it was where the package holiday company Airtours (formerly Pendle Travel and now part of Thomas Cook) began life as an independent travel agent. The textile industry, in particular, has now sharply declined, leaving the town with low property prices and higher than average unemployment. Governance Nelson was granted its charter of incorporation as a municipal borough by Queen Victoria in 1890. Radical left wing politics in the early 20th century led to it being labelled "Little Moscow" by both the local and national press; indeed, the Nelson Leader ran the headline "Moscow calling" during the lock-out of 1928. There was significant Communist Party influence in the town between the wars. When the Labour Party came to power in the town, they responded to local political feeling by placing utilities such as gas and water under the control of the municipal council, anticipating by decades the nationalisation of such utilities after World War II. The council refused, moreover, to participate in celebrations for King George V's silver jubilee in 1935, saying that they would rather spend public money on free dinners for school children and the jobless. Under the Local Government Act 1972, the town became part of the non-metropolitan district of Pendle on 1 April 1974. Initially forming part of an unparished area, a new Nelson civil parish was formed in 2008, covering a similar area to the old municipal borough. It currently has three tiers of local government, Lancashire County Council, Pendle Borough Council and a town council, with 24 councillors, which was elected for the first time on 1 May 2008. Nelson Town Council and the wider Pendle Borough Council are situated at Nelson Town Hall on Market Square. After boundary changes in 2020 which reduced the number of wards in the borough to 12, four cover parts of Nelson parish – Bradley, Brierfield East & Clover Hill, Marsden & Southfield and Whitefield & Walverden. Pendle Borough Council is currently under 'No Overall Control' and governed by a coalition of the Labour and Liberal Democrats, led by Councillor Mohammed Iqbal. The mayor is a ceremonial post, rotated annually. Lancashire County Council was governed from 1994 to 2009 by Labour, at which point it switched to Conservative control, then to no overall control in 2013, and back to Conservative in 2017. The town is represented on the council in three divisions: Brierfield & Nelson North, Nelson South, and