JUBILANT Tories stormed to victory last night at the Rossendale by-election sparked by the departure of the Valley's youngest-ever councillor.

Now Tony Swain, who won by 209 votes, will be the borough's youngest councillor at 37 years of age.

He took Rawtenstall's Longholme seat with 720 votes beating Labour's Nick Pilling -- who polled 511.

The battle was fought between just two parties after the Liberal Democrats, who planned to field Michael Carr as their candidate for the Longholme ward of Rawtenstall, missed the deadline.

The by-election was called following the resignation of Emily Haworth, who defeated Denise Hancock at the last election.

Emily, now 22, resigned from the post after taking a job in Liverpool where she had been spending time at university.

After the results were announced, she said: "I don't regret doing what I did because I just didn't have enough time to be able to do the job.

"I think Tony will be great. I was over the moon when he was selected and know that he'll do a good job."

Labour's candidate Nick Pilling, 55, of Rawtenstall was relying on his 18 years of council experience to claw his way back to the post.

And following his defeat he vowed the party will be back with a vengeance at the next election.

The polling station was better attended than expected with a voter turnout of 30.2 per cent.

Conservatives now have 24 seats, Labour have nine and the Liberal Democrats and the Independent Party have one seat each.

Rawtenstall businessman Tony Swain, who recently took over the role as treasurer of Rossendale Chamber of Commerce from his father Kevin, said: "I am absolutely gobsmacked with his fantastic result.

"It was such a close fight but to me personally, I am over the moon.

"It's been hard fought and I would like to thank Nick for a great campaign.

"Going up and down Bank Street on Thursday afternoons, people must have thought there was a General Election going on.

"I would also like to thank the Liberal Democrats for not getting involved in the race as well as all the Conservative members for their support, from county councillors to local councillors and people I have never met before, their support has been humbling.

Tony, added: "I will not make empty promises.

"I am not going to just attend the odd meeting, I won't do that.

"Rossendale needs kicking into shape and we all know that there are things to be done and hopefully we can all work together to make this a great place to live and work."