Pendle Borough Council

Pendle Borough Council is a district council in England, that has authority covering the borough of Pendle in Lancashire.

Pendle Borough Council
Type
Type	Non-metropolitan district council
History
Founded	15 September 1976
Leadership
Leader of the Council	Councillor Mohammed Iqbal, Labour
Deputy Leader of the Council	Councillor David Michael Whipp, Liberal Democrats
Chief Executive	Dean Langton since April 2015
Structure
Seats	53 councillors
Political groups	Administration (26)   Labour (16)   Liberal Democrat (10) Opposition (23)   Conservative (23)
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Website
www.pendle.gov.uk

Elections to the council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the 49 seats on the council being elected at each election. The Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrat parties have each controlled the council at different times, as well as periods when no party has had a majority.

History

On 9 March 2017, The Labour and Liberal Democrat group were accused of "racism" after allegedly asking the solitary BNP councilor to form a coalition with them to avoid the Conservatives taking control of the council. The alleged deal between the BNP, Labour and Liberal Democrats was strenuously denied by the three parties. However, Leader of the Conservative opposition, Cllr Joe Cooney wrote to current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the then Lib Dem leader Tim Farron in asking them to condemn the situation.[1]

In June 2017, a Conservative councilor, Rosemary Carroll,[2] was suspended after sending a racist post on social media comparing Asians to dogs. This controversy expanded after the local elections in 2018, when the councilor was readmitted into the Conservative Party, allowing the Conservative party to gain a majority on the council. The Pendle Labour party accused the Pendle Conservative Party of condoning racism after the reinstatement. The Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, Dawn Butler, called upon the Conservative Party Chairman, Brandon Lewis, to issue a statement saying that the councilor in question would not be part of the Conservative group on the council. This followed a statement from Lewis congratulating the Pendle Conservatives on winning a majority on the council.[3][4]

Councillors

Ward	Name		Party
Barrowford	Linda Margaret Crossley		Conservative
	Ken Turner		Conservative
	Christian Wakeford		Conservative
Blacko and Higherford	Noel McEvoy		Conservative
Boulsworth	Sarah Cockburn-Price		Conservative
	Margaret Sarah Foxley		Conservative
	Paul Foxley		Conservative
Bradley	Mohammad Aslam		Conservative
	Mohammed Iqbal		Labour
	Mohammad Sakib		Labour
Brierfield	Naeem Hussain Ashraf		Labour
	Mohammed Arshad		Labour
	Qamar Shazad		Labour
Clover Hill	Zafar Ali		Labour
	Eileen Ansar		Labour
	Kathleen Eleanor Shore		Labour
Coates	Marjorie Adams		Liberal Democrats
	Jayne Mills		Liberal Democrats
	Tom Whipp		Liberal Democrats
Craven	Ken Hartley		Liberal Democrats
	Jenny Purcell		Conservative
	David Michael Whipp		Liberal Democrats
Earby	Rosemary E Carroll		Conservative
	Colin Carter		Conservative
	Mike Goulthorp		Conservative
Foulridge	Graham Waugh		Conservative
Higham and Pendleside	Carlo Lionti		Conservative
Horsfield	Neil Butterworth		Conservative
	Jonathan Andrew Nixon		Conservative
	Steve Petty		Conservative
Marsden	Tommy Cooney		Conservative
	Neil McGowan		Conservative
Old Laund Booth	Brian Newman		Liberal Democrats
Reedley	Musawar Raza Arshad		Conservative
	Yasser Iqbal		Labour
	Mohammad Hanif		Labour
Southfield	Mohammad Ammer		Labour
	Yvonne Tennant		Labour
	Sheila Wicks		Labour
Walverden	George Adam		Labour
	Julie May Patricia Henderson		Labour
Vivary Bridge	David Clegg		Liberal Democrats
	Victoria Fletcher		Conservative
	Nathan Thomas McCollum		Conservative
Waterside	Tony Greaves		Liberal Democrats
	Dorothy Elizabeth Lord		Liberal Democrats
	Alice Mann		Liberal Democrats
Whitefield	Nadeem Ahmed		Conservative
	Asjad Mahmood		Labour

Council elections

Map showing the composition of the 2019 Pendle Borough Council. Conservatives in blue, Labour in red, and the Liberal Democrats in yellow

2006 local elections

In 2006, Pendle Borough Council gained an Asian Liberal Democrat councillor, a BNP councillor and two councillors for the nationalist England First party.[5]

2010 local elections

In the 2010 election the council was composed of the following councillors:-[6]

Year	Conservative	Liberal Democrat	Labour	British National Party	Independent
2010	17	16	13	2	1

References

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-39223658
2. Mills, Jen (29 June 2017). "Conservative councillor 'posted joke comparing Asian people to dogs'". Metro UK. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
3. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/conservatives-pendle-councillor_uk_5aec782be4b0c4f193220367?
4. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2018/may/03/local-elections-council-england-2018-tories-labour-corbyn-may
5. BBC News article
6. "Pendle". BBC News Online. 19 April 2009. Retrieved 12 February 2011.