Burnley Borough Council

Burnley Borough Council provides district-level services for the Borough of Burnley, in Lancashire, in North West England. 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.^[3]

Burnley Borough Council
Type
Type	Non-metropolitan district
History
Founded	1 April 1974
Leadership
Mayor	Paul Reynolds, Labour since 14 May 2025[1]
Leader	Afrasiab Anwar, Independent since 19 May 2021
Chief Executive	Lukman Patel since July 2023[2]
Structure
Seats	45 councillors
Political groups	Administration (23)   Independent (10)   Liberal Democrats (8)   Green (5) Other parties (22)   Labour (14)   Conservative (7)   Independent (1)
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	2 May 2024
Next election	7 May 2026
Meeting place
Town Hall, Manchester Road, Burnley, BB11 9SA
Website
www.burnley.gov.uk

History

The town of Burnley had been incorporated as a municipal borough in 1861. The larger modern borough and its council were created in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972.

Political control

The council has been under no overall control since 2019.

Following the 2023 election, Labour ran a minority administration in Burnley council, having 21 seats, leaving them two seats short of an overall majority. On 5 November 2023, council leader Afrasiab Anwar and ten Labour colleagues resigned from the Labour Party in protest at Keir Starmer's refusal to demand a ceasefire in the Gaza war.^[4] This group was subsequently known as the Burnley Independent Group. On 17 November, the council was taken over by the new "Co-operative Alliance", which comprised the Burnley Independent Group, Green Party, and Liberal Democrat councillors and had enough seats to hold an overall majority on Burnley Council.^[5]

Following the 2024 United Kingdom local elections, the Alliance fell one short of a majority, with only 22 councillors. Despite this, the Alliance members agreed to continue their arrangement and continue running the council, relying on the independent mayor to use his casting vote in their favour in case of a drawn vote with Labour and the Conservatives.^[6]

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:^[7][8]

Party		Period
	Labour	1974–2000
	No overall control	2000–2001
	Labour	2001–2004
	No overall control	2004–2008
	Liberal Democrats	2008–2011
	No overall control	2011–2012
	Labour	2012–2019
	No overall control	2019–present

Leadership

The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Burnley. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1980 have been:

Councillor	Party		From	To
John Entwistle[9][10]		Labour		May 1980
Peter Pike[9][11][12]		Labour	May 1980	May 1983
Ken McGeorge[13][14]		Labour	1983	1987
Jesse Bradshaw[14]		Labour	1987	May 1989
Ken McGeorge[14][15][16]		Labour	May 1989	May 1994
Kath Reade[15][17]		Labour	May 1994	May 1998
Stuart Caddy[17][18][19][20]		Labour	May 1998	25 Aug 2004
		Labour	29 Sep 2004	May 2006
Gordon Birtwistle[20][21]		Liberal Democrats	May 2006	2010
Charlie Briggs[22]		Liberal Democrats	2010	2012
Julie Cooper[23]		Labour	2012	2014
Mark Townsend[24][25]		Labour	2014	15 May 2019
Charlie Briggs[26][27]		Burnley and Padiham Independent Party	29 May 2019	18 Sep 2020
Mark Townsend[28][29]		Labour	30 Sep 2020	May 2021
Afrasiab Anwar[30][31]		Labour	19 May 2021	5 Nov 2023
		Independent	5 Nov 2023

Composition

As of June 2025, the council's composition was:^[32]

Party		Councillors
	Labour	14
	Liberal Democrats	8
	Conservative	7
	Green	5
	Independent	11
Total		45

Ten of the independent councillors sit together as the 'Burnley Independent Group', which forms part of the council's administration with the Liberal Democrats and Greens.^[33] The next elections are due on 7 May 2026, where a third of seats will be up for election.^[32]

Elections

See also: Burnley Borough Council elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2002 the council has comprised 45 councillors representing 15 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.^[34]

The wards are:

• Bank Hall
• Briercliffe
• Brunshaw
• Cliviger with Worsthorne
• Coal Clough with Deerplay
• Daneshouse with Stoneyholme
• Gannow
• Gawthorpe
• Hapton with Park
• Lanehead
• Queensgate
• Rosegrove with Lowerhouse
• Rosehill with Burnley Wood
• Trinity
• Whittlefield with Ightenhill

The district is represented on Lancashire County Council in six divisions: Burnley Central East, Burnley Central West, Burnley North East, Burnley South West, Burnley Rural and Padiham & Burnley West.^[35]

The boundaries of the Burnley Parliamentary constituency are the same as those of the borough.^[36]

Premises

The council is based at Burnley Town Hall on Manchester Road, which had been completed in 1888 for the old town council.^[37] The council has additional offices nearby at the old Burnley Building Society building on Parker Lane.^[38]