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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 km)
• Rank	144th
Population
• Total	118,624
• Rank	Ranked 204th
• Density	1,500/sq mi (580/km)
Ethnicity (2021)
• Ethnic groups	List 95.6% White 1.9% Asian 1.5% Mixed 0.6% Black 0.4% other
Religion (2021)
• 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
NUTS 3	–

The Borough of Chorley is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, 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.

History

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

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:

• 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.

Governance

Chorley Council
Type
Type	Non-metropolitan district
History
Founded	1 April 1974
Leadership
Mayor	Gordon France, Labour since 14 May 2024
Leader	Alistair Bradley, Labour since 15 May 2012
Chief Executive	Chris Sinnott since January 2023
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.

Political control

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:

Leadership

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:

Composition

Following the 2024 election the composition of the council was:

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

Elections

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.

The wards are:

1. Adlington & Anderton
2. Buckshaw & Whittle
3. Chorley East
4. Chorley North East
5. Chorley North West
6. Chorley North & Astley
7. Chorley South East & Heath Charnock
8. Chorley South West
9. Clayton East, Brindle & Hoghton
10. Clayton West & Cuerden
11. Coppull
12. Croston, Mawdesley & Euxton South
13. Eccleston, Heskin & Charnock Richard
14. Euxton

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.

Premises

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

Parishes

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

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

Settlements

Freedom of the Borough

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)

Individuals

• 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.

Military Units

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

References

1. ^ UK Census (2021). "2021 Census Area Profile – Chorley Local Authority (E07000118)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
2. "Chorley Improvement Act 1853". legislation.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
3. "No. 22786". The London Gazette. 6 November 1863. p. 5240.
4. "Chorley Municipal Borough". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
5. "The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Definition) Order 1972", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1972/2039, retrieved 22 August 2022
6. "The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Names) Order 1973", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1973/551, retrieved 22 August 2022
7. "District Councils and Boroughs". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 28 March 1974. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
8. Faulkner, Paul (16 May 2024). "Chorley Council's new mayor sets out his top priority". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
9. Aldred, Tim (22 April 2022). "Chorley Council and South Ribble Borough Council appoint shared chief executive". Lancashire Business View. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
10. "Local Government Act 1972", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1972 c. 70, retrieved 31 May 2023
11. Holt, James (7 May 2021). ""Labour maintain strong majority in Chorley: Your full council election analysis"". Lancashire Post. Retrieved 16 October 2024.
12. "Compositions calculator". The Elections Centre. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
13. "Council minutes". Chorley Borough Council. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
14. "Election 2024 - Results". Chorley Borough Council. 3 May 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
15. "Labour wins Hyndburn and unseats opposition Tory leader in Chorley". BBC News. 3 May 2024. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
16. "The Chorley (Electoral Changes) Order 2019", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 2019/1124, retrieved 5 October 2023
17. "Other ways to get in touch". Chorley Borough Council. Retrieved 26 August 2022. Our address is: Civic Offices, Union Street, Chorley, Lancashire, PR7 1AL
18. "Executive Cabinet agenda, 14 July 2022". Chorley Borough Council. 14 July 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022. Venue: Council Chamber, Town Hall, Chorley
19. "1875 – Town Hall, Chorley, Lancashire". Archiseek. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
20. "Chorley, Lancashire". The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
21. "Parish councils contact information". Chorley Council. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
22. "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
23. ^ Clewlow, Stuart (7 October 2021). "The Freedom of Chorley: Who were the people granted this title and were they really allowed to have grazing rights in the town?". The Chorley Guardian. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
24. "Freedom of the Borough 2017". Government of the United Kingdom.
25. "3 Medical Regiment to be presented with the Freedom of the Borough". Chorley Council. 26 May 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2020.

v t e Buildings and structures in the Borough of Chorley
Grade I	Astley Hall Great Barn Heskin Hall Hoghton Tower Mawdesley Hall
Grade II*	Bank Hall Buckshaw Hall Carr House Cuerden Hall Rivington Hall Places of worship Chorley: St George St Laurence Euxton: Parish Church Rivington: Unitarian Chapel
Grade II	Coppull Mill Great House Barn Rivington Hall Barn Runshaw Hall Shaw Hill Places of worship Adlington: Christ St Paul Bretherton: St John the Baptist Brindle: St James Euxton Hall: Chapel Hoghton: Holy Trinity Mawdesley: St Peter Rivington: Church
Scheduled monuments	Round Loaf
Unlisted	Charnock Richard Services Chorley Interchange Chorley and South Ribble Hospital Chorley Town Hall HM Prison Garth HM Prison Wymott Mavis Mill Rivington services Winter Hill transmitting station Yarrow Bridge Places of worship Preston England Temple
Derelict or demolished	Adlington Hall Camelot Theme Park Chisnall Hall Colliery Croston Hall Duxbury Hall Ellerbeck Colliery ROF Chorley
Listed in	Adlington Anderton Anglezarke Bank Hall Estate Bretherton Brindle Charnock Richard Chorley Clayton-le-Woods Coppull Croston Cuerden Eccleston Euxton Heapey Heath Charnock Heskin Hoghton Mawdesley Rivington Ulnes Walton Wheelton Whittle-le-Woods Withnell

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• Borough of Chorley
• Local government in Chorley
• Non-metropolitan districts of Lancashire
• Boroughs in England