Your council

Blackburn with Darwen: what’s happening where you live

What the council itself has published on the five things it most shapes for a household: homes, getting about, the bill, the local environment and schools. Each line is quoted from the council’s own document, with the link. This page says what was decided or proposed; it never says whether it was right.

This page is built from official registers only; the council’s own publications have not been read yet, and every line below says so where that leaves a gap.

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council: Unitary authority (unitary), England, North West. GOV.UK lists it as a unitary council. ONS code E06000008.

Council website

Do it online

The council’s own service pages as listed by GOV.UK’s Local Links Manager (Open Government Licence), refreshed weekly; the same list of everyday services, in the same order, for every council, in GOV.UK’s wording.

Housing

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Transport

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Council tax

Band D set by Blackburn with Darwen for 2026–27: £2,062.96 of a £2,455.27 total bill in the area. MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027 (Open Government Licence).

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Environment

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Education

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Changes to schools in this area recorded by the Department for Education Updated automatically

No school here is currently recorded as proposed to open or close.

In the last twelve months: 1 opened (1 academy converter), 1 closed (1 academy converter)

Turton and Edgworth CofE/Methodist Controlled Primary School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 March 2026
Turton and Edgworth CofE/Methodist Primary School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 April 2026

Get Information about Schools, DfE’s register of every school in England, refreshed daily (Open Government Licence). The register’s own reason is shown: most closures and openings are a school becoming an academy, which changes who runs it, not whether it is there.

What the council plans to spend, 2026–27

The budget for each service, as Blackburn with Darwen reported it to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The same headings, in the same order, for every council in England.

Blackburn with Darwen: budget by service, 2026 to 2027
Service	Budget
Education services	£163.1 million
Highways and transport services	£5.5 million
Children's social care	£70.7 million
Adult social care	£90.0 million
Public health	£20.4 million
Housing services (general fund only)	£6.2 million
Cultural and related services	£8.9 million
Environmental and regulatory services	£17.8 million
Planning and development services	£6.3 million
Police services	none budgeted
Fire and rescue services	none budgeted
Central services	£7.1 million
Other services	£4.1 million
Total service expenditure	£400.3 million

Net current expenditure: net of sales, fees and charges; spending funded by the NHS, such as through the Better Care Fund, is excluded.A minus figure means the service’s income is budgeted to be more than its spending. “None budgeted” usually means another body runs that service here. Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Revenue Account Budget 2026 to 2027, individual local authority data (part 1), updated 11 June 2026 (Open Government Licence).

Blackburn with Darwen in numbers

Official statistics for the whole council area. Each figure is the latest published, with the period it covers.

Total population: 162,540 people 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMid-year estimate of the total number of people
Median age: 36 years 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMedian age of people
Gross disposable household income per head: £17,707 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage income per person (£) after taxes and direct benefits
Gross median weekly pay: £559 30 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsGross median weekly pay based on where people live (£)
Children in relative poverty after housing costs: 38.5% April 2024 to March 2025 · Department for Work and PensionsPercentage of children aged under 16 living in relative low income families After Housing Costs (AHC)
Claimant Count: 5.5% 2025 · Office for National StatisticsPercentage of people aged 16 to 64 who are claiming unemployment-related benefits
Average house price: £165,131 July 2026 · HM Land RegistryAverage monthly price of a property (£)
Housing affordability ratio (residence-based): 5.1 affordability ratio 1 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsRatio of median house price to median gross annual residence-based earnings
Female healthy life expectancy: 54.4 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for females born in the given year
Male healthy life expectancy: 54.0 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for males born in the given year
Greenhouse gas emissions: 3.1 tCO2e per capita 2024 · Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroGreenhouse gas emissions (tCO2e) per capita
Gigabit capable broadband: 92.5% 1 January 2026 · OfcomPercentage of premises that have coverage from a gigabit-capable service (download speeds of 1,000 Mbps or more)
Public electric vehicle chargers: 79.4 per 100,000 population 1 July 2026 · Department for Transport, sourced from ZapmapPublicly available electric vehicle chargers at all speeds per 100,000 people
Active businesses: 6,070 number of enterprises 2024 · Office for National StatisticsBusinesses with turnover or employment in current year

Gathered by the Office for National Statistics in Explore Local Statistics (Open Government Licence), refreshed daily. Some figures aren’t published for every nation, so the list can be shorter outside England.

Who runs the council

51 seats in 2026. Run by: Labour, as a minority administration. Open Council Data (public domain).

