Bolton “will resist” any move to transfer power away from the borough and towards Greater Manchester, the town hall has heard.

This comes with the new government planning an “English Devolution Bill” which will give bodies like the Andy Burnham lead Greater Manchester Combined Authority more power.

But questions were raised at Bolton Council about whether this would also mean taking powers away from the borough and towards the city region as well.

Cllr Roger Hayes, who represents Smithills, said: “Any increase in devolution is very, very welcome particularly as the UK is probably one of the least devolved countries in the whole of Europe.

“However, a real concern is that devolution could be to more regional bodies rather than local authorities like Bolton.”

The meeting was held at Bolton Town HallThe meeting was held at Bolton Town Hall (Image: Newsquest)

Plans for the English Devolution Bill had been announced in the King’s speech earlier in July shortly after the election of the new Labour government.

But Cllr Hayes, leader of Bolton’s Liberal Democrat group until earlier this year, said that all of the discussions about devolution seemed to focus on regional mayors.

These include Mr Burnham of Greater Manchester and Steve Rotheram of the Liverpool city region.

He asked a full meeting of the council for assurances that the leadership would “resist” any changes that would mean power moved from Bolton to the combined authority.

In response council leader Cllr Nick Peel said he had been encouraged by the new government’s attitude towards devolution and did not believe town hall would be losing powers.

He said: “I can not only categorically state that I or we will resist any proposal for powers to be moved from Bolton to the combined authority but can confirm this is most definitely not on the table.”

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Labour’s Cllr Peel said that as things stood many regional and local services had “no democratic accountability whatsoever” but that this could change.

He said that the expected English Devolution Bill would mean taking power away from government departments in Westminster.

Instead, they would be given to local authorities like Greater Manchester to give them more control over areas like infrastructure and planning.

Cllr Peel said that he had already meet with leaders from other councils in the city region to discuss ideas for what could be included in the consultation over the bill.