Feedback From Full Council-Thursday 16th July 2026

Full Council was meant to be on Tuesday this week but due to the announcement on Thursday on Local Government Reorganisation, which published the decision for Ribble Valley Borough to merge with Preston and Lancaster to form a Unitary Council, it was prudent to hold the meeting following that announcement as we had a lot to say on it.

Local Government Reorganisation

So, the really positive thing is that the decision made by the government was the right decision for us. Ribble Valley will merge with Preston and Lancaster to form one of four Unitary Councils in Lancashire, to replace Lancashire County Council and the Boroughs, merging the functions of both. Ribble Valley Borough Council was unanimous in our support for this option, which Maya Ellis MP has also been a supporter of, so we’re delighted at the announcement.

We’re not keen on the working title though, we think North Lancashire is a bit rubbish. There’s a nice cross party campaign building across the Council though for the new authority to be called Ribble and Lune Unitary Council. I like it. It’s got the right amount of syllables.

Getting the name right will be unbelievably important. As a new Authority, embracing a new unified identity requires careful consideration of the name. That’s what will define the new Council for all of its existence.

I had a few things to repeat in other parts of the meeting.

Minute 24 of the Community Services Meeting-

I spoke at the actual Community Services meeting on 26th May. It was an opportunity to raise some points on how RVBC can act positively on water safety. what I said at Full Council is here.

“Thank you Madam Mayor.

I would like to speak on Minute 24 of the Community Services Committee. The minute in question was an agenda item primarily about sourcing training provision for lifeguards. Firstly, I’d like to echo Cllr Brunskill’s comment in the meeting about the importance of such a useful qualification.

Whilst this meeting was happening however, a rescue effort was underway in Ribchester. I thank the Leader of the Council for noting the death of Junior Slater in his Leaders report. I’ve spoken with the family and commend how they are coping with their loss. They are now campaigning on open water safety.

This leads me back to the points I made in the meeting where I made the call to take this opportunity to go further than just providing lifeguard training but also look at broadening the training training offer to investigate the possibility of providing open water emergency response training to young people in the area.

I would also invite the Chair of the Committee to give assurance that the current emergency throwlines on the riverbank at Ribchester will be reviewed, because there has been a growing belief amongst my residents, even before this tragedy that they are not fit for purpose. Would the Chair join my calls for a different, more accessible arrangement to be installed?”

I got an answer from the Chair saying that he’s speaking with Council officers and will investigate the matter further. That’s partial success but the matter needs pressing to get action.

Assets of Community Value

I repeated the call for the Council to provide clearer information on how local groups and communities can apply to list treasured local buildings as Assets of Community Value. The current web page on the Borough Council website is a mess and I’ve told Council officers this several times now. Other Councils give far clearer information on Assets of Community Value and Community Right to Bid. It’s an area which is being strengthened by the Labour government under the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. They are a vital to preserving community spaces under threat. More information can be found here.

What are Assets of Community Value (ACV)? – MyCommunity

Longridge Book Club’s100 Greatest Books

A couple of months ago the Guardian published a list of 100 books as chosen by a select few writers, critics and academics. We at Longridge Book thought we could do much better, so set about compiling our own list which we felt better resonated with our members.

Chair of Longridge Book Club Millie Roberts said

“This list is compiled by our members with the aim of being relevant to modern readers.

It contains a wonderful mix of classic books and contemporary works which reflects the diverse reading tastes of our members.”

Longridge Book Club meets on the second Thursday of each month at Applejacks in Longridge.

