BARNOLDSWICK councillor Lyle Davy has won a national award at a ceremony dubbed ‘the Conservative Oscars’ for his election win in Coates ward in May this year.

Lyle picked up the award from Chairman of the Conservative Party Lord Feldman at a ceremony in Westminster.

The 18-year-old became the first Tory councillor in the Coates ward since 1976, overturning Lib Dem Lindsay Gaskell’s 365-vote majority. Lyle decided to stand after meeting the Prime Minister at The Alma Inn, Laneshaw Bridge, in April 2013, and welcomed him to his home town one year on just days before his election, when he visited Silentnight in Barnoldswick.

His win saw the Conservatives remain as the largest party on Pendle Council, and gave them control of West Craven by one seat. Being only 18 attracted a great amount of publicity with the BBC News and national Total Politics magazine both covering the victory as well as BBC Sunday Politics doing a feature on him and starring as the cover photo on a national party magazine.

The National Excellence Award for Campaigning won by Lyle and his team saw them up against the likes of Romford and Swindon Conservatives.

Lyle was joined at the awards evening by Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson, and their Campaign Manager Paul White.

Lyle said: “This isn’t just a win for me, but for every single person who helped.

“The momentum we created was great, and actually really fun.

“What was incredible was that the people who joined in weren’t particularly political, but just believed in what I was trying to do.”