Councillors by party: Labour Party 20, Independent / Other 17, Reform UK 9, Conservative and Unionist 5.

Next scheduled council election: 6 May 2027.

All 51 councillors, by ward

Aadil Chopdat (Independent / Other) — Audley & Queen's Park
Amin Kapadia (Independent / Other) — Audley & Queen's Park
Salim Sidat (Independent / Other) — Audley & Queen's Park
Rana Khan (Independent / Other) — Bastwell & Daisyfield
Shakeel Choudhry (Independent / Other) — Bastwell & Daisyfield
Shaukat Hussain (Labour Party) — Bastwell & Daisyfield
Jackie Floyd (Labour Party) — Billinge & Beardwood
Tasleem Fazal (Independent / Other) — Billinge & Beardwood
Waqar Hussain (Independent / Other) — Billinge & Beardwood
Mahfooz Hussain (Labour Party) — Blackburn Central
Terri Mahmood (Independent / Other) — Blackburn Central
Zamir Khan (Labour Party) — Blackburn Central
Daniel Matchett (Reform UK) — Blackburn South & Lower Darwen
John Slater (Conservative and Unionist) — Blackburn South & Lower Darwen
Liz Johnson (Labour Party) — Blackburn South & Lower Darwen
Andy Mahon (Reform UK) — Blackburn South East
Tony Humphrys (Labour Party) — Blackburn South East
Vicky McGurk (Labour Party) — Blackburn South East
Christine Dawson (Reform UK) — Darwen East
Katrina Fielding (Labour Party) — Darwen East
Matt Gibson (Labour Party) — Darwen East
Anthony Shaw (Labour Party) — Darwen South
Bradley Langford (Reform UK) — Darwen South
Matthew Jackson (Labour Party) — Darwen South
Brian Taylor (Labour Party) — Darwen West
Janine Crook (Reform UK) — Darwen West
Stephanie Brookfield (Labour Party) — Darwen West
Ashley Whalley (Labour Party) — Ewood
Jim Casey (Labour Party) — Ewood
John Clayton (Reform UK) — Ewood
Altaf Patel (Independent / Other) — Little Harwood & Whitebirk
Haroon Khan (Independent / Other) — Little Harwood & Whitebirk
Mustafa Desai (Independent / Other) — Little Harwood & Whitebirk
Helen Voegt (Reform UK) — Livesey with Pleasington
Mark Russell (Conservative and Unionist) — Livesey with Pleasington
Paul Marrow (Conservative and Unionist) — Livesey with Pleasington
Damian Talbot (Labour Party) — Mill Hill & Moorgate
Julie Gunn (Labour Party) — Mill Hill & Moorgate
Stephen Hartley (Reform UK) — Mill Hill & Moorgate
Imran Ahmed (Independent / Other) — Roe Lee
Phil Riley (Labour Party) — Roe Lee
Saj Ali (Independent / Other) — Roe Lee
Hussain Akhtar (Labour Party) — Shear Brow & Corporation Park
Muntazir Patel (Independent / Other) — Shear Brow & Corporation Park
Salma Patel (Independent / Other) — Shear Brow & Corporation Park
Iqbal Masters (Independent / Other) — Wensley Fold
Mohmed Patel (Independent / Other) — Wensley Fold
Quesir Mahmood (Labour Party) — Wensley Fold
Angela Crane (Reform UK) — West Pennine
Jean Rigby (Conservative and Unionist) — West Pennine
Neil Slater (Conservative and Unionist) — West Pennine

Each councillor’s register of interests is on the council’s own website; we have not yet located the page. Councillors from Open Council Data as recorded after the May 2026 elections; a by-election since then may have changed one seat. Attendance and allowances are not shown.

This council’s meeting papers are not yet read automatically, so decisions and motions are not listed here; they are on the council’s website.

Write to your councillors → WriteToThem (mySociety) finds them from your postcode; nothing is sent through this site.

Cite this page

Harvard style. Every figure on the page also names its original source, which is usually the better thing to cite.

Every council page has the same five headings in the same order. Sources are the council’s own publications and official statistics. Council list: mySociety, UK Local Authorities (CC BY 4.0) and WhatDoTheyKnow authorities (CC BY-SA 4.0); council websites, tiers and service links: GOV.UK (Open Government Licence); codes: ONS Code History Database (Open Government Licence). Corrections: hello@whatsittome.org.