THE profligate Lancashire County Council (threatened with abolition) has thrown away its creditability by its alternative plan to abolish the twelve remaining district councils in Lancashire, including Preston City Council, in favour of its own survival.

Preston City Council appears happy to merge with South Ribble and even Chorley, because the Government has said unitary authorities should serve populations of around 300,000 to be viable.

But bigger does not necessarily mean better. What is perhaps more important is the level of income a local council can enjoy, the prosperity of an area is related to its total rateable value because its income from non-domestic rates and council tax is based on that.

Since 1974 the larger towns and cities in Lancashire have been subsidising their less well-off neighbours.

Lancashire's 14 council areas have a combined total rateable value of £795million but almost half of that is concentrated in just four areas: Preston, Lancaster, Blackpool and Blackburn.

In 1998 both Blackburn and Blackpool opted out of the two-tier local government partnership with Lancashire County Council and became unitary authorities, keeping all of the income from their areas to spend there.

Since 1998 Lancashire County Council's council tax has increased by 40 per cent because it lost two of its largest revenue raising areas and its central establishment costs have been spread across the remaining 12 authorities. Blackburn and Blackpool with populations of 138,000 and 142,000 have been successful unitary authorities, despite only being placed fourth and third in the Total Rateable Value League behind Preston and Lancaster. On the basis of this evidence there is no case for Preston needing to merge with and subsidise any of its neighbours.

If the Government forces its proposals through, then it is clear that some of what are now considered to be Lancashire's most prosperous and sought after places to live, will be revealed as 'dirt poor', with little or no industry and commerce to pay for the level of modern local government services they now enjoy. Council Tax payable in the small towns and villages of Ribble Valley, Wyre, Fylde and South Ribble may have to be doubled just to maintain existing service levels.

Preston City Council must oppose regional government. It must say 'no' to any plans to retain Lancashire County Council, and go it alone as a unitary authority, that is the key to the regeneration of Preston and its continued prosperity.

Ray Johnson, Ribbleton, Preston.