OPPOSITION parties are on the brink of taking control of Blackburn with Darwen, ending 24 years of Labour rule.

Leaders of the Tories, Lib Dems and For Darwen Party say they are likely to form a ruling coalition with Conservative leader Colin Rigby as council leader.

And Coun Kate Hollern, the Labour leader of the council, appeared close to conceding defeat after saying her party was preparing for "honourable opposition".

The tri-party coalition is already looking at radical changes of policy, including reviews on the proposed £34million Darwen Academy and Redearth Road housing clearance, the town's planned £9million leisure centre, and a possible return of weekly bin collections for the whole borough.

Lib Dem chief David Foster is being touted as the deputy council leader, although who would hold executive portfolios is yet to be discussed.

Coun Rigby said: "We have had preliminary talks and towards the end of the week will probably be making a joint statement.

"There is a good chance we can go for an alliance."

At Thursday's election, Labour lost overall control of the council.

The party now has 31 seats, the Conservatives 17, the LibDems 13, and the newly created For Darwen three.

Tomorrow week, the full council will meet at which the Labour group will put forward a motion to form a minority administration.

But if the three-way coalition has been agreed by then, the Lib Dems, Tories and For Darwen will oppose the motion and vote themselves into power.

If no-one can form an administration, power will transfer to chief executive Graham Burgess until councillors find a permanent solution.

The leadership of the Tories, Lib Dems, and For Darwen Party met for three-way talks at Coun Rigby's Edgworth home on Saturday.

They discussed forming a coalition and radical changes to Labour's policies.

Coun Rigby said: "I think we had a good, frank, amicable meeting at which views were expressed so that everybody knows the situation and we still want to go ahead."

On Friday, Tony Melia, leader of For Darwen, and Coun Hollern had spoken but both parties appeared to have dismissed working together.

Coun Melia said: "I spoke to Kate Hollern. She said they were still the biggest party and she reckons that gives them the mandate to run the council and she was not willing to talk to other parties.

"The talks with the Conservatives and the Liberals went very well.

"There are still a lot of things to iron out so we are having another meeting on Thursday night and that will be the crunch meeting at which we will finalise things to give the okay to working together."

Coun Foster said: "So far we seem to have agreed the outlines of a common prog-ramme, but we need to flesh that out more.

"We have been discussing programmes rather than portfolios at this stage.

"We imagine by early next week we would have agreed a common programme."

He said if this was possible it would probably be signed off early next week, ahead of the full council meeting on Thursday.

Labour have ruled the council since 1983, but for a couple of years in the mid-80s did not have overall control and relied on the mayor's casting vote to implement its policies.

It has held overall control since 1988.

Coun Hollern, said: "We will come out of this with integrity.

"We fought on Labour policies, and to take on the For Darwen Party's policies to keep control of the council would be dishonest.

"We are preparing for opposition but it will be with honesty and integrity."

She said the other parties were desperate to take control and questioned how Coun Melia could have left the LibDems to form For Darwen, then be jumping back in with them a few weeks later.

Coun Hollern said: "We will spend the next two to three years not making any progress so that they can play at power."