It’s the picturesque village that has a Jekyll and Hyde nature. Renowned for its beautiful surroundings, lavish boutiques and exclusive high street, Whalley in Lancashire is something of a hidden gem.
Nestled in the heart of the Ribble Valley, the village is home to lush, green landscapes, an ancient abbey, a viaduct and a frothing river. With chic bars, independent traders and gorgeous looking eateries, Whalley’s luxurious looking high street boasts cobblestones, historic buildings and quaint, chocolate box style shops.
Yet some say the exclusive village - where the average detached property fetched more than half a million in the last year - takes on an entirely different character when the sun goes down, LancsLive reports..
Residents on Queen Street near the village centre point to binge drinking, vomit, urine and other antisocial behaviour which they claim descends on their doorsteps every weekend. The problems have been going on for months, many say, fearing further weekend rowdiness when the sun comes out on Bank Holiday weekends like this one.
David, a resident of Queen Street, tells us that he’s had to resort to leaving home at weekends and staying in Leyland with his partner because of the louts running rampage in the street. He believes teens and youngsters are not the culprits and says middle aged drinkers are causing the nightmare, telling us: “It’s noisy - I don’t tend to stay here at weekends, and I stay with my partner in Leyland. You get damage to cars, you get people urinating.”
“The nightclubs used to kick out at 4am,and it used to be bad, but it’s actually been better after Covid because people have less disposable income. The properties at the end of Queen Street are always up for sale; it’s anti-social behaviour, domestics, couples that have been drinking and thinking that everybody that’s asleep wants to hear them arguing.
“It’s when the clubs kick them out and it’s people in their 30s, 40s and 50s, and it is alcohol based - and it's the outsiders that come into the area, as they don’t have any respect. I actually look at the weather and I hope that it’s going to be cold, then it puts people off coming.”
But another resident of Queen Street, who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisals, told us that she regularly saw large gangs of youths, and that the problems escalated late at night and that drugs were involved. She said: “There’s a lot of youths coming in from outside, and there've been fights; there have been people having their hanging baskets kicked around, and if you shout at them they will attack your car.
“At weekends, it’s full of piles of sick and drug bags, and the girls who live on the corner are fed up with all the people peeing on the gate. Something needs to be done; you see the gangs, about 50 or 60 of them, on Queen Street, all marching between bars."
She continued: “They have been drinking in bars and clubs and taking drugs. One neighbour at the end had people having sex in her backyard towards the end of last year. People went ballistic when they were allowed out again after the lockdowns - there should be more police and drugs checks at a proper time of day.”
Yet the other face of Whalley is its verdant surroundings, pastoral scenery and ancient architecture. By day, in the dappled sunshine, it takes on an innocent, gold-tinged hue which completely belies the unsavoury accounts of its sordid night time goings on. A stroll through its idyllic high street, which has transformed itself into something of a exclusive retail and leisure destination in recent years, reveals Vivienne Westwood jewellry at Sarah Layton Jewellers and a wine connoisseur's haven in the form of the Whalley Wine Shop and its adjoining wine bar. And not forgetting, of course, Whalley's coveted spot in the top 50 Sunday Times Best Places to live in 2015.
Whalley’s many traders and luxurious independent businesses tell a very different tale by day, with visitors enjoying the historic scenery, boutique shops and gorgeous eateries. Far from their concerns is the drinking, which they say is not a problem for them - but top of the list are complaints over roadworks and the cost of living, with anti-social behaviour and the night time antics low down on the priority list.
Rachael Ronnan, 29, joint owner of Luxe Occasion Wear, a ladies’ wear boutique, tells us that she lives in Whalley and she believes it’s friendly. She says: “I've grown up in Whalley; it's very friendly. Anyone can come in - anyone can stop for a chat.
“Everyone's happy to help everyone else and the village is lovely; we do occasion wear, bridesmaids, prom wear. We have been here for three and a half years; we replaced a department store which was here.”
