.”

Cllr Alistair Bradley, Leader of Chorley Council, said: “The proposals to work more closely with West Lancashire is an obvious and sensible step in preparation for further change as we move into local government reorganisation. We have seen first-hand the benefit of working closely with our neighbouring authority, South Ribble, and so the sharing of these two senior positions will build on this.”

Cllr Matthew Tomlinson, Leader of South Ribble Borough Council, said: “South Ribble has developed a strong and growing partnership with Chorley, delivering clear and tangible benefits for our residents. With local government reorganisation on the horizon, this is the right time to build on that success by strengthening our collaboration with West Lancashire.”