Longridge Book Club at our Summer Social

The List

1. Jane Eyre — Charlotte Bronte

2. To Kill a Mockingbird — Harper Lee

3. Wuthering Heights — Emily Brontë

4. The Lord of the Rings — JRR Tolkien

5. Pride and Prejudice — Jane Austin

6. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo — Taylor Jenkins Reid

7. 1984 — George Orwell

8. A Thousand Splendid Suns — Khaled Hosseini

9. Mort — Terry Pratchett

10. The Handmaid’s Tale — Margaret Atwood

11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — J. K. Rowling

12. The Housemaid — Frieda McFadden

13. The Colour Purple — Alice Walker

14. Where the Crawdads Sing — Delia Owens

15. The Hobbit — J.R.R. Tolkien

16. The Women — Kristin Hannah

17. The Kite Runner — Khaled Hosseini

18. Fahrenheit 451 — Ray Bradbury

19. The Northern Lights — Philip Pullman

20. Lord of the flies — William Golding

21. 11.22.63 — Stephen King

22. A Rural Affair — Catherine Alliott

23. Chasing Cassandra — Lisa Kleypas

24. Fourth Wing — Rebecca Yarros

25. Catcher in the Rye — J D Salinger

26. The Paper Palace — Miranda Cowley Heller

27. The Nightingale — Kirstin Hannah

28. No Country for Old Men — Cormac McCarthy

29. Nothing to Envy — Barbara Demick

30. The Magus — John Fowles31. To Sir with Love — ER Braithwaite

32. Duplicity — Sibel Hodge

33. Marrying Winterbourne — Lisa Kleypas

34. American Dirt — Jeanie Cummins

35. Midnight’s Children — Salman Rushdie

36. The Rosie Project — Graeme Simsion

37. Verity — Colleen Hoover

38. Life of Pi — Yann Martel

39. Humanly Possible — Sarah Bakewell

40. The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper — Hallie Rubenhold

41. Watership Down — Richard Adams

42. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time — Mark Haddon

43. Trainspotting — Irvine Welsh

44. Rebecca — Daphne de Maurier

45. An offer from a Gentleman — Julia Quinn

46. Angels & Demons — Dan Brown

47. The Beekeeper of Aleppo — Christy Lefteri

48. The Fountainhead — Ayn Rand

49. Lonesome Dove — Larry McMurtry

50. The Midnight Library — Matt Haig

51. Half a World Away — Mike Gayle

52. The Reformatory — Tananarive Due

53. It Ends with Us — Colleen Hoover

54. War of the Worlds — H G Wells

55. Tegami Bachi Volume 20 — Hiroyuki Asada

56. Never — Ken Follett

57. The Great Gatsby — F. Scott Fitzgerald

58. Shuggie Bain — Douglas Stuart

59. Brave New World — Aldous Huxley

60. The Only Way is Up — Carole Matthews

61. Romancing Mr Bridgerton — Julia Quinn

62. City of Girls — Elizabeth Gilbert

63. Dune — Frank Herbert

64. A Fine Balance — Rohinton Mistry65. The Five People You Meet In Heaven — Mitch Albom

66. Wrong Place Wrong Time — Gillian McAllister

67. A Court of Mist and Fury — Sarah J Maas

68. Kill for Me Kill for You — Steve Cavanagh

69. The Kamogawa Food Detectives — Hisashi Kashiwai

70. The Picture of Dorian Gray — Oscar Wilde

71. American Psycho — Bret Easton Ellis

72. Moonwalking with Einstein — J Foer

73. The Perfect Couple — Lisa Hall

74. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — Robert Louis Stevenson

75. Once Upon A River — Diane Setterfield

76. The Stand — Stephen King

77. Let Me In — Clare Mackintosh

78. Bewitched — Laura Thalassa

79. The Inmate — Freida McFadden

80. All the Pretty Horses — Cormac McCarthy

81. Howl’s Moving Castle — Diana Wynne Jones

82. Joyland — Stephen King

83. A Little Life — Hanya Yanugihara

84. The Beach — Alex Garland

85. My Left Foot — Christy Brown

86. The Grapes of Wrath — John Steinbeck

87. Between you and me — Lisa Hall

88. Northanger Abbey — Jane Austin

89. Yellowface — R. F. Kuang

90. The Dutch House — Ann Patchett

91. Norwegian Wood — Haruki Murakami

92. All the Light We Cannot See — Anthony Doerr

93. The Silent Patient — Alex Michaelidis

94. Boy — Roald Dahl

95. One Day — David Nicholls

96. Weyward — Emilia Hart

97. The Colour of Magic — Terry Pratchett

98. Gender Queer — Maia Kobabe99. Rotherweird — Andrew Caldecott

100. I Who Have Never Known Men — Jacqueline Harpman

Borough Councillors Report to Parish Council

Monday 15th June 2026

This month the village was shocked at the death of Junior Slater who lost his life on the Tush. I’d like to thank the Emergency Services for their efforts in a very difficult rescue effort and our thoughts are with his family.