Janice Hodgson, sales assistant, agrees, telling us: “I live in Billington just outside Whalley and it’s lovely. The store has a prom shop upstairs, which is quite new.” Over at long standing salon Kellie Hughes Hair, Nails and Beauty, stylist Haley Jameson tells us: “It's lovely. It's a very popular long standing hair salon and it's been here for about 24 years.
“It's good to get back to normal after the pandemic and we do change the decor every season. The customers are very positive and it’s a lovely community - and we are doing a garden at the moment where the customers can sit and relax while they get their hair done.”
Katie Rose Woods, 22, of Katie Rose Florists tells us roadworks on King Street, rather than the night life, were an issue earlier this year. She says: “The roadworks were an issue - we had roadworks since February.
“It's when they do the roadworks around here that it puts people off and they go to Clitheroe, but it's been busy; we've had weddings and funerals. It's got busier with the nice weather and it brings people out.
“We had someone in from another shop, asking for flowers and we always recommend each other in the village, especially among the shops since Covid, so it’s been really good in that sense. There's a lot of nice things, lots of new things, like a new tapas bar, which always brings people in which is good.
“We live in Wilpshire nearby, and Whalley has got busier, which is good and bad. For business, it's good because there's a lot more people coming in to visit, but in many ways for residents, there's a lack of places in schools and doctors so that's the flip side. But other than that it's good for business; more people come.”
Business has been booming since the lockdowns though, with many weddings piled up since the pandemic, she says, adding: “People are getting back into weddings - they've saved up an extra two years so they want to make it even more special.”
Daniel Stevenson, owner of The Friary fish and chips restaurant on King Street, tells us that the road works were a problem, on top of rising food and energy costs, but licensing in the village has been a concern. He says: “We are getting back to normal after all the restrictions. We had major roadworks that affected us during the day - it's affected other shops like retailers who do nine to five.
“But it looks good - they've widened the pavements, and you’ve got the artisan market at the end of every month. On the licensing, they’ve got this new law called the cumulative impact assessment and you've got to demonstrate if you apply for a licence, that you're not going to add to the impact on the village. We are licensed to deliver but we are not going to add to the impact as we are not going to sell alcohol in the shop. I don't know how some of these other places will get around it, though; some are saying they will shut at nine or ten.”
The Cumulative Impact Assessment 2022-2025, a report, submitted earlier this year to Ribble Valley Borough Council, is a licensing and planning arrangement designed to control the impact of licensed premises in Whalley, placing the onus on new businesses needing licenses to prove their activities will not worsen the problems. It included a host of impassioned comments from residents, pointing to 'noise, disturbance and anti social behaviour,' mentioning 'shouting and screaming, aggressive behaviour, drunken behaviour,' 'broken glass' and further problems. One comment stated: "Why should Whalley residents suffer? We must have ten or twelve licensed premises , the village is saturated, no more please."
The report said incidents tend to peak at August and around Christmas time, and highlighted how a ‘concentration of occurrences’ can be found in certain zones, which ‘encompass a higher concentration of bars, off licences, late night takeaways as well as hotel and retail premises’ and noted that peak times are weekends between 6pm and 2am, with the highest times between 7pm and 11pm.The report went on to state: ‘Concerns have been raised due to the increase in Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) in Whalley, along with activity associated with the night-time economy (NTE) and violent crime.’
Michael Wedgeworth, chair of the Queen Street residents’ association, has written to Ribble Valley Borough Council to ask for CCTV cameras to be installed. At a recent council meeting, Mr Wedgeworth, a former chief executive of Hyndburn Borough Council, said Ribble Valley Borough Council should use its full range of powers to review and amend licenses.
At that meeting, he said there had been no licensing reviews, no reduction in closing times, no new CCTV in problem areas and no satisfactory reduction in music and noise, saying that there were ' issues up to 5am' and the management of anti-social behaviour on the streets did not appear to be happening, adding: "These issues are having a serious effect on the mental health and well-being of people in the area, Please, please take some action to help us deal with the problem.”
