THE political map of East Lancashire's councils looks set to be restructured in a survey of the way local boroughs are drawn up.

A wide-ranging review of council wards in the county - the first for more than 20 years - is set to be launched in September by the Local Government Commission for England (LGCE).

The review will affect five of East Lancashire's councils, excluding Blackburn with Darwen, which will be surveyed at a later date, along with the county council and Blackpool, Lancashire's other unitary authority.

Officers from the LGCE met the chief executives of Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Ribble Valley, Rossendale and Blackburn with Darwen to explain the procedure of the review.

The idea is to make individual council wards more democratic by evening up the number of electors in each ward.

Parliamentary, borough and county boundaries will not be affected in the shake-up. The commission's recommendations will be forwarded to Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions John Prescott, in September next year for final consideration.

Chief executive of the LGCE Barbara Stephens, said community and parish leaders would be contacted and given the chance to comment on proposed changes and submit their own ideas.

She added: "At the moment, some wards are undemocratic because some councillors need a larger number of voters to get elected and have a bigger workload.

"The number of wards in each borough could change and the number of councillors could change. Some wards could disappear.

"Before we draw up the changes we will look to local consensus in the communities and local authorities."

Mrs Stephens stressed the process was non-political as the commission was an independent body.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.