On the that evening I attended a Community Services Committee meeting at RVBC. On the agenda was an item about providing a training qualification to a staff member to enable them to provide in house training to lifeguards when Ribblesdale Pool reopens. I raised the idea of going further and adding to this training offer open water emergency response. It’s clear, having spoken to some young people who were present on the Tush, that in addition to the issues around cold-water shock, that young people present had no clear idea of how to respond. I will be making this point further at Full Council next month. Whilst I’m unsure of how useful the emergency throwline would have had in those circumstances, I’m quite sure that the current arrangement is entirely unsuitable in case of further emergencies, it needs to be more easily accessible.

Now is an excellent time to give the Parish Council a heads up on a project I’ve been working on with residents, so I’d like to update you all on progress towards gaining Village Green status. I’ve been working with residents and the Borough Council to apply to place Greenside on the LCC register of village greens. It’s a slow process and taking up far more energy than I would have believed necessary but I’ve drafted a motion to Community Services Committee to make sure that this gets done. It’s a slow process which has been slowed down and though it won’t be finalised before the cricket match on Field Day at the weekend I’m delighted to see a cricket strip is being prepared.

I’ve been dealing with a number of residents complaints about Greenside car park which appears to have a problem with untaxed and uninsured cars being parked on there in the mistaken assumption that they are off road and untouchable. I don’t think that’s the case and there is a risk that they may get reported and removed, being considered abandoned. The Council is aware of the problem and I have asked for signs to be placed at the entrance to the car park. Currently the height barrier is down due to recent damage.

New Year Win- Pope Croft Car Park

I’m delighted to claim a new year win following more than a year of pestering Ribble Valley Borough Council to improve the drainage on Pope Croft Car Park. Yesterday was Wednesday (apparently) and I was informed that the work they carried out yesterday was to resolve the drainage problems that have plagued the centre of the car park for a long time.

The Assistant Engineer who led the project for the Council said “I can’t promise that it will never flood again but it should be good for the foreseeable future.”

I’ll take that as a good win to kick off the year.

I’m also pleased to announce that further work will be taking place from next Monday 12th throughout the week (weather permitting) to re-surface the car park as it is getting ready for that. All of this work was meant to be done before Christmas however weather and other delays pushed the works to next week.

My understanding is that the work will be done in stages so that the car park will still be partially open and you will be able to find a parking space. Please be patient with the work teams as they carry out the work. There may be a little bit of disruption but hopefully it will be minimal.

My final bit of wonderful news regarding the car park is confirmation from RVBC that the enforcement around pick up and drop off times for the school is aware of and sensitive to parents picking up and dropping of their children.

This means:

There is a standard 10 minute grace period.
The Parking attendant doesn’t arrive in Ribchester until after dropping off time.
my request for a similar sensitivity around dropping off time has been accepted so parents will have reasonable time to park up, walk to the school to collect their child and return to their car before they receive a ticket. It may help to put a note in your windscreen or even for the school to issue a card.
If, in the rare occurence of still receiving a ticket, I’ve been assured that any appeal which notes the reason for parking was school pickup will be looked favourably on.

Local Government Reorganisation and Why It’s Not Quite as Apocalyptic As Some Would Have You Believe.

Local Government Reorganisation and Why It’s Not Quite as Apocalyptic As Some Would Have You Believe.- My contribution to the Ribble Valley Borough Council Preferred option

On Wednesday evening we held a Special Meeting of Full Council at RVBC to choose our preferred option as to what form the new Unitary Authority to replace both Ribble Valley Borough and Lancashire County Council.

There was a unanimous decision across the Council that residents of the Ribble Valley would be best served by joining with Preston and Lancaster in a Four Unitary Model across Lancashire. Our preference will be considered by the Secretary of State for consideration when they make the final decision in Spring next year. The full details of all the available options can be seen in this useful video created by RVBC

My Speech to Special Full Council

I have given my contribution tonight a title-

Local Government Reorganisation and Why It’s Not Quite as Apocalyptic As Some Would Have You Believe.

