A SHIFT in the balance of power for Rossendale Council looks set to force the ruling Tories to hand over more power to their political opponents.

By-election victories by the opposition Labour party across the valley have prompted a rethink on the composition of key council committees.

Just after the main 2006 polls, the Conservatives were comfortably in control at Rossendale, with 25 seats.

But today that number has fallen to 19 - chiefly because of a triple election defeat in September in the Goodshaw, Irwell and Whitewall wards.

Labour has 14 members, with two Liberal Democrats and one Independent.

As first revealed by the Lancashire Telegraph, the council is also set to have a new leader, following the resignation of Coun Duncan Ruddick, who appears to have paid the price for the Conservatives' poor showing at the polls.

Council chief executive Carolyn Wilkins says in a report to the full council: "It is the duty of the council, under the Local Government Act, to review the representation of different political groups on committees at its annual meeting and at other times when there are changes to the political groupings."

Town hall officials have drawn up a series of five options, on the balance of power question, to be debated by all councillors at their meeting at Hardman Mill in Rawtenstall tomorrow (WED) night.

The first will see each committee divided up exactly according to the political seats occupied by the three parties and one independent member.

Each of the five options give the same weighting - six Tories, three Labour, one Lib Dem and one independent - on the development control committee.

And broadly similar arrangements are arrived at for other key council committees such as licensing, accounts and Lancashire Local Rossendale.

But the remaining four alternatives offer differing number of seats on the crucial overview and scrutiny management, performance management and policy scrutiny committee, which examines the work of the ruling executive.

The nearest one giving parity to the current political situation is the fifth option, which would see three Labour councillors and an independent on the seven-strong performance scrutiny body and the Tories enjoying only a slim one-councillor majority on the main management committee.