IT WILL be business as usual in Blackpool on Friday following Labour' s clear victory in the town' s first all-postal local election.

More than half (50.43 per cent) of Blackpool' s electorate voted, returning Labour to power with 25 seats compared with the Conservatives'13 and the Liberal Democrats' four.

Victoria ward was the first to be called at around 10.40pm with both seats going to Labour.

Despite a revision of Blackpool' s wards which saw the loss of Foxhall and Alexandra wards, and the creation of Bloomfield ward, the political map of the town remained largely unchanged.

But Tory candidate Molly Laye lost her Greenlands seat to Labour' s Robert Harrison - making it an all-Labour ward.

Waterloo remained a Conservative/Labour split .

And the Liberal Democrats swiped a Conservative seat at Anchorsholme to take control of the ward.

Labour stable mates Mary Smith and Simon Blackburn took Bloomfield ward, forcing out LibDem councillor Doreen Holt who had sat alongside Cllr Smith on the now defunct Foxhall ward.

At 28, new Cllr Blackburn is understood to be the youngest Blackpool councillor.

"If having younger candidates and councillors is a way of engaging younger people I hope there' ll soon be more," he said.

Councillor Peter Callow, leader of Blackpool's Conservative opposition, regained his Norbreck seat, but admitted it had not been a good night for his party.

"Although we campaigned vigorously on the local elections, national and international politics do play a part. We realised things were going to be hard for us," he said.

" We had an extremely strong team that I'm very proud of, who worked round the clock but have not been able to produce the result that they and I wanted."

When asked if he would resign as leader, he said he would abide by the wish of the Conservative councillors at their annual general meeting on Friday (May 2).

Meanwhile, Labour leader Councillor Roy Fisher - re-elected to his Layton seat - said he was 'very pleased' with his party' s victory.

"It was more than I expected. It's been an excellent night for Labour," he said.

"I think it now shows that we have a mandate from the people of Blackpool to continue with the policies that have been so successful."

He praised his councillors' hard work, vision and bravery 'in putting ideas forward to council and getting them accepted'.

He added: "We have just launched the master plan. We will now see that come to fruition - we will be starting the work on the fist phases of that later this year.

"We have just started - we are really determined to make Blackpool a better place to work and live."