But I will begin with a quote by Harold Wilson

“He who rejects change is the architect of decay.” (Harold Wilson)

This quote serves as a note of caution to all this evening, because what we’re discussing tonight is a massive change, a radical change. One we will be undertaking. And the major focus of what I have to say is that we must embrace both the challenges, of which there are many, but also the opportunities.

The focus of my contributions to this discussion is not the merits, or demerits, of any other option, indeed I’m certainly not opposed to the four Lancashire option put before us tonight, but I want to highlight that this decision tonight must not be the end of our input into how the new organisation is formed.

Discussion after tonight has to turn to how we want to shape not just the boundaries but the values and relationships with all stakeholders.

This council demonstrates its core values by initiatives such as the Armed Forces Covenant. In my time on this council we have become a Living Wage employer, in line with most of the Lancashire Councils. We have declared a climate emergency, in line with most of the Lancashire councils. We have a farming champion and an Armed Forces champion. All of these are values and ideas which we will have in common with our friends in our neighbouring boroughs with whom we may join.

And we can go further, we now have the opportunity to imbibe the great ideas driven by our neighbours including Lancaster’s Fair Employment Charter and Preston’s Economic Community Wealth Building Model. We will benefit from those ideas as much as they will benefit from what we will be bringing to the table. At recent Parish Council Liaison meetings, the depth of our work with Parish Councils in the Ribble Valley is something we must work to preserve and strengthen in the new arrangement. We can contribute to making the new Council a success and we must.

Tomorrow is Lancashire Day. I hope we will all be donning our flat caps and taking our ferrets for a walk. I view myself as a proud Lancastrian as much as any other identity I carry and I firmly believe that what is good for all of Lancashire is good for the Ribble Valley too.

I have always spoken about viewing local government reorganisation not through the lens of our limited Borough powers but through the lens of Lancashire County Council and the powers under their responsibility. By four Unitary Councils in Lancashire taking on those powers we will be bringing decision making over 80% of Local Government Powers including roads, schools, libraries and care homes closer to residents. We have a duty to prepare ourselves for the responsibility of those tasks which will be entrusted to us.

So what I’m calling for this evening is that as we go forward into the next phase of working with whichever of our neighbours we join with, to constitute and shape the new arrangement, we do in a spirit of fairness, open mindedness and optimism about the great things we can achieve together.

In closing Mr Mayor, to reinforce my call to embrace this change we find ourselves undertaking I’ll quote another Mr Wilson, namely Brian Wilson in the film 24 Hour Party People.

“Mutability is our tragedy but it’s also our hope.” (24 Hour Party People, Directed by Michael Winterbottom)

Note: the above quote is taken from a longer quote by Boethius and is a refrain throughout the film. It’s a great film and if you haven’t already then I really advise that you watch it.

Letter to James Hall (Spar)

Update: Since posting this on Your Ribchester I’ve had a reliable source contact me to say that James Hall don’t own the building now as we thought it did. I’m now seeking contact details for the actual owner to very much ask the same question. 21/11/2025

Several weeks ago I sent an email to James Hall (Spar) who [edit: apparently do not] own the building next to the shop in Ribchester. The state of the building has been an issue which has been of concern to residents for a while now and who have raised this with both myself and the Parish Council. Over the next few months or for as long as it takes I’m going to be pressing James Hall to do something urgently to bring the building back into use, preferably for the Community but I’m open to ideas.

So far I have not received a response from James Hall & Co

Dear James Hall & Co

I would be most grateful if you could pass the following pictures to the appropriate person.

These pictures are of the frontage of the building next to what is now the Premier Shop in Ribchester which used to be a Spar. I believe the building is still owned by James Hall and in particular this part of the building is still owned by yourselves.

As you might appreciate from the pictures, the front window is less than beneficial to the overall aesthetic marvellousness that I strive for in Ribchester and I’m wondering if we could have a conversation about how to improve the state of this building.

