ORGANISERS of the Mayor of Rossendale's Charity ball spent six months organising the finest details of the event but did not foresee a snow storm and a power failure in the same night.

Guests who made it through the snow to the ball at Horncliffe Mansions, Rawtenstall, on Saturday night, were greeted by candlelight after a power cut occurred as the ball was about to begin.

But the Mayor, Coun David Hancock, said it all added to the evening which raised around £2,000 for local charities.

He said: "They called for an engineer who arrived about an hour later, so for that hour we held the event in candlelight and everyone enjoyed it.

"It was funny because the speech I had prepared said that we had tried to do the ball differently this year and having the event in the dark is as different as you can get. Then it started snowing as well, as people were arriving." Twenty Mayors and Mayoresses from across Lancashire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Calderdale, including representatives from Burnley, Blackburn, Hyndburn, Pendle and South Ribble, were among the 200 guests.

An auction and raffle were held for items such as a Burnley FC signed football, a signed England football donated by Phil Neville, 20 bottles of House of Commons whisky signed by all the Mayors who attended, and dinner with an MP at the House of Commons.

A Manchester United shirt belonging to defender Phil Neville, which Coun Hancock had won at fund-raising event for the Macmillan Nurses, was re-auctioned for the charity and brought in more than £200.

Coun Hancock said: "It was a great success and it was nice that so many people turned out to support the event."