Council Spotlight: Penwortham Town Council

Penwortham Town Council sits within the borough district of South Ribble, with 20,000 residents and a precept of £140,000.

Geographically the town is attached to Preston and on the main route through to Southport and the Mersey coast. The council has five wards and 18 councillors. Currently made up of nine Labour and nine Liberal Democrat councillors. The council employs nine members of staff who look after the community centres, the cemetery and the events managed by the council.

Lancashire County Council is currently restructuring several of their assets and is looking at a few buildings and services that could possibly close or reduce to cut costs. The council have agreed to the asset transfer of two buildings within the town.

The library, which the council will convert into a theatre and arts centre, hosting a range of shows; films, historical, art, information, during the daytime. The other building, a community centre, the council intend to carry on using the site as a community centre with local youth clubs, which the council already funds. But, also within this site, the council intend to provide a library. The library will also be linked to Lancashire County Council’s library service whereby residents can order books and collect them from this site. The library will be sited within a community cafe area, which will not only give local residents, reading groups and storytellers a place to host but will also promote events and groups within the rest of the centre and throughout Penwortham.