In the short term it is important that something can be done to improve the look of the frontage and I would welcome your ideas on how you might go about doing this. Perhaps a local artist could be engaged to create some kind of mural in a similar fashion to what happened at the Longridge Co-Op store recently after the cash machine left a massive hole in the wall?

I’m very interested in the longer term intent for this building. As you can imagine, I’m keen for the building to get some kind of use rather than the empty shell it currently is. In past times it was a museum and has a longer history beyond that. Bringing the building back into meaningful use would be a fantastic step.

Please let me know of further steps to address this matter.

Best Wishes

Cllr Karl Barnsley

Ribchester Ward

Ribble Valley Borough Council

Co-Operative Party Conference 2025- London, 15th & 16th November

Co-Operative Party Conference 2025- London, 15th & 16th November

I was delighted to get the opportunity to speak at Co-Operative Party Conference about the opportunities and also the challenges of AI in the Creative Industries and wider Future Co-Operative Economy. In a nutshell we should be doing all we can to protect artists and creatives from being exploited through AI data mining.

I’m also proud to support the work of Hope Not Hate in protecting people against the rise of dangerous far right division. The Co-operative Party is all about bringing Communities together for the common good, not dividing them.

Report to Ribchester Parish Council Monday 20th October

I always try to attend Ribchester Parish Council in my capacity as Borough Councillor and always promise the clerk a written report but then forget or get sidetracked. This time I got a little bit more organised and wrote a report which I didn’t have tome to distribute to the clerk before the meeting. I therefore gave a spoken version of this report.

There might have been or might not have been a lot happen at RVBC since my last report to you. This is extraordinary in that, ordinarily, the opposite is true. To provide a clear explanation I thought I would write down some thoughts on RVBC happenings or otherwise, as the case may be.

Full Council was on Tuesday 14^th October. It was eventful. The first thing to note is that we approved the appointment of a new Chief Executive Sarah Threlfall who will be taking over from Marshal Scott in January. He is retiring after over fifty years in local government and fifty years at Ribble Valley. We owe Marshal a massive debt of thanks for his service and welcome Sarah who will bring a fresh energy and her own experience from being Deputy Chief Exec at Preston City Council.

The October Council marked two years since the historic vote to adopt the Real Living Wage and accredit to the Living Wage Foundation. It was announced in Personnel Committee on 27^th August that the Council had finally completed the process of accreditation. I spoke in Full Council to thank Officers for taking us through the process but called out the lack of publicity around such a momentous achievement. I called for a publicity and awareness campaign which spoke to the press and marked our achievement during Living Wage Week beginning on 10^th November. My call for the Town Cryer to proclaim was politely declined…

The motion I proposed to accredit the Council to the Living Wage Foundation was a momentous achievement and makes a fantastic statement on how we value those who do work for the Council. The Full text of my comments are available here. Real Living Wage Comments

Progressive politics is certainly making headway at RVBC and as a Labour Group we voted to support a motion by Green Party Councillor which called upon RVBC to declare a climate emergency. The motion places environmental considerations to all decisions taken by the Council and directs the Council to act in a number of ways towards environmental goals. My contribution to the debate focused on the importance of Community Energy schemes, highlighting the success of schemes in Whalley and Chipping serving as proof of concept to take this further across the Borough. Over the coming year I will be raising awareness of this as an important part of Co-Operative Party energy policy, building the discussion, sowing the seeds of ideas and taking us forward as a Borough towards Community Energy.

Casework has been a little slow in finding resolutions, the Buckley Wood Footpath saga drags on with LCC making reluctant progress towards re-opening the footpath, pushed on by myself, the Ramblers Association and Maya Ellis MP.

We’re making slow but careful progress in getting a £40k grant from RVBC’s Jubilee Fund to put towards natural flood management. I sent out a survey to residents asking for them to share impact statements. This along with other arguments has swayed the responsible working group to consider again the expression of interest. I will know more soon. Our Labour Group Leader Cllr Michael Graveston asked a question on flooding at Full Council on Tuesday evening and has been fighting our corner in those working group meetings.

On weedkilling policy, it’s slow progress and I’ll be having a discussion with relevant people after Community Services Committee on Tuesday evening. A motion is written and we’re holding it in reserve in case we can’t get what we want through less formal means.

