Devo Mancs ? No thanks - We're Lancs

Statement from the Greater Manchester Referendum Campaign Group on "Devo Manc" Campaigners in Wigan opposed to the undemocratic imposition of the Devo Manc deal on local residents without any reference as to their views on the subject, have opened a second front in the fight to make Greater Manchester's Combined Authority (GMCA) Chair & Wigan Council Leader Lord Smith of Leigh and his 9 other Greater Manchester Council leader colleagues, listen to the views of Wigan Borough and other Greater Manchester residents. Under the slogan "Devo Mancs? No Thanks! We're Lancs!" they have agreed to support the call for an immediate referendum on Wigan’s/the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and its townships, continued membership of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (in or out), which they say they were never consulted on whether they wanted to be a part of either; and to push for re-strengthened links with Lancashire. If their campaign is successful, then this could potentially take the entire Wigan Metropolitan Borough out of the Devo Manc deal, something which could be duplicated in other Borough's such as Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, and Oldham, and even in Salford and Manchester, all of which prior to 1974, were part of the former County Palatine of Lancashire, and whose residents called themselves Lancastrians. A spokesperson on behalf of the campaigners said: "The Government never consulted us about whether we wanted to be part of the new county of Greater Manchester back in 1974, or even whether the people of towns like Leigh, Atherton, Tyldesley, Hindley wanted to be part of the then new Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council area either. We were also never consulted or asked our views about the abolition of the county of Greater Manchester's by Margaret Thatcher's Government in the 1980's, or the Borough's membership of AGMA, and the GMCA after that. "Now we are to have something else imposed on us again, without any reference to any of our views on the subject, in which the word 'Greater' in 'Greater Manchester' seems to have been given the boot. We're now all to be part of a new Manchester 'city region' rather than a county, but something which rather than having a directly elected Council like we previously had in Greater Manchester until it was abolished, and previously we had in Lancashire, will instead be run by a non-directly elected committee of the area's ten local council leaders, chaired by a new Mayor (none of us asked for either), who will double up as Police & Crime Commissioner (i.e. yet another highly paid position none of us asked for either). The whole thing is an absolute mockery of democracy and shows nothing but an utter contempt for the views of local voters. Our view is, if Lord Smith et al, aren't prepared to give us any say whatsoever on the Devo Manc deal, whatever it's alleged merits or otherwise, then how about we say, just exclude us from the Devo Manc deal altogether and let us go back to being part of the same county most of us were happy being a part of prior to 1974, which most of us still include in our address, and whose cricket team we've never stopped supporting, which of course is Lancashire. Or to put it in as few as words as possible: Devo Mancs? No Thanks! We're Lancs! Greater Manchester Referendum Campaign Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/devolutionreferendumcampaign?fref=ts