Contents

Borough of Chorley

Borough of Chorley
Borough and non-metropolitan district
From left to right Top: Chorley town hall Middle: Adlington war memorial and Eccleston village centre Bottom: Whittle-le-Woods village centre and part of Buckshaw Village crossing the Chorley and South Ribble boundaries
Coat of arms
Shown within Lancashire and England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	North West England
Ceremonial county	Lancashire
Founded	1 April 1974
Admin. HQ	Chorley
Government
• Type	Chorley Borough Council
• MPs:	Lindsay Hoyle (Speaker) Paul Foster (Labour)
Area
• Total	78 sq mi (203 km2)
• Rank	144th
Population  (2022)
• Total	118,624
• Rank	Ranked 204th
• Density	1,500/sq mi (580/km2)
Ethnicity (2021) [1]
• Ethnic groups	List 95.6% White 1.9% Asian 1.5% Mixed 0.6% Black 0.4% other
Religion (2021) [1]
• Religion	List 61.5% Christianity 30.9% no religion 5.1% not stated 1.4% Islam 0.5% other 0.3% Hinduism 0.2% Buddhism 0.1% Sikhism 0.1% Judaism
Time zone	UTC+0 (Greenwich Mean Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (British Summer Time)
Postcode areas	PR6–PR7-PR25-PR26, BL6, L40
Area codes	01257, 01204, 01254, 01704, 01772
ISO 3166-2	–
ONS code	30UE (ONS) E07000118 (GSS)
OS grid reference	SD5817
NUTS3	–

The Borough of Chorley is a local government district with borough statusinLancashire, England. It is named after the town of Chorley, which is an unparished area. The borough extends to several villages and hamlets including Adlington, Buckshaw Village, Croston, Eccleston, Euxton and Whittle-le-Woods.

The neighbouring districts are West Lancashire, South Ribble, Blackburn with Darwen, Bolton and Wigan.

The town of Chorley had been governed by improvement commissioners from 1853.^[2] The commissioners were reconstituted as a local board in 1863.^[3] The board was in turn replaced in 1881 when the town was made a municipal borough.^[4]

The modern district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the area of four former districts, which were all abolished at the same time:^[5]

• Adlington Urban District
• Chorley Municipal Borough
• Chorley Rural District
• Withnell Urban District

The new district was named Chorley, and the borough status previously held by the town was passed to the new district on the day that it came into being, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor, continuing Chorley's series of mayors dating back to 1881.^[6][7]

Chorley Council
Type
Type	Non-metropolitan district
History
Founded	1 April 1974
Leadership
Mayor	Gordon France, Labour since 14 May 2024[8]
Leader	Alistair Bradley, Labour since 15 May 2012
Chief Executive	Chris Sinnott since January 2023[9]
Structure
Seats	42 councillors
Political groups	Administration (39)   Labour (39) Opposition (3)   Conservative (3)
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	2 May 2024
Next election	7 May 2026
Meeting place
Town Hall, Market Street, Chorley, PR7 1DP
Website
www.chorley.gov.uk

Chorley Borough Council, which styles itself "Chorley Council", provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Lancashire County Council. Much of the borough is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.^[10]

The council has been under Labour majority control since 2012.

The first election to the reformed borough council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities before coming into its powers on 1 April 1974. Political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows:^[11]

The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Chorley. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1990 have been:^[12]

Following the 2024 election the composition of the council was:^[13][14]

The next election is due in 2026, where a third of the council's seats will be contested.

Since the last boundary changes in 2020 the council has comprised 42 councillors representing 14 wards, with each ward electing three councillors. Elections are held three years out of every four, with a third of the council (one councillor for each ward) elected each time for a four year term of office. Lancashire County Council elections are held in the fourth year of the cycle when there are no borough council elections.^[15]

The wards are:

The Chorley constituency was coterminous with the borough from 1997 until 2010 when Croston, Eccleston, Bretherton and Mawdesley were transferred to the South Ribble constituency. The current Member of Parliament for Chorley is Lindsay Hoyle, who was first elected to the seat in 1997.

The council's main offices are at the Civic Offices on Union Street in Chorley.^[16] Council meetings are held at Chorley Town Hall on Market Street, which had been completed in 1879 for the old local board.^[17][18][19]

The borough contains 23 civil parishes. The parish council for Adlington takes the style "town council".^[20] The central part of the borough, roughly corresponding to the pre-1974 borough of Chorley, is an unparished area.^[21]

1. Adlington
2. Anderton
3. Anglezarke
4. Astley Village
5. Bretherton
6. Brindle
7. Charnock Richard
8. Clayton-le-Woods
9. Coppull
10. Croston
11. Cuerden
12. Eccleston
13. Euxton
14. Heapey
15. Heath Charnock
16. Heskin
17. Hoghton
18. Mawdesley
19. Rivington
20. Ulnes Walton
21. Wheelton
22. Whittle-le-Woods
23. Withnell

Chorley

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Chorley.

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2021)

• Sir Henry Hibbert: 25 September 1922.
• James Winder Stone: 25 September 1922.
• Arnold Gillett: 17 June 1931.
• J. Fearnhead: 12 July 1944.
• Douglas Hacking, 1st Baron Hacking: 30 November 1946.
• Bertha Maude Gillett: 24 November 1960.

^[22]

• The Queen's Lancashire Regiment: 2005.
• 5 General Medical Support Regiment RAMC: 2007.^[22]
• The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment: 2007.^[23]
• 3 Medical Regiment: 6 June 2015.^[24]
• The Lancashire Constabulary.

53°39′11″N 2°37′55″W / 53.653°N 2.632°W / 53.653; -2.632