Burnley Labour set to make progress in its rebuilding programme

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There are going to be a lot of doors knocked, residents doorstepped and leaflets dropped through letter boxes in the borough of Burnley by the May 4 polling day.

As Labour seeks to rebuild its once solid Red political fortress there are 59 candidates contesting all 15 wards.

Three wards - Whittlefield with Ightenhill, Rosehill with Burnley Wood and Rosegrove with Lowerhouse - have five candidates each while Brunshaw, Gawthorpe, Hapton with Park and Trinity have just three.

The remaining eight have four apiece.

Labour, the Conservatives and the Green Party are contesting all 15 wards and the Liberal Democrats 10.

The Burnley and Padiham Independent Party have just their two sitting councillors - Charlie Briggs in Gannow and Lorraine Mehanna in Rosegrove with Lowerhouse - standing and are not contesting Whittlefield with Ightenhill where their representative Emma Payne retired in January.

There an Independent candidate Mitchell Cryer is making up the numbers there while a Heritage Party candidate Catherine Ramsay is on the ballot paper in Rosehill with Burnley Wood ward.

Currently Labour with 19 councillors run the council propped up by the LibDems with eight in return for their representative Maggie Lishman sitting on the council's ruling executive as health and wellbeing boss.

When the election was called there were six Green councillors

There are four Burnley and Padiham Independent and six Conservative councillors - the latter down from eight after Peter Gill left the party to go Independent and Rosehill with Burnley Wood ward's Phil Chamberlain quit the council, both in September.

Mr Gill's Hapton with Park ward and Ms Payne's are now technically vacant as he also officially stood down before his term as a councillor ended.

Mr Gill's old ward is clearly in Labour's sights while the party is also looking at capitalising on Bill Horrocks victory in November's Rosehill with Burnley Wood ward by-election.

It is also eyeing up possible progress in Rosegrove with Lowerhouse which it won with Gail Barton a year ago.

Labour group leader Cllr Afraisiab Anwar said: "To me this is about building slowly.

"We have stopped losing councillors. This election is about defending the ward hold while aiming to add a couple more.

"We want people to vote for us because we have borough stability to the borough since we took over after the coalition in May 2021.

"We want Burnley to be an aspirational up and coming university town - a premiership borough like our football club The Clarets."

And the party has some big names working hard to hold on to their wards - growth boss Cllr Mark Townsend in Brunshaw and housing boss John Harbour in Gawthorpe

The Conservatives are working hard to repel Labour in Hapton with Park as they seek to build on the party's success in the 2019 General Election when Antony Higginbotham became the first Tory MP for Burnley in 109 years.

Their group leader Cllr Alan Hosker said: "Before I became its councillor Hapton felt left out and ignored.

"Folk put their faith in me. The Conservatives respect their trust and do our best for them and the area.

"Local politics is all about putting residents first and that's exactly what we're about. Labour always promise the earth but they have been nowhere near delivering for years."

The latter group's leader Cllr Gordon Birtwistle expects the party to hold onto its three wards and is targeting Stoneyholme and Daneshouse and Bank Hall wards for gains.

But he does not expect his party to remain in partnership control with Labour.

Cllr Birtwistle said: "We select local people who live in or adjacent to the ward. We don't put up paper candidates."

Green group leader Cllr Scott Cunliffe is hoping to keep its representation in Trinity with new candidate Helen Bridges and is eyeing possible gains including Brunshaw and Whittlefield and Ightenhill

The party also has high hopes of completing a hat trick in Cliviger with Worsthorne ward where he is already one of its two representatives by ousting retiring Mayor Cllr Cosima Towneley.

Cllr Cunliffe said: "There is a growing Green sensitivity and support across Burnley.

"The party is as much about social justice as it is about the environment and ecology. They are all intertwined."

Cllr Briggs said: "I am hoping to hang on. I have been lucky that people like me and know that I do my best for them.

"This is not about politics it's about helping people and that is what I do."

At this point in the campaign it looks like Cllr Anwar might get his ambition of gradual progress for Labour but exactly how the rest of the electoral cookie crumbles is much less certain.

However he is likely to need the support of another party to run Burnley Council and whatever Cllr Birtwistle says the LibDems remain the favourite option to provide it.