THE Ribble Valley's hung council will be up for grabs when voters go to the polls in borough elections next month.

A third of the council's 39 members are standing down, paving the way for a fight for control between the Liberal Democrats and the Tories.

Several prominent councillors are not standing for re-election, among them lone Labour man Bert Jones and former mayors Eileen Lowe, of Sabden, and Dorothy Pearson, of Slaidburn.

Ted Boden, of Chatburn, and Myra Clegg, of Wiswell, who have been councillors since the Ribble Valley borough's formation in 1974, also won't be standing.

Former council leader Bill Fleming, who lost is seat in 1995, is standing for the Tories in his former Billington ward against Graham Sowter, chairman of the council's Community Committee.

Whalley is expected to be hotly contested, where Wendy Hollin will be vying for election with Tory stalwart Joyce Holgate and Arthur Pearson, who recently defected from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives.

Also standing in Whalley are Fran Burgess and Andrew MacFarlane, one of four Labour candidates in the elections.

Husband and wife Liberal Democrats Stephen and Margaret Sutcliffe are standing for re-election in Cltheroe's Ribblesdale ward. The Liberal Democrats have put forward 34 candidates and the Conservatives 32, with three Independents.

The election count will be held at the Roefield Leisure Centre, Clitheroe, with results expected by 1am.

(asterisk denotes sitting councillor)

EDISFORD, LOW MOOR AND TRINITY

Anna Marie Banki (Lab)

Raymond Bond (Con)

John McGowan (Lib Dem)*

Patricia Rosemary Rawson (Lib Dem),

Alan Yearing (Lib Dem)*

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Stephen Paul Adnitt (Lib Dem)

Ian Frank Brown (Ind)

Frank Edgar Dyson (Lib Dem)*

Richard Howel Jones (Lib Dem)*

Robert David Lightfoot (Con) Diana Ruth Moores (Con).

RIBBLESDALE

Pamela Gertrude Dowson (Con)

John Stephen Sutcliffe (Lib Dem)*

Margaret Eleanor Sutcliffe (Lib Dem)*

ST JAMES

Albert Atkinson (Con)

Allan McLean Knox (Lib Dem)*

Mary Robinson (Lib Dem)

ALSTON

Andrew Duckworth (Lib Dem)

James Rogerson (Ind)*

David Thornton Smith (Con)*

Jonathan William Ward (Lab).

DILWORTH

Michael Joseph Codd (Lib Dem)

Alan Coupe (Con)

Rose-Marie Croasdale (Lib Dem)*

John Stuart Reese (Lib Dem)*

Mary Wilson (Con).

MELLOR

Doreen Taylor (Con) John Malcolm Theakstone (Lib Dem)

Noel Clifford Walsh (Con)*

Charles Warkman (Con)*

BILLINGTON

William Fleming (Con)

Jennifer Ann Grimes (Lib Dem)*

Jeffrey Alan Livesey (Con)

Lois Rimmer (Lib Dem)

Carl Eric Ross (Con)

Graham Hugh Sowter (Lib Dem)*

CLAYTON-LE-DALE AND SALESBURY

Peter Ainsworth (Con)*

John Gordon Rimmer (Lib Dem)

WILPSHIRE

Mary Patricia Chadwick (Con)*

Fiona Jane Gatens (Lib Dem)

Christopher John Holtom (Con)*

WADDINGTON

Harry Backhouse (Con)*

James Peter Warburton (Lib Dem) BOLTON-BY-

BOWLAND

Ena Douglas (Lib Dem)

Philip Godwin Nierop (Con)

BOWLAND, NEWTON AND SLAIDBURN

Rosemary Joan Elms (Con)

Susan Yearing (Lib Dem)

GISBURN AND RIMINGTON

Sheila Le Breton (Lib Dem)

Richard Else Sherras (Con)*

GRINDLETON AND WEST BRADFORD

Annie Gwennyth Pye (Lib Dem)*

Colin Wostencroft (Con)

READ

Peter Emberlin Arthur Redpath (Con)*,

David Robinson (Lib Dem)

SABDEN

Frank Goss (Lib Dem) Roger Kenneth Westbrook (Con).

AIGHTON, BAILEY AND CHAIGLEY

Janet Elizabeth Alcock (Con)

Susan Deborah Metcalf (Lib Dem)

CHIPPING

Doreen Margaret Bailey (Ind)*

Hugh Timothy Gornall (Con)

James Wilkinson (Lab)

CHATBURN

Howard Douglas (Lib Dem)

Keith William Hall (Con)

WISWELL AND PENDLETON

Bruce Dowles (Lib Dem)

Robert James Thompson (Con)

WHALLEY

Francis Helen Burgess (Lib Dem)

Joyce Holgate (Con)*

Wendy Louise Hollin (Lib Dem) Andrew Niall MacFarlane (Lab),

Arthur Pearson (Con)*

RIBCHESTER

Brian Melvin Collis (Lib Dem)*

Brian Lever (Con)

SIMONSTONE

Katharine Mary Dyson (Lib Dem)

John Benson Hill (Con)

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