Real Living Wage

The Real Living Wage

In October 2023 I proposed a motion to Ribble Valley Borough Council for RVBC to pay the Real Living Wage and accredit to the Living Wage Foundation. Narrowly the motion passed despite opposition from the Conservatives. It was the first defeat for the Tories on RVBC in almost fifty years. At the August meeting of the Personnel Committee it was announced that the Council had finally accredited to the Living Wage Foundation. My comments to Full Council on Tuesday evening are below.

“Two years ago this Council voted to accredit to the Living Wage Foundation and pay the Real Living Wage.

I am delighted that it was announced in the Personnel meeting on 27th August that the Council has now affiliated to the Living Wage Foundation.

I would first of all like to say a massive thank you to Marshal Scott for his work on steering the Council through this long process. I would also like to say thank you once again to the Councillors who have supported both the original decision and supported the process along its way. It is a fantastic demonstration of what can be done by working together for the common good. I am proud that whatever else I may manage to achieve in politics, this counts as a massively important achievement.

I must say though that this milestone deserves a far louder announcement than a single line in the Personnel Committee minutes.

I may be getting carried away by suggesting we ask the Town Cryer to announce it from a scroll in the Market Place but I do think a strong awareness campaign to celebrate this Real Living Wage Policy adoption should be undertaken. Would Council be willing to publicly announce our accreditation with fanfare, social media, website, press releases and, yes, let’s go the whole hog actually and see if the town cryer is available? Perhaps this can be done at the same time as we celebrate Real Living Wage week commencing Monday 10th November because I’m sure you will all agree, that is a fantastic way to promote the Real Living Wage and our status as a Living Wage Employer?“

The Original Speech to Full Council

“Mr Mayor thank you for the opportunity to introduce this motion to accredit this Council to the Living Wage Foundation.

Since I was elected in May I’ve noticed the pride by many councillors of their background in business. Many have spoken of the success of their businesses with pride and when we’ve had briefings, for example on the personnel committee from health and safety officers they’ve conveyed a real sense of care for supporting the people who carry out work on our behalf and I want to commend that. As a Labour Councillor this matters to me it’s why my own party was formed over a hundred years ago and continues as one of its core values. It should be acknowledged though that desire to ensure workers thrive need not and is not exclusive to just my party. It’s not a contentious notion that people, so proud of the success of their businesses, could believe that a mark of such success is that all of the people who contribute work to their businesses are given the opportunity to thrive. And this carries over to the work we do here. This motion indisputably makes moral sense.

Mr Mayor, I believe that as Councillors, we should share that same sense of responsibility and commitment to the people who work on our behalf. We should send a message that we care that all our Council staff are given that opportunity to thrive. That’s why I believe that introducing a Living Wage Policy makes financial sense, makes moral sense and it is the right thing to do.

“The basic intuition behind the Foundation Living Wage is a simple one: to determine the wage rate necessary to ensure that households earn enough to reach a minimum acceptable living standard as defined by the public.”

The Foundation Living Wage is set by the Living Wage Foundation currently calculated to £10.90 per hour (Outside of London). There will be new rates introduced on 25^th October.

The National Living Wage, a separate concept, which is set by the Government, is the top age band of the National Minimum Wage Structure and is currently set at £10.42 per hour. My Union Unite have said that Four in Ten of every Universal Credit Claimants are in work. Clearly the National Living Wage is not enough for hard working people. There will be new rates announced in April and I’ll leave it to your instinct as to whether that new rate will be closer to the Foundation Living Wage or further away. Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Rachael Reeves said yesterday that she will align the two standards and lock them together for a Real Living Wage. If the current government were prepared to do that right now then this motion would largely be obsolete. But I’m an impatient man. I don’t think we should wait, if we act now we move with the times rather than falling behind the times. Experience tells us that waiting for the government to do something sets us in for an intolerable wait, the time to do the right thing is always now.

Across the country there are 12,500 recognised Living Wage employers; 10% of which are in the North West, including neighbouring Borough Councils. Several Town Councils are recognised as well as Conservative led Lancashire County Council. To my unending pride Ribchester Parish Council pays the Foundation Living Wage, because it’s the right thing to do.

