The spirit of co-operation between Lancashire’s councils over attempts to secure a devolution deal for the county has been dented after a stormy meeting of local authority leaders ended in acrimony.

A row broke out about a separate subject at a virtual gathering of Lancashire’s 15 council leaders last week – resulting in four of them making a premature departure from the discussion.

It is understood that the walk-out came after an ill-tempered exchange which ended with Lancashire County Council leader Geoff Driver telling his 12 district authority counterparts:  “You could all stand outside in the pouring rain – and you would take all day to decide whether you were getting equally wet or if some of you had more shelter than others.”

Lancashire’s county, district and standalone councils are engaged in already delicate deliberations about devolution, with potential controversy ahead over the creation of a combined authority and elected mayor as part of the process.

That concept has historically proved a stumbling block during four years of devolution discussions in Lancashire and it has now been complicated further by a government demand for a shake-up of the county’s complicated council structure, which could see some or all of Lancashire’s existing local authorities wiped from the map.

Perhaps more significant than last week’s row is the fact that a tentative agreement between the leaders over how to proceed on the devolution front appears at risk of unravelling. The 15 made an “in principle” commitment to pursuing a combined authority and elected mayor, subject to the approval of each of their council’s members.

However, Pendle Council has since voted not to support the mayoral move at the moment due to a lack of “clarity”, while Burnley Council has come out against any attempt at local government reorganisation “as a condition” of devolution.

Whatever the next steps on Lancashire’s long road to devolution, the relationship between its 15 leaders is likely to be crucial – and last week’s meeting suggests that a schism has opened up between County Hall and at least some of the district councils.

It understood that the districts objected to their logos being included on a document submitted to the government last month laying out a post-Covid economic recovery plan for Lancashire and making a pitch for government investment in £62.5m worth of so-called “shovel-ready” projects.

Several of the leaders told the meeting that they had not been consulted over its contents – and went on to criticise the county council for seeming to imply that that they had given tacit approval to the proposal.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that Cllr Driver suggested that the districts needed to think more strategically about the whole county rather than just any benefits to their own areas. However, after he made his “outside in the rain” comment, an apology was demanded – and when it was not offered, the leaders of South Ribble, Chorley, Ribble Valley and West Lancashire councils left the meeting, which was abandoned shortly afterwards.

County Cllr Driver did not dispute the account, but said that the outcome of the discussion was “very disappointing”.

“It illustrates the difficulty we have of working together as a group of local authorities, because too many leaders have their own agenda.

“I didn’t start the acrimony in the meeting – insults were thrown at the county council and at me personally – so I’m not prepared to apologise.    But my analogy with standing out in the rain perfectly sums up exactly why we have a problem,” the Conservative leader said.

South Ribble’s Labour leader Paul Foster said that he was not prepared to “sit in a meeting while people get insulted”.

He added:  “Nobody puts South Ribble’s endorsement to any document without our approval.   That’s a very basic consideration and I’m very disappointed with the county council – I have no idea why they would do that.

“County Cllr Driver has got a challenging job and I genuinely wish him the best in trying to deal with [these issues], but I just wish that he wouldn’t be so provocative and would try to work more with the district leaders. I think it would be good now to take a breath and think about how we can all work together.”

West Lancashire Council leader Ian Moran said that he had not even seen the recovery document before it was sent to the government bearing his authority’s crest.

“We sit just as an associate member on the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and yet we were more included in their [post-Covid] strategy than the one for Lancashire. We want Lancashire to start working for us,” he said.

The leaders of Ribble Valley and Chorley councils were approached for comment about the row.