City of Preston, Lancashire

History

The town of Preston was an ancient borough, having been granted its first charter by Henry II in 1179. The borough was reformed in 1836 to become a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. When elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, Preston was considered large enough to run its own county-level services and so it became a county borough, independent from Lancashire County Council.

In 1970 the New Town of Central Lancashire was designated, covering all of the county borough of Preston and parts of the districts of Chorley, Fulwood, Leyland, Walton-le-Dale, Chorley Rural District and Preston Rural District. The Central Lancashire Development Corporation was established to oversee the development of the new town, taking over town planning responsibilities from the local councils.

The current district of Preston was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the whole area of two former districts and a large part of a third, which were all abolished at the same time:

• Fulwood Urban District
• Preston County Borough
• Preston Rural District (part, being the parishes of Barton, Broughton, Goosnargh, Grimsargh, Haighton, Lea, Whittingham and Woodplumpton, rest of district split between Ribble Valley and South Ribble.)

The new district was a non-metropolitan district, forming a lower tier of local government with Lancashire County Council providing county-level services. The district was awarded borough status from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor, continuing Preston's sequence of mayors which dates back to at least the fourteenth century. In other new towns across England the 1974 reforms brought the whole designated area for the new town within a single district, but the Central Lancashire New Town was allowed to straddle the new districts of Preston, South Ribble and Chorley.

In 2002 the borough of Preston was awarded city status to mark the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The council therefore changed its name from Preston Borough Council to Preston City Council. Like numerous other places granted city status since 1889, Preston has no Anglican cathedral. Instead, following the granting of city status, Preston's parish church was elevated by the Church of England to the status of Minster Church in June 2003.

Governance

Conservative Labour ;Administration (28) : Labour (28) ;Other parties (20) : : Conservative (6) : Your Party (1)

Preston City Council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Lancashire County Council. Parts of the district are also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.

Political control

The council has been under Labour majority control since 2011.

The first election to the enlarged Preston Borough Council created by the Local Government Act 1972 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:

Leadership

The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Preston. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1974 have been:

Composition

Following the 2024 election, and subsequent changes of allegiance up to October 2025, the composition of the council was:

The next election is due in 2026.

Premises

The council is based at Preston Town Hall on Lancaster Road, which was built in 1934 for the old county borough council.

Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2019 the council has comprised 48 councillors representing 16 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) being elected at a time for a four-year term. Lancashire County Council elections are held in the fourth year of the cycle when there are no city council elections.

Wider politics

Following boundary changes introduced for the 2024 General Election, the City of Preston is divided between two Parliamentary constituencies. The electoral wards of Greyfriars, Preston Rural East, Preston Rural North, and Sharoe Green, form part of the Ribble Valley constituency. The rest of the city forms the Preston constituency.

Between 2010 and 2024, the City of Preston was divided between three Westminster constituencies, namely Preston, Wyre and Preston North, and Fylde.

Historically, Preston has been divided between such constituencies as Preston North, Preston South, and Fylde South, although until 1885 it comprised one constituency called Preston, which actually included most of West Lancashire.

Geography

Physical geography

The City of Preston district is a transitional region between coastal plain, river valley and moorland. The west of the district lies within the flat coastal plain of the Fylde. The southern border is the River Ribble which meanders through a flood plain in a wide, steep-sided valley. The northeast of the district lies within the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The highest point is the summit of Beacon Fell at 266 m above sea level, an isolated fell two miles south of the main range of Bowland Fells just outside the district boundaries. The lowest point lies on the River Ribble in the southwest corner of the district. The Ribble here is tidal and therefore virtually at sea level. The course of the river west of Preston was artificially straightened in the 19th century, to ease passage of shipping to the docks.

The southern one-third of the district, most of which is covered by Preston and its suburbs, drains into Savick Brook running east-to-west and then turning south into the Ribble. The lowest section of the brook has been widened into the Ribble Link which connects the Lancaster Canal to the Ribble. The central and northern parts of the district drain into south- and west-flowing tributaries of the River Brock, itself a tributary of the Wyre whose estuary is at Fleetwood. The Brock forms part of the district boundary on the west and north sides of Beacon Fell. A small part of the district along the eastern boundary drains into the east-flowing River Loud, a tributary of the Hodder.

