BNP wins first county council seat
The has BNP won its first county council seat in Lancashire in the party's stronghold of Burnley as Labour faced a routing in the town's local elections.
In the first three results to be announced from the count, the far right party won one seat on Lancashire County Council and the Liberal Democrats two seats, from Labour.
Previously all six seats were held by Labour since 2005, with three more results to come.
The Labour Party has suffered a crushing defeat at local elections in Bristol - losing eight of its 10 contested seats.
The Liberal Democrats claimed majority rule of Bristol City Council when they gained four seats - all from the Labour Party, which only managed to hold two of its contested seats.
The Conservatives fared well, also taking four seats from the battered Labour Party.
And Labour failed to win a single seat on the new Central Bedfordshire unitary authority, the second council to declare. As expected the Tories had a landslide victory.
Burnley, scarred by race riots in 2001, already has four BNP members who sit on the local borough council.
The BNP's Sharon Wilkinson defeated Labour's Marcus Johnstone in the Padiham and Burnley West ward to gain her seat on the county council.
The BNP breakthrough in the Lancashire County Council elections will strengthen the party's hopes of getting their leader, Nick Griffin, elected as Euro MEP for the North West. Griffin only needs around 8% of the Euro votes across the region, to be elected to Strasbourg.
