Rossendale local election line-up...

TORIES will be hoping for a repeat of last year's election successes as they go all out to win control of Rossendale Council.

Last year the Conservatives started what they hoped was a revival trend, capturing four seats from Labour and coming within a whisker of wresting outright control from the ruling party.

Labour held on by winning three re-counts by just nine, 11 and 31 votes.

Had the recounts gone to the Conservatives, the present 21-15 Labour majority would have gone and both parties would now have been "celebrating" a year of power sharing in the Valley.

Conservatives don't believe they will have to share anything with Labour after the May 4 council polls when the ruling group has to defend 10 of the 12 seats up for grabs.

Six Labour councillors are standing down including council leader Alan Fishwick and County Councillor Bob Wilkinson.

Long-serving Conservative Councillor Phillip Dunne is also standing down after many years in the Edenfield ward.

Nominations by ward:

CRIBDEN: Clive Robert Balchin (Con); Gavin James Baldauf Good (Lab); Paul John Raymond Marx (LibDem). EDEN: Janice Beverley Johnson (Lab); Gary Stuart Pawson (Con).

FACIT and SHAWFORTH: Albert Terry Bolton (Con); Ronald Alan Neal (Lab)*; Martin Thomas Reilly (Ind).

GREENFIELD: Michael Francis Cruise (Lab)*; Alan David Schofield (Con).

GREENSCLOUGH: James Eaton (Con)*; Bernadette Maria O'Connor (Lab).

HAREHOLME: Paulinus Edward Barnes (Lab); Janet O'Driscoll (Con).

HELMSHORE: John McManus (Lab); Deborah Jayne Hayden Pawson (Con).

IRWELL: Timothy James Calder (Lab); Lorraine Hammond (Con).

LONGHOLME: Abu Asad Choudhury (Con); Donald Paul White (Lab).

STACKSTEADS: Michael McShea (Lab)* ; Daniel William Nuttall (Con).

WHITEWELL: Denise Hancock (Lab); Christopher Wadsworth (Con).

WORSLEY: Geoffrey Atkinson (Lab); Peter Nuttall (Con).

*Denotes retiring councillor.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.