Phillippa Williamson: Looking to deliver the deal

Six months into her role at County Hall and Phillippa Williamson is at pains to put clear blue water between the new administration and its predecessor.

The party in charge may not have changed – the Conservatives kept control of Lancashire in May’s election – but the county council’s new leader wants to stress this is a very different regime.

She is keen to talk about a “completely new administration” and its new faces. Collaboration is a key word in her vocabulary. “We want to engage,” she explains.

That engagement includes building bridges with Lancashire’s district and unitary authorities with the aim of bringing everyone together in a meaningful way to talk sensibly with central government about the county’s economic future.