But Conservative Coun Stella Brunskill, chairwoman of the Ribble Valley’s licensing committee and also a magistrate, replied at that meeting that the Licensing Act, a permissive regime which included provisions for review of a premises licence, could be brought by ‘responsible authorities’, the public or any other person, with extensive guidance on how and when reviews should take place, and that the council would consider an application for a review, if submitted, according to the act. She pointed out that there was CCTV in Whalley on King Street opposite the bus station, alongside the Co-op car park and on the Dog Inn, covering the centre and bottom of Accrington Road.
Meanwhile, taxis and private hire operators were regulated by the council, under national law, she said, with conditions regarding noise and that if a complaint about a driver was received, the council had procedures to investigate, a penalty point scheme and powers to decide whether the driver was fit to hold a licence as well as a taxi enforcement officer. She added that anti social behaviour was a police matter, that a report on Whalley’s late-night economy had been taken to the Licensing Committee in April and that enforcement action had increased in the last 18 months.
And steps had been taken to establish pub watch schemes in Clitheroe, Whalley and Longridge and better co-operation between premises had been established, she added, while joint visits by police and enforcement officers had occurred, with enforcement officers routinely visiting premises and environmental health officers paying surprise visits. But on licensing reviews of premises, Coun Brunskill said they should not be started by the council but demands for them should be initiated by other people or organisations, telling the meeting: “Reviews should be based on evidence. They can be bought by responsible authorities or other interested parties. The guidance is that licensing authorities should not initiate reviews, which should properly be bought by other parties.”
However, Mr Wedgeworth says the night time chaos on his door step on Queen Street has not abated, despite those assurances. He told Lancs Live last week: “It’s the usual mixture of shouting, arguing, being sick in the road, urinating in people's gardens, even climbing over people's garden walls, and also of course, there's this problem about the music going on till about four o'clock in the morning.It’s just continued, for the people living nearby.
“We've been in touch with the council, we've been to council meetings, we've written to the council. The latest letter that we sent was to try to encourage the council to use money which apparently is available to install closed circuit television which will be directly linked with police headquarters.
“The reason we need need this is because the people who live there constantly send in reports about antisocial behaviour to the council, but the reply is that there isn't sufficient information to justify any changes which we find absolutely incredible, but we think if we could have these cameras installed, there will be incontrovertible proof of the problems and it wouldn't require people living there to risk life and limb really.
“We have a right, we think, as council taxpayers to live a peaceful existence and not to have to put up with all this nonsense, which by the way, of course does spread out into the rest of the village and is not confined to the immediate location.”
Councillor Ged Mirfin, Lancashire County Councillor for Ribble Valley Northeast and Ribble Valley Borough Councillor for Whalley and Painter Wood ward, told Lancs Live that the issue was down to a minority of individuals and businesses rather than the majority, while most visitors to the village were well behaved individuals, families and couples, adding: “For the vast majority of people who come in to Whalley to enjoy the ambiance and what is the safest night time economy across the Lancashire, and indeed the country, it’s an incredibly enjoyable experience and I would strongly encourage them to come and support our local hostelries and eateries. The vast majority of those people are incredibly well behaved; most businesses cope extremely well with the situation and don’t experience any problems.
“I just think that there are lessons that others can learn from that, if they reach out to the licensing team and the local police, then businesses that are experiencing problems can gain help and assistance, because it would make everyone’s lives far more comfortable; the resources are there to work with people rather than against them.”
It seems that Whalley, just like other stunning locations across the North West like Parbold’s Fairy Glen and Formby, has attracted notoriety since the staycation summers, thanks to its natural beauty, idyllic surroundings and exclusivity. Yet some would say its undeniable beauty is more of a curse than a blessing when the sun goes down.
A spokesperson for Lancashire Police said: "We are aware of isolated incidents of anti-social behaviour in the area. We continue to have regular patrols in the area and work with partners to ensure Whalley remains a safe place to live work and visit. If anybody has any concerns we would encourage them to report them to the police via 101."
Lancashire County Council was contacted over the roadworks. Ribble Valley Borough Council was contacted in relation to the alleged night time behaviour in Whalley.
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