ROSEGROVE and Lowerhouse residents are going to the polls today to choose their new representative on Burnley Borough Council.

Kate Mottershead (Lib Dem), Bea Foster (Lab), Paul McDevitt (BNP), Matthew Isherwood (Con) and Andrew Hennessey (Ind) are all contesting by-election.

The Liberal Democrats are defending a 57-vote majority in the by-election prompted by the resignation of Julie Johnson last month.

Currently there are 21 Lib Dem councillors, 14 Labour, five Conservative, two BNP and one Independent, along with three empty seats.

The two other empty seats, following the disqualification of Labour’s Imtiaz Hussain in Burnley Wood and the death of the Liberal Democrats’ Frank Ashworth in Rosehill, will be contested in May.