Ribble Valley Conservatives Chairman County Councillor Albert Atkinson,congratulated Nigel Evans on his resounding victory in the general election ,increasing his majority and winning over 50% of the vote in the new constituecy which now  includes Lostock Hall ,Bamber Bridge , Tardy Gate,Farrington and  Walton le Dale .

Commenting Councillor Atkinson said ''this was just reward for 18 years of hard work in which Nigel has served this constituency with distinction .The local result came as no surprise as Labour eased the Liberal Democrats into third place as we predicted. For the future the Ribble Valley will become a battle between Labour and ourselves due to the changes in the Parliamentary boundaries.

Longridge Conservative Chairman, Councillor Ken Hind joined his congratulations and commented '' We welcome the initative of David Cameron to form a coalition government . As we polled 2 million more  votes than Labour it would have been wrong to have had a coalition of the defeated.Experts have calculated that had Labour obtained the same number of votes as achieved by the Conservatives they would have had a majority of 46 in the House of Commons. This points strongly to the need for Parliamentary boundary reform and an end to the small inner city seats which favour Labour MP's . There is a need for a more equal distribution of voters in the constituencies which will not penalise the rural areas in favour of the cities.''

'' Our coalition with the Liberal Democrats is one which is in the national interest required to tackle the dreadful economic mess that Labour have left , in particular the budget deficit ,bloated public sector spending and the need for revival of the private sector economy.

''We will work with the Liberals in a spirit of harmony in the national interest.''