Pendle is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Nelson, the borough's largest town. The borough also includes the towns of Barnoldswick, Brierfield, Colne and Earby along with the surrounding villages and rural areas. Part of the borough lies within the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The neighbouring districts are Burnley, Ribble Valley, North Yorkshire, Bradford and Calderdale.

The name Pendle comes from "Penhill", combining the Cumbric "pen" meaning hill and the Saxon "hill", also meaning hill. The name was used for Pendle Hill (literally "hill hill hill"), a prominent outlier of the Pennines. The name was then also used for the ancient Forest of Pendle around the hill, and for Pendle Water, a river which rises on the hill and flows into the River Calder. The name also became associated with the Pendle witches, tried for witchcraft in 1612, as the accused were all from the area.

The modern local government district of Pendle was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. It covered the whole area of seven former districts and parts of another two, all of which were abolished at the same time:

• Barnoldswick Urban District
• Barrowford Urban District
• Brierfield
• Burnley Rural District (part)
• Colne Municipal Borough
• Earby Urban District
• Nelson Municipal Borough
• Skipton Rural District (part)
• Trawden Urban District

The Barnoldswick, Earby and Skipton parts were in the West Riding of Yorkshire prior to 1974. The term West Craven is sometimes used for this area transferred from Yorkshire to Lancashire in 1974. The new district was named Pendle after the hill, forest and river. The district was awarded borough status on 15 September 1976, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor.

Pendle Borough Council
Type
Type	Non-metropolitan district
History
Founded	1 April 1974
Leadership
Mayor	Mohammad Aslam, Conservative since 16 May 2024
Leader	Asjad Mahmood, Independent since 18 May 2023
Chief Executive	Rose Rouse since 2021
Structure
Seats	33 councillors
Political groups	Administration (18)   Independent (10)   Liberal Democrat (8) Other parties (15)   Conservative (13)   Independent (2)
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	2 May 2024
Next election	7 May 2026
Meeting place
Town Hall, Market Street, Nelson, BB9 7LG
Website
www.pendle.gov.uk

Pendle Borough Council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Lancashire County Council. The whole borough is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.

Brian Cookson retired in March 2013 from his position as executive director for Regeneration, a post he had held for nine years, in parallel (after 2007) with that of President of British Cycling. Subsequently, becoming the President of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world governing body for sports cycling.

In June 2017, a Conservative councilor, Rosemary Carroll, 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 councillor 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.

In April 2024, all of Labour’s 11 borough councillors in Pendle, including the leader of the council, quit the party.

The council has been under no overall control since the 2023 election. A coalition of Labour and Liberal Democrat formed to run the council after that election. Following the Labour group all leaving their party, the coalition became an independent and Liberal Democrat coalition in April 2024.

The first election to the council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new arrangements came into effect on 1 April 1974. Political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows:

Party in control		Years
	No overall control	1974–1976
	Conservative	1976–1979
	No overall control	1979–1987
	Liberal Democrats	1987–1990
	No overall control	1990–1991
	Labour	1991–1994
	No overall control	1994–1995
	Liberal Democrats	1995–1999
	No overall control	1999–2004
	Liberal Democrats	2004–2008
	No overall control	2008–2018
	Conservative	2018–2019
	No overall control	2019–2021
	Conservative	2021–2023
	No overall control	2023–present

The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Pendle. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 2015 have been:

Councillor	Party		From	To
Joe Cooney		Conservative		2015
Mohammed Iqbal		Labour	2015	17 May 2018
Paul White		Conservative	17 May 2018	5 May 2019
Mohammed Iqbal		Labour	16 May 2019	20 May 2021
Nadeem Ahmed		Conservative	20 May 2021	18 May 2023
Asjad Mahmood		Labour	18 May 2023	1 Apr 2024
		Independent	1 Apr 2024

Following the 2024 election, the composition of the council was:

Party		Councillors
	Conservative	13
	Independent	12
	Liberal Democrats	8
Total		33

Ten of the independent councillors sit together as the 'Independent Group', which forms the council's administration with the Liberal Democrats. The other two independents do not form part of a group. The next election is due in 2026.

The council meets at Nelson Town Hall on Market Street in the centre of Nelson, which had been completed in 1881 for the old Nelson Local Board, predecessor of the Nelson Borough Council created in 1890. It has its main administrative offices in a modern building at 1 Market Street, opposite the town hall.

