TEMPERS boiled over in Burnley and Liberals lost overall control of Pendle Council at the end of an election campaign blighted by claims of bogus proxy voting and underhand tactics.

And Conservatives in Rossendale followed the lead shown by colleagues elsewhere in the county and vowed to grab control of the council next year following significant gains.

The most fiercely contested seat in East Lancashire - Burnley's Daneshouse - was retained by Liberal Democrat Mozaquir Ali, although Labour kept overall control of the council.

Coun Ali had threatened to take legal advice if he lost to Labour's Saeed Akhtar Chaudhary after claiming council officials had given him the wrong advice about proxy votes, which were declared invalid.

The Daneshouse poll attracted a record 70 per cent vote compared to an average of 28 per cent for Burnley as a whole.

Coun Ali said: "The council mistake lost me 200 votes but we still came to the right result. This was a protest against Labour for robbing the area of money, which it deserved."

Liberal Democrats claimed no Labour seat was no safe after increasing their share of the vote across the borough.

But Liberals narrowly avoided an election disaster in Pendle after hanging onto several seats following tight counts.

The future running of the authority will be decided in the next few days, with the options including a minority Liberal administration or another group taking over. Leading Liberal Tony Greaves said: "For the last few years Pendle has been the best run council in Lancashire," he said. "It may be that councillors have spent too much time running the council and not enough telling people about it.

Councillor Azhar Ali, leader of the Labour group, said he was delighted by the results. "This election has proved to be the demise of the Liberal Democrats in Pendle."

Conservatives made big gains in Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, kicking Labour and the Liberal Democrats respectively out of overall control, as well as Blackburn and Chorley.

Labour hung onto overall control in Rossendale, but only just, after retaining six seats, three after recounts.

A jubilant Conservative leader Coun John Holt declared: "I reckon we will be back in power next year - I can't think of anything that can change that.

"Tony Blair asked for this election to be an endorsement of his Government and I think Rossendale has given it!"

Former Burnley councillor Marcus Johnstone has been elected to Preston Council.

Marcus, a journalism lecturer at Southport College, was a member of Burnley Council for many years.

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