FIVE candidates from the BNP will try to win seats in Blackburn at next months local council elections.

Nominations for the June 10 all-postal ballot show that the party is fielding candidates in Ewood, Livesey with Pleasington, Mill Hill, Meadowhead and Shadsworth with Whitebirk.

In Mill Hill, Alistair Holyoak, the BNP candidate will stand against Robin Evans, who became Blackburn with Darwen Council's first BNP councillor in 2002 and is now standing as an independent.

Mark Cotterill, a former member of the BNP, is also standing as a candidate for the nationalist England First Party in Meadowhead and will also face a BNP candidate, Nicholas Holt. Coun Evans had referred to himself as a Blackburn National Socialist before the nominations closed yesterday afternoon.

But it is understood he failed to register the name with the Electoral Commission and was forced to declare as an independent.

Nobody from the BNP was available to comment.

All 64 seats are up for grabs in the Blackburn with Darwen election, with many wards, including all those being contested by the BNP, electing three councillors.

Council leader Sir Bill Taylor said: "We have done a great deal of work since Robin Evans was elected in Mill Hill and we are confident the BNP have been exposed for what they are.

"During the polling process they will get what they deserve, which is nothing."

Liberal Democrat leader CounPaul Browne added: "I would be very, very surprised and disappointed if the BNP get any seats because I believe people have seen through them."

Colin Rigby, Conservative group leader, said: "I think it is bad news for the borough and I hope people have more sense than to consider voting for them."

In Hyndburn, where a third of the council is up for grabs, the Liberal Democrat Party is fielding candidates in Baxenden, Spring Hill and St Andrew's ward.

The party, which does not have any councillors in the borough, is looking to break the Labour and Conservative domination of the council chamber.

In Rossendale, which also has a third of its council standing for election, nine of the 12 seats being contested will be fought by Labour and Conservative candidates.

Liberal Democrats field candidates in the remaining three seats.

Graham Pearson, a Labour councillor who stood down as leader of Rossendale in February, is up for re-election in the Fareholme ward.

Voting forms for the all-postal ballot are due to be sent to homes before the end of the month.