The district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the whole area of four former districts and parts of another three, which were abolished at the same time:[2]
The new district was named Ribble Valley after the River Ribble which flows through the area.[3] The new district was awarded borough status from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor.[4]
The first election to the 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][12]
The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Ribble Valley. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1999 have been:[13]
Since the last boundary changes in 2019 the council has comprised 40 councillors representing 26 wards, with each ward electing one or two councillors. Elections are held every four years.[18]
Premises
The council is based at the Council Offices on Church Walk in Clitheroe, which was purpose-built for the council in 1980.[19][20] The council chamber is in an adjoining building at 13 Church Street, which had been offices of the old Clitheroe Borough Council prior to the 1974 reforms.[21]
Ribble Valley Radio was a community radio station based in Clitheroe, part of the new, third sector of local radio licensed by OFCOM.[22] The project was launched in September 2004. The radio station helped six local residents into paid work within the radio sector in just three years and trained more than 100 volunteers to present and produce their own radio shows. The project was not supported by the Borough Council, which caused controversy in the area, and local newspaper the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times' held a poll which returned the result that 94% agreed that the Ribble Valley Borough Council were wrong not to fund the project and assist its long-term success. Many letters appeared in support of the project and damning the "short sighted" decision of the council. The whole episode brought excellent publicity and boosted the radio station's listening figures by 400%.
MP Nigel Evans was a staunch supporter and tabled an Early Day Motion at Parliament EDM 979[23] calling for "better resources and funding" for Ribble Valley Radio and the new and emerging sector. None of this was sufficient to save the station and on 14 October 2007 Ribble Valley Radio closed, because it was unable to gain sufficient funding to apply for a licence.[24]
A new group, known as Ribble FM,[25] was formed in 2011 with the aim of applying for a community radio licence in the third round of licensing by Ofcom. Ribble FM was set up by The Bee founder Roy Martin and includes local directors and trustees.
The whole borough is covered by civil parishes. The parish councils for Clitheroe and Longridge have declared their parishes to be towns, allowing them to take the style "town council".[26]
Although Ribble Valley is the largest area of Lancashire, it also has the smallest population. The economy of Ribble Valley is mainly rural in nature, with a high proportion of jobs being in the private sector, due to BAE there is a bigger sway towards manufacturing jobs and less of a service economy when compared to the rest of Lancashire presumably due to the size of the authority and the dispersed nature of settlements. The authority also has the highest proportion of remote workers in Lancashire.[27]
