Preston City Council is a district council, working alongside Lancashire County Council as part of a two-tier local government system.
Back in 2003 the council was rated as “good” in the Audit Commission's 2003 Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA).
The Audit Commission recently carried out an evaluation of the council’s progress since the 2003 assessment, which showed that the council is making good progress in line with the improvements programmed in the Corporate Plan.
The assessment recognised that the council “has made improvements in its services overall” and has “worked to improve access to services at both a neighbourhood level and a range of activity that benefits the wider community”.
What Preston City Council does
The council spends more than £100million a year providing a range of public services from pest control to planning. It is one of the largest employers in the area with 1,300 employees.
During an average year, the council:
- Collects rubbish from approx 59,000 households every week
- Regularly inspects more than 1,400 food premises in the area
- Cleans all Preston's streets, collecting 7,600 tonnes of litter each year
- Recycles and composts 15,000 tonnes of rubbish
- Maintains more than 550 hectares of parks and open spaces
- Runs two leisure centres, with almost one million people using the facilities every year
- Hosts more than 360 shows, events and attractions at the Guild Hall
- Handles around 80,000 enquiries at the Tourist Information Centre and 152,00 hits on the Tourist Information website www.visitpreston.com
- Has a wide collection of artwork and local historical treasures on display at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery
What Lancashire County Council does
Lancashire County Council is the main authority for the following services in Preston:
Departments
Council employees (or officers) are responsible for the day-to-day running of the council and implementing the policies and decisions taken by councillors.
The council's internal structure has recently been reorganised and the council now operates with three departments (or directorates). These are:
A full department structure diagram is available to download at the bottom of the page.
Also, find out more about where you can find information on each council department and to see the corporate management team select the links from the left hand menu.
How the council works
Preston City Council has 57 elected councillors representing the community. The councillors meet every three months at the full council meeting to consider issues that affect the city and to make decisions about important items such as the council's budget.
The council chooses a cabinet made up of the leader of the council, deputy leader and four other executive councillors. The cabinet is the decision making part of the council, with these six councillors responsible for the majority of the decisions taken by the council.
A scrutiny committee keeps a check on these decisions and also monitors the council's performance. Four review boards focus on key issues affecting people in Preston or the council and make detailed reports and recommendations for change.
In addition, the council has a number of committees responsible for things like planning, licensing and standards.
For more information see our committees website.
Chief Executive
The Chief Executive of Preston City Council is responsible for the overall management of the council and achieving its aim and corporate priorities (programmes), as well as delivering quality and value for money services.
Mayor
Preston also has a Mayor to represent the city at civic and ceremonial events locally, nationally and internationally. The Mayor changes each year and is a councillor who has to be selected to serve in office by their colleagues.
For more information about the Mayor of Preston and the council's civic history see our Mayor and Civics pages.
Third City Vision
The council and its partners through the Preston Strategic Partnership are working to make Preston the third city of the North West, alongside Manchester and Liverpool.
Programmes
In 2008 the council reviewed its corporate priorities and developed a set of seven new programmes. These aim to improve the quality of life of Preston residents by resolving issues around anti-social behaviour, health and improving the city's parks and green spaces. The programmes are:
- Third city programme
- Brighter futures programme
- Clean, green city programme
- Safe city programme
- Connecting with communities programme
- Sharper smarter services programme
- Well run council
Logo
The current modernised logo was adapted from the original historic version in 2002, when Preston became a city.
The distinct logo depicts the Lamb of St Wilfred - Preston's patron saint - with its flag and two swooshes, in the corporate blues, surrounding the words 'Preston City Council'. The top swoosh symbolises the city's nearby countryside, hills and fells, while the bottom swoosh represents the River Ribble.
Document links
| Document downloads | File Size |
| Adobe Acrobat Reader is available FREE of charge. You can download it directly from Adobe's website by clicking the link to the right. Once on Adobe's website, follow the instructions on screen to install the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. |  |
| Department structure (PDF) | 21KB |