Ribble Valley Borough Council asks for rethink on boundary changes which “do not make sense”

According to the council, proposed constituency boundary changes would “lump” Clitheroe and villages in the east of the borough with Nelson and Colne an hour-and-a-half bus journey away, and the rest of Ribble Valley will acquire chunks of Preston and South Ribble “to make up the numbers, but be left without an obvious administrative centre.”

Why make changes?

The Boundary Commission is required by Parliament to review constituencies periodically to rebalance the number of electors in each.

The new proposals will ensure each constituency has between 69,724 and 77,062 electors, so that each MP represents roughly the same number.

The commission published initial proposals last year that left the Ribble Valley constituency largely intact, minus the three wards of Billington and Langho; East Whalley, Read and Simonstone; and Whalley and Painter Wood, which were moved into a new-look Hyndburn.

But a special meeting of the council heard the latest proposals effectively split Ribble Valley in two, separated by Pendle Hill.

Council leader Stephen Atkinson said: “These new boundaries simply do not make sense. They leave what is almost a mountain between Clitheroe and Nelson, the two main towns of the proposed Pendle and Clitheroe constituency, with an hour-and-a-half bus journey between them.

“Clitheroe is the administrative centre of Ribble Valley and the surrounding villages naturally look towards it as the economic and cultural heart of the borough.

“It is the home of Ribble Valley Borough Council, which should remain at the centre of the parliamentary constituency.”

The committee decided to reject the latest proposal and ask the Boundary Commission to reconsider its initial proposal, which would see Billington and Langho; East Whalley, Read and Simonstone; and Whalley and Painter Wood moved into Hyndburn.

But if the latest proposal must be accepted, it will ask the commission to move the two wards of Whalley and Painter Wood, and Chatburn, back into the Ribble Valley, and Bamber Bridge East into South Ribble.

Which are the “chunks” of Preston and South Ribble?

Under proposals, Bamber Bridge will stay in the Ribble Valley constituency, together with the Walton-le-Dale wards and Coupe Green and Gregson Lane.

Fishwick and Frenchwood and Ribbleton wards – currently Preston – would be shifted into the Ribble Valley seat.