The 2003 Pendle Borough Council election took place on 1 May 2003 to elect members of Pendle Borough Council in Lancashire, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.^[1]

After the election, the composition of the council was

• Liberal Democrat 23
• Labour 15
• Conservative 11^[2]

Before the election the council had 19 Labour, 19 Liberal Democrat and 11 Conservative councillors,^[3] with Labour holding power as a minority administration.^[4] 18 seats were being elected, with 2 seats contested in Boulsworth after the death of councillor Jo Belbin.^[3] In total 63 candidates stood, with only one sitting councillor, Abdul Jabbar in Brierfield, not standing for re-election.^[3] As well as candidates from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, there were also 3 candidates from the Socialist Alliance, 4 independents and 4 from the British National Party.^[3][4] This was the first time the British National Party had put up candidates in Pendle.^[3]

Issues in the election included the proposed redevelopment of Nelson town centre, plans for an A56 bypass and the proposed demolition of houses in Nelson West.^[5] Other issues as usual were council tax levels, litter, street safety and crime, while the national issue of the Iraq War was expected to influence voters.^[5]

The results saw the Liberal Democrats become the largest party on the council, but without a majority, after making four gains from Labour.^[6] This took the Liberal Democrats to 23 seats, compared to 15 for Labour and 11 Conservatives,^[6] after the Liberal Democrats nearly won as many votes as the Conservative and Labour parties combined.^[7] The Labour leader of the council, Azhar Ali, was among the councillors to lose their seats in the election, which saw the party fail to win any seats.^[6] Ali blamed the defeats both on a backlash against the Iraq War and on an alleged "dirty tricks campaign".^[6] Meanwhile, the British National Party failed to win any seats, but did poll a significant number of votes.^[8]

Following the election many of the Liberal Democrat councillors boycotted the swearing in of a new mayor in protest against the way he was elected instead of the previous years deputy mayor.^[9][10] Liberal Democrat Alan Davies became the new leader of the council, but his party initially refused to take places on the executive committee.^[11] This was because the council had voted for a 4–3–3 party split on the committee rather than the 5–3–2 split the Liberal Democrats had proposed.^[11] Meanwhile, the Labour group chose Frank Clifford to become the new leader of their group.^[12]