Election results: Tories lose slim grip on Pendle
- Published
The Tories lost two seats in Pendle.
The Conservatives have lost control of a Lancashire council they had only held by one seat after reinstating a councillor last year.
The Tories had only clung on to Pendle after Councillor Rosemary Carroll rejoined in 2018, but this year lost two seats.
They remain the largest single party with 23 seats, followed by Labour with 16 and the Liberal Democrats on 10.
Party bosses are looking to form a loose coalition to stay in power.
Former Pendle mayor Ms Carroll was suspended for three months in 2017 after making a racist joke on social media.
She continued to serve as an independent councillor after her suspension, but was invited to rejoin the Conservatives shortly before the 2018 election.
Meanwhile, Labour has lost overall control of Burnley Council in Lancashire after losing four seats.
Three independent councillors won seats, with the Green Party and UKIP taking one each, leaving Labour with 22 seats in a 45-seat council
At Chorley Council, Labour gained five seats from the Tories.
Analysis Mike Stevens, BBC Radio Lancashire
Lancashire council elections can sometimes buck the national trend but not this year.
The county fell in line with the rest of the nation as both the Tories and Labour took hits.
Once it would be unheard of for Labour to lose Burnley, but this result has shocked many candidates and activists.
The Tories were expected to lose control of Pendle but have avoided the meltdown some were predicting.
The biggest loser of the night could could be local democracy, as it is hard to push through difficult but necessary decisions in a hung council.
The new make-up of the council sees Labour with 37 seats, Conservatives with eight and independents with two.
Chorley's Labour MP, Lindsay Hoyle, tweeted a celebratory photo showing the candidates cheering on stage following the gains in Chorley.
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He thanked the electorate and said the local party was working hard to make Chorley a better place to live.
It was a similar story at Preston City Council, where Labour strengthened its majority by taking four seats from the Conservatives, who lost a further three to the Lib Dems.
The Conservatives lost seven seats on Ribble Valley Borough Council - five to the Lib Dems and a further two to independent candidates - and saw its majority fall from 30 seats to 16 seats.
Elsewhere, Labour clung on to control of Blackpool Council after losing four seats to independent candidates and two to the Conservatives.
The party also saw its majority cut on West Lancashire Borough Council, where it lost four of the 11 seats it was defending to independent candidates.
Labour retained Blackburn with Darwen, even though the party lost one seat to the Liberal Democrats and held onto Hyndburn with no seats changing hands.
Chorley was the only Lancashire council to declare overnight with results expected later in Fylde, Lancaster, Rossendale and Wyre.
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- Published23 May 2018
