Neil Pye

Neil Pye was born in Ormskirk and has been a resident of West Lancashire for over forty years, living now close to the old St Joseph’s College at UpHolland. Having grown up in Skelmersdale and lived there for many years, he has both experienced and seen at first-hand, the many issues affecting the town and the borough as a whole.

From 2011-15, Neil served as a borough councillor for Birch Green, Skelmersdale. In this capacity, he worked with current Our West Lancashire Councillor Adrian Owens as a member of the steering committee for the Findon and Firbeck Housing Revival Project. Working very closely with residents and council officials, Neil was very proactive in the successful regeneration and transformation of what were previously, two decaying housing estates.

During those four years serving as a borough councillor, Neil was a member of West Lancashire Borough Council’s Planning Committee, in which he opposed the expansion of Landfill Sites and fought successful campaigns to protect green spaces from developers in both Skelmersdale and West Lancashire. As a critic of the current ruling Labour group in West Lancashire, Neil objected to its local plan proposals. 

After serving as a borough councillor in West Lancashire, Neil returned to academia, working for the Open University Business School (OUBS) and University of Huddersfield on studies about Devolution and the 2017 Metro Mayor elections. His main research interests are skills and training policy, along with the development of towns and city regions. Over the past few years, he has closely followed the progress of both the Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Regions and how their development may affect the borough of West Lancashire as a whole, in terms of future governance and transport.  

Educated to Doctorate degree level in History, as well as having previously written books about the Chartists and various topics of twentieth century political and social history, Neil has also given talks and lectures about the history and future of Skelmersdale and Ormskirk at Manchester Metropolitan University and its Institute of Place Management, and currently teaches Politics at a university in Liverpool. Through campaigning for Our West Lancashire, Neil would like see the borough’s heritage both celebrated and preserved.