LABOUR have their sights set on repeating last year's clean sweep in the Hyndburn borough council elections.

Last May, the controlling group kept their promise of a landslide victory and won all 16 seats contested.

This time around the Conservatives are looking to hold on to 9 seats in the council chamber.

If Labour were to wrestle all nine from the opposition's grasp, the Tory ranks would be reduced to just one councillor.

But they face a tough ballot box battle with senior Conservative councillors including Tory group leader Peter Britcliffe, and deputy mayor and mayoress Doug and Sandra Hayes, seeking re-election.

Both main parties are contesting all 16 seats up for grabs, while the Liberal Democrats are fielding candidates in just three wards.

Labour currently has a 36-seat hold on the council, with the Conservatives holding nine seats, the Liberal Democrats one, and one vacancy.

The line-up (* denotes retiring councillor) is:

Barnfield: Brenda Haworth (Lab), Margaret Rose McGilveray (C), Trevor William Whitchelo (Lib Dem).

Baxenden: James Dickinson (C), Leslie Jones (Lib Dem), Josephine Sargison (Lab).

Central: Stephen George Crooks (C), Richard Ellis Heap (Lab)*.

Church: Richard David Massey (Lab)*, Marion Raynor (C).

Clayton-le-Moors: Susan Haworth (C)*, Timothy Aidan O'Kane (Lab).

Eachill: Winifred Lesley Jackson (Lab), Frederick Beck Parkinson (C).

Huncoat: Rennie Pinder (C), Malcolm Ranger (Lab).

Immanuel: Joyce Muriel Beswick (Lab), Sandra Kathrine Hayes (C)*.

Milnshaw: Stanley Horne (C), Malcolm Eric Pritchard (Lib Dem), John Leslie Wells (Lab).

Netherton: Leslie Goodwin (Lab)*, Richard John Oakley (C).

Norden: Bessie Hillman (Lab), Ann Scaife (C), Stephen Henry Scarr (ind Lab).

Overton: Peter Clarke (C), Mohammed Altafur Rahman (Lab).

Peel: Bernard Dawson (Lab)*, Derek Wolstenholme (C).

Spring Hill: Brian Tomlinson (C), Clifford Westell (Lab)*.

St Andrew's: Peter Britcliffe (C)*, John Vincent Tunstall (Lab).

St Oswald's: Douglas Hayes (C)*, Dorothy Westell (Lab).

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.