BLACKBURN WITH DARWEN

Borough of Blackburn with Darwen
EnglandBlackburnDarwen.png
Geography
Status:	Unitary, Borough
Region:	North West England
Ceremonial County:	Lancashire
Area: - Total	Ranked 220th 137.01 km²
Admin. HQ:	Blackburn
ONS code:	00EX
Demographics
Population: - Total () - Density	Ranked / km²
Ethnicity:	77.9% White 20.6% S.Asian
Politics
Arms of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council http://www.blackburn.gov.uk/
Leadership:	Leader & Cabinet
Executive:
MPs:	Janet Anderson (L)Jack Straw (L)

'Blackburn with Darwen' is a unitary authority in Lancashire, North West England. It consists of Blackburn, the small town of Darwen to the south of it, and the surrounding countryside.
It was founded in 1974 as the Lancashire borough of Blackburn, from the County Borough of Blackburn, the Borough of Darwen, parts of Turton Urban District (chiefly the villages of Belmont, Chapeltown and Edgworth) and parts of Blackburn Rural District.
It was renamed in May 1997, in preparation for a split from Lancashire County Council. On April 1, 1998 it became a unitary authority. The authority borders with areas administered as Greater Manchester, and Lancashire.
The percent of Muslim population (19.4% or 26,674 people) is the third highest among all local authorities in the United Kingdom and the highest outside London.

Contents

Local elections

June 2004

July 2004 bye-election

May 2006

May 2007 election

Current council

September 2006 bye-election

Economy

External links

Local elections

As of 2006, the borough is divided up into 23 wards, all with three councillors with the exception of Earcroft, Whitehall, and North Turton and Tockholes, which have 2 members, and East Rural which has one.

June 2004

2004 local elections heralded a shock result as Labour council leader Sir Bill Taylor lost his seat to Liberal Democrat Zamir Khan. "This morning as I was shaving I thought I could get beat and that is what happened", commented Taylor after the result. "I canvassed more for this election than for any other. I spoke to more than a thousand people on their doorsteps and was not given any suggestion there were any difficulties." Liberal leader Paul Browne blamed the defeat on dissatisfaction with British foreign policy in a largely muslim area: "Sir Bill has gone because of what has happened in Iraq. Simple." Only 63 of the 64 seats on the council were filled as the Earcroft ward bye-election took place a month after due to the death of Mayor Mike Barratt.^[1] Yusuf Sidat was elected as an independent in Queen's Park Ward.
'Summary of the 10 June 2004 local election results for Blackburn with Darwen Council
|-
!colspan=2|Parties
!Seats
!Previous
!Net
Gain/Loss
|-
|33||35||-2
|-
|17||15||+2
|-
|12||8||+4
|-
|
|align=left|Independent
|1||2||-1
|-
!colspan=2|Total!!63!!60
|}
Source: [1] [2]

July 2004 bye-election

May 2006

'Summary of the 4 May 2006 local election results for Blackburn with Darwen Council
|-
!colspan=2|Parties
!Seats
!Previous
!Net
Gain/Loss
|-
|33||34||-2
|-
|15||17||-2
|-
|13||11||+2
|-
|2||?||?
|-
|
|align=left|Independent
|1||?||?
|-
!colspan=2|Total!!64!!64
|}
Source: [3] [4]

May 2007 election

'Summary of the 3 May 2007 local election results for Blackburn with Darwen Council
|-
!colspan=2|Parties
!Seats
!Previous
!Net
Gain/Loss
|-
|31||32||-1
|-
|17||15||+2
|-
|13||13||0
|-
|
|align=left|For Darwen
|3||1||+2
|-
|0||0||0
|-
|
|align=left|Independent
|0||1||-1
|-
|
|align=left|Vacant
|0||2||-2
|-
|
!colspan=2|Total!!64!!64
|}

Current council

September 2006 bye-election

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Blackburn with Darwen at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by ''Office for National Statistics'' with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added[2]	Agriculture[3]	Industry[4]	Services[5]
1995	'1,496'	3	755	737
2000	'1,597'	3	678	916
2003	'1,785'	4	647	1,134

1. Sir Bill gets the boot in election shock, 12 June 2004, ''Lancashire Evening Telegraph''
2. Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
3. includes hunting and forestry
4. includes energy and construction
5. includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

External links

★ Blackburn with Darwen Communities : Free websites for local community groups

★ BlackburnWorld : the internet portal for Blackburn with Darwen

★ Blackburn Business Net : News and Events for Blackburn with Darwen Businesses

★ Images Of Blackburn

★ North Turton Weather Station located at Edgworth, Lancashire.