At the annual meeting of Lancashire County Council on 22 May 2025, Cllr Mark Poulton, who represents Burnley Rural on the county council and leads the Reform UK group on Burnley Borough Council, was appointed to chair the county’s scrutiny work for 2025/26.
He was made Chair of the Environment, Economic Growth and Transport Scrutiny Committee and Chair of the Scrutiny Management Board. Scrutiny is the part of a council that holds the leadership to account: it questions decisions, examines spending and performance, and gives councillors from every side a formal way to challenge the administration.
Putting a Burnley councillor in charge of that work meant local eyes on how the county was being run, and a commitment that Reform would apply the same scrutiny to itself in power that it had demanded from opposition.
