Klepp is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kleppe. Other villages in Klepp include Klepp stasjon, Orre, Orstad, Pollestad, Verdalen, and Voll. Klepp is a flat and open agricultural landscape. The highest point, Tinghaug, is at above sea level. There are long stretches of sand beaches along the North Sea coastline in the west. The municipality is the 324th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Klepp is the 64th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 19,588. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 15.8% over the previous 10-year period. The population around Kleppe is growing rapidly, mostly in the form of suburban single-family homes, but also in the form of some apartment blocks. There is a shopping mall in Kleppe called Jærhagen.
General information
The old parish of Klep was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. The boundaries of the municipality have not changed since that time.
Name
The municipality is named after the old Klepp farm, since the first Klepp Church was built there. The inscription on the Klepp I Runestone indicates that the name has been in use since the late 10th or early 11th century. The name is identical with the wordkleppr which means "rocky hill". Before 1912, the name was written "Klep".
Coat of arms
The coat of arms were granted on 18 February 1972. The arms features a gold cross on a blue background. The cross on the arms symbolizes the large stone cross at Krosshaug in Klepp. Krosshaug is a grave hill located near the site where the local thing met for centuries. The Old Norse word haugr means mound or barrow, hence the name "kross"-haug. The cross was considered a representative historic symbol for the municipality.
The earliest traces of population in the municipality have been dated to around 6000 BC. At that time, the land was covered by large oak woods. The large stone cross standing on the grave hill Krosshaug dates from around 1000 AD and is possibly the oldest in Norway. It is adjacent to Tinghaug, the site for a local Thing for many centuries during the Iron Age. Tinghaug probably acted as a site for the local court and assembly for many centuries.
Geography
The municipality is located south of the city ofStavanger. Neighbouring municipalities are Hå to the south, Time to the south and east, Sola and Sandnes to the north. The coastline is agricultural and consists of, from south to north, the areas Orre, Reve, Bore and Sele. The long Orrestranda beach, one of the longest sandy beaches in Norway, is in Klepp. The river Figgjoelva empties into the North Sea in Klepp. The small island of Feistein lies off shore and is the site of the Feistein Lighthouse. There are two large lakes in Klepp: Orrevatnet and Frøylandsvatnet.
Klepp is the second largest agricultural municipality in Rogaland, with a total of around 600 farms. Kverneland Group, located in Kvernaland, is the largest manufacturer of agricultural equipment in the world.
The municipal council of Klepp is made up of 31 representatives that are elected to four year terms. Currently, the party breakdown is as follows:
Mayor
Since 2011, Ane Mari Braut Nese of the Conservative Party has been the mayor. She succeeded Elfin Lea of the same party, who served from 1999 to 2011. In 2019, Sigmund Rolfsen of the Labour Party was elected as mayor.
