Burnley local election line-up...

A FORMER mayor who four years ago saved the Conservatives from extinction on Burnley Council is fighting again to keep the blue flag flying.

Coun Mrs Enid Tate, who first won a place on the council 24 years ago, has decided to defend her Rosehill seat for the Tories on May 4.

But she won't be under the same pressure as she was four years ago when the Conservatives faced wipe-out for the first time in Burnley council history.

Mrs Tate hung on to save a lot of red faces among the town's true blues and she now has two more Tories sharing the opposition benches with her.

Pat Chadwick, the present mayoress of Burnley, will be casting off her civic chains and bidding to win back a place on the council next month.

The former Labour councillor is contesting Queensgate as an Independent -- the ward where she was narrowly defeated last year.

Also on the comeback trail is Roger Frost, a former Liberal Democrat councillor who quit the council in protest over the closure of the printing department and who will again be contesting Briercliffe for the LibDems.

But there was no place for the council's jobs creation boss Tony Harrison in the Labour election line-up when nominations closed. Despite several attempts, the economic and property committee chairman, who had decided not to defend his present Cliviger ward seat, failed to win nomination for another ward.

LibDems and Independent groups are mounting strong challenges to loosen Labour's grip on the council. Two seats are up for grabs in Gawthorpe following the recent resignation of Labour's Ann Hudson.

The Burnley Council election nominations by ward:

BRIERCLIFFE: Roger Barstow Frost (LibDem); Roderick Ross (Lab).

LANEHEAD: Stephen Large (Lab)*; Paula Christine Riley (Ind).

QUEENSGATE: Patricia Chadwick (Ind); Mohammed Najib (Lab)*; Tracy Sutcliffe (Ind Con).

DANESHOUSE: Rafique Malik (Lab)*; Ian Geoffrey Nelson (Ind); Fazal Subhan (LibDem).

BANK HALL: Patricia Bennett (Lab)*; Sajjad Hussain Shah (LibDem).

BRUNSHAW: David Paul Cheetham (Lab); Fred Melbourne (True Independent); Linda Whittaker (LibDem).

FULLEDGE: Simon Bennett (not designated); Lilian Clark (Lab)*; Denise Ruth Embra (LibDem).

CLIVIGER with WORSTHORNE: June Evans (Lab); Leslie Richard Mellor (Con); Kevin Robinson (Ind).

TRINITY: Carole Galbraith (Lab and Co-operative); Mary Jane McCann (LibDem).

ROSEHILL: Caroline Kavanagh (Lab); John Leslie Lloyd (Ind); Enid Tate (Con)*. COALCLOUGH with DEERPLAY: Sandra Hartley (Lab); Patricia Ann Smith (LibDem)*.

BARCLAY: Stuart Caddy (Lab)*; Paul Wright (LibDem).

WHITTLEFIELD with IGHTENHILL: Carole Barber (Lab)*; Peter John Doyle (Con); Sharon Holgate (Ind).

LOWERHOUSE: Samuel Keith Holgate (IND); Joseph Tierney (Lab)*.

GAWTHORPE: Frank Cant (Lab); Laura Annette Dowding (Con); Linda Jean Gauton (Lab); Constance Howarth (Ind); John Kenyon (not designated); Carol Stinton (Ind).

HAPTON with PARK: Granville Lord (Ind)*; James Whittaker (Lab).

* Denotes retiring councillor.

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