The lowland area in the north and east of the district, between Beacon Fell and the Fylde, is a dairy farming area, particularly noted for its cheesemaking dairies. Six of the ten Lancashire Cheese dairies listed on the British Cheese Board's website in 2011 are located in the City of Preston district (and the other four are only a few miles outside). Beacon Fell Traditional Lancashire Cheese is a Protected Designation of Origin cheese named after Beacon Fell.

At , Preston city centre is approximately 27 miles north west of Manchester, 26 miles north east of Liverpool, and 15 miles east of the coastal town Blackpool.

Like most of inland Lancashire, Preston receives a higher than UK average total of rainfall, and is slightly colder. On 10 August 1893 Preston entered the UK Weather Records, with the Highest 5-min total rainfall of 32 mm. As of November 2008 this remains a record.

Demography

Ethnicity

Preston is a diverse city, although the majority of the ethnic minorities are South Asians, in particular Indians. The ethnic makeup of Preston based on the 2011 census is as follows: 66.1% White British, 0.6% White Irish, 5.6% Other White, 3.0% Mixed Race, 12.9% Indian, 5.1% Pakistani, 0.5% Bangladeshi, 1.2% Other Asian, 0.6% Black Caribbean, 1.6% Black African, 0.6% Other Black, 0.5% Chinese, 0.8% Arab and 1.1% other.

Child poverty

In 2008 a survey revealed that 50% of all children living in the city were living in families suffering from financial depression. An estimated 15,380 youngsters were part of the families on the breadline. The Campaign to End Child Poverty report defined children in poverty as children living in homes where occupants work less than 16 hours a week, or not at all, or where the full amount of tax credit is being claimed. The city was one of the most severely affected areas of the North West outside Liverpool and Manchester, with 21% of children in the city living in households which were completely workless and a further 29% in families struggling to get by with working tax credits. The two worst affected areas of the city were the Deepdale and St George's wards, where 75% and 77% of children respectively were said to be living in poverty.

Religion

The City of Preston lies in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster and the Anglican Diocese of Blackburn.

In July 2016, St Ignatius Church in Preston, which had been gifted by the Catholic Diocese of Lancaster to the Syro-Malabar Catholic community, was raised to the status of a cathedral by Pope Francis. It now serves as the seat of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Great Britain

The 2001 Census recorded 72% of the population as Christians, 10% as having no religion, and 8% as Muslim. The Hindu and Sikh populations were smaller at 3% and 0.6% respectively, but in both cases this represented the highest percentage of any local authority area in the North West. 2% of the city's population were born in other EU countries.

The 2021 census showed the proportion of respondents describing themselves as Christian as 47.6%, Muslim 16.1%, Hindu 3.0%, Sikh 0.7%, Buddhist 0.3%, Jewish 0.1% and other religions 0.4%. Those choosing no religion comprised 26.3%. The question was not answered by 5.4%.

Towns and parishes

The main urban area, broadly covering the combined area of the pre-1974 Preston County Borough and Fulwood Urban District, is an unparished area. The remainder of the district is divided into nine civil parishes:

• Barton
• Broughton
• Goosnargh
• Grimsargh
• Haighton
• Ingol and Tanterton (neighbourhood, created April 2012)
• Lea
• Whittingham
• Woodplumpton

Freedom of the City

Freedom of the City has been granted to:

Individuals

• Sir Tom Finney – 6 September 1979
• Ian Whyte Hall - 21 May 1992
• Joseph Hood - 21 May 1992
• Harold Parker (Guild Mayor 1992) - 21 May 1992
• Nick Park – 25 October 1997
• Andrew Flintoff – 20 January 2006
• Kenneth James Hudson - 21 August 2014
• Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines - 5 February 2015
• Jonathan Saksena - 21 August 2025

Organisations and their successors in office

• 14th/20th King's Hussars (which is now the King's Royal Hussars) - 6 November 1992
• Parish and Guild Church of St John - 29 November 1992
• University of Central Lancashire - 29 November 1983

Adoption of Regiment

The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) was adopted on 7 August 1952. This was transferred to The Queen's Lancashire Regiment on 9 September 1972, and subsequently transferred to the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment on 1 July 2006.

References

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