Mr Mayor, the financial impact on Council finances of this new policy is small. The Council currently employs only two staff below the Foundation Living Wage, on £10.60. Whilst we’re still awaiting the pay final settlement it was stated by the Leader of the Council at the July Council that under the pay offer being consulted on right now, this rate would be raised by 9.4% to £11.60, well above the current Foundation Living Wage rate. This motion would future proof the commitment to a real living wage and future pay negotiations with no unanticipated increases in Council expenditure. We would also be sending a message that we expect external contractors to pay their staff at least Foundation Living Wage. My belief is that there would be only positive effects by this use of our procurement powers. It makes real economic sense.

Mr Mayor, this motion has been consulted with Unison both locally and regionally. We’ve also consulted with the Living Wage Foundation. It was intimated to me by the Leader of the Council that the crucial thing for this motion was to have the support of the Union. And I agree. While we’re still awaiting final settlement on the pay deal, the Ribble Valley Unison Rep has offered advice on wording and continues to fully support this motion.

I’ll sum up now Mr Mayor, when we put money in the pockets of our staff we know that that money is going to be spent locally. Our staff are local to us. They don’t commute from Manchester or Leeds. They spend their money in local shops, local cafes and local pubs. This puts money into our local economy. It builds wealth in our local Community. Our commitment to paying them at least the Foundation Living Wage will allow our staff to lead a rich life and put money into the local economy. When our staff thrive, the local community thrives too.

This motion makes economic sense, this motion makes moral sense. This is the right thing to do and I commend this to the Council.“

The Text of the Motion

Living Wage Motion Download

My Letter To County Councillor Ian Duxbury

Dear Councillor Duxbury

I’d like to welcome you to your position as County Councillor for Longridge with Bowland and introduce myself as Ribble Valley Borough Councillor for Ribchester ward.

Although coming from different parties and political perspectives I wish you well in your new role, because when a Councillor is successful, this brings success the area they represent regardless of politics. I look forward to working with you to solve the problems that Ribchester residents have raised with me in my time as their Councillor.

I would like to lay out the key issues that I believe should be prioritised by Lancashire County Council in Ribchester in the hope that you will be a reliable partner in resolving the problems laid out.

Lancashire County Council is the lead authority for flooding. Ribchester suffers from problems with flooding periodically, with houses on Greenside and Ribblesdale road particularly affected. What support can you lobby for from Lancashire County Council to combat flooding in Ribchester? Will LCC provide support for upland flood management?
Ribchester is a really cool place to visit and there are spots which are magnets to young people on bright and sunny days. Unfortunately, there have been too many incidents in recent years of anti-social behaviour spoiling this for residents and visitors alike. Will you engage with me and support the implementation the measures we’ve talked about regarding anti-social behaviour during the summer months and will you support the LCC youth outreach officers who work hard to offer diversionary activities to stop ASB?
Your predecessor Rupert Swarbrick, despite being the cabinet member for Highways and Transport failed to satisfactorily address the highways issues in Ribchester. The Government had to step in to provide £43 million to LCC this year. This money was ringfenced specifically for potholes. Unfortunately, the current standard of repairs wastes this opportunity. In addition, there are huge traffic calming concerns in Ribchester with speeding through the village and a steady stream of disastrous driving causing regular damage to De Tabley Bridge. Residents are concerned that further, more serious accidents will occur in the village soon. What assurances can you provide that the new LCC administration will fix potholes, resurface Preston Road and introduce the traffic calming measures we’re crying out for?

I will be happy to discuss further with you how we can make progress on these key issues. Whilst there is a unfortunate tendency sometimes to conflate national powers with local government powers during elections, it is important to work pragmatically together with the powers that we can influence, and I will measure your success by the progress that is made.

Kind Regards

Cllr Karl Barnsley

Ribchester Ward

Ribble Valley Borough Council

I sent this to Cllr Duxbury’s Lancashire County Council email address. I encourage residents to write to him outlining the issues you feel deserve priority in Ribchester. His email is ian.duxbury@lancashire.gov.uk