Since the last full review of boundaries took effect in 2021 the council has comprised 33 councillors representing 12 wards, with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held three years out of every four, with roughly a third of the council being elected each time for a four-year term. Lancashire County Council elections are held in the fourth year of the cycle when there are no borough council elections.

Following the 2023 election, the councillors were:

Ward	Name		Party
Barnoldswick	Tom Whipp		Liberal Democrats
	Chris Church		Liberal Democrats
	Mick Strickland		Liberal Democrats
Barrowford and Pendleside	Martyn Stone		Conservative
	Nadeem Ahmed		Conservative
	David Gallear		Conservative
Boulsworth and Foulridge	Sarah Cockburn-Price		Conservative
	David Cockburn-Price		Conservative
	Kevin Salter		Conservative
Bradley	Mohammad Aslam		Conservative
	Mohammed Iqbal		Independent
	Mohammad Kaleem		Conservative
Brierfield East and Clover Hill	Naeem Hussain Ashraf		Labour
	Sajjad Ahmed		Labour
	Zafar Ali		Labour
Brierfield West and Reedley	Mohammad Hanif		Labour
	Yasser Iqbal		Labour
Earby and Coates	Susan Land		Liberal Democrats
	Rosemary Carroll		Conservative
	David Whipp		Liberal Democrats
Fence and Higham	Brian Newman		Liberal Democrats
Marsden and Southfield	Yvonne Tennant		Labour
	Mohammed Adnan		Labour
	Mohammed Ammer		Labour
Vivary Bridge	Kieran McGladdery		Conservative
	Tom Ormerod		Conservative
	David Albin		Conservative
Waterside and Horsfield	Neil Butterworth		Conservative
	Dorothy Lord		Liberal Democrats
	Ash Sutcliffe		Conservative
Whitefield and Walverden	Faraz Ahmad		Labour
	Ruby Anwar		Labour
	Asjad Mahmood		Labour

The Pendle constituency is represented in Parliament by the Conservative Member of Parliament, Andrew Stephenson, since 2010. The constituency covers the same area as the borough.

The three main employers in the borough are Rolls-Royce plc, Silentnight and the Daisy Group.

In terms of television, the area is served by BBC North West and ITV Granada which broadcast from Salford. Television signals are received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter and the local relay TV transmitter located in the Forest of Pendle. A small part of the borough around Barnoldswick and Earby is served by BBC Yorkshire and ITV Yorkshire broadcasting from Leeds. This area is served by a local transmitter in Skipton which is relayed from the Emley Moor TV transmitter.

Radio stations for the area are:

• BBC Radio Lancashire
• Heart North West
• Capital Manchester and Lancashire (formerly 2BR)
• Greatest Hits Radio Lancashire
• Smooth North West
• Pendle Community Radio, the borough's local community based station which broadcast from its studios in Nelson.

The area is served by the regional newspaper, Lancashire Telegraph. Other local newspapers including Pendle Express and The Nelson Leader.

The borough is entirely covered by civil parishes. The parish councils for Barnoldswick, Brierfield, Colne, Earby and Nelson take the style "town council".

Contemporary civil parish	Map ref	Medieval jurisdiction	Medieval jurisdiction	Early modern jurisdiction
Barley-with-Wheatley Booth	1	Pendle Forest, manor of Ightenhill	Forest of Blackburnshire	Whalley, Lancashire: once a much larger parish than today. It encompassed a large part of eastern Lancashire. It also included areas outside Pendle.
Barrowford	3
Blacko	4
Old Laund Booth	15
Goldshaw Booth	10
Reedley Hallows	16
Roughlee Booth	17
Higham-with-West Close Booth	11
Trawden Forest	19	Trawden Forest, manor of Colne
Nelson	14	manor of Ightenhill, not in Forest	Blackburnshire, not in Forest
Brierfield	6
Colne	7	manor of Colne, not in Forest
Foulridge	9
Laneshaw Bridge	13
Barnoldswick	2	Now referred to as "West Craven". This is a part of Lancashire, which was once in the neighbouring West Riding of Yorkshire. (Within the Wapentake of Staincliffe, Deanery of Craven.)
Bracewell and Brogden	5
Salterforth	8
Kelbrook and Sough	12
Earby	18