A RURAL borough's new mayor has pledged to speak up for farming.

Former computer expert and entrepreneur Cllr Louise Edge has been installed as Ribble Valley’s new mayor.

As she received her civic chains at a ceremony in the borough's Clitheroe Council Chamber, she dedicated her mayoral year to speaking up for rural communities and raising awareness of the pressures facing farmers against a backdrop of unprecedented change.

Born and brought up in Oldham, Cllr Edge attended Bournemouth University where she obtained a degree in business studies.

She trained as a computer programmer and, after a stint as an IT tester, took up a post as a business analyst at GEC Switchgear, before working as a business systems analyst at Express Gifts in Accrington for 12 years, where she helped to devise automated systems for order processing and warehousing.

Louise met her husband Phillip, a farmer, on a blind date in 1991 and they hit it off straight away.

Together they ran Phillip’s Fairfield Farm in Longsight Road, Clayton-le-Dale, developing it into a thriving ‘field to plate’ farm shop and butchers which was one of the original members of the award-winning Ribble Valley Food Trail.

The site is now a thriving business park with 20 units, while the Clayton-le-Dale and Salesbury councillor has developed the two-acre grounds at her nearby farmhouse into a wildlife haven and woodland.

A former magistrate, Cllr Edge was a trustee of the hugely successful Blackburn Women’s Centre, secretary and chairman of the North West Hardy Plant Society, and is a former trustee of the Mellor Brook Community Centre.

She and Phillip, who is her consort, have three daughters: statistician Rhiannon, geneticist Giselle and mathematician Bronwen.

Her chosen charities are the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution and the North-West Air Ambulance.