Labour and Tory leaders Cllrs Miles Parkinson and Marlene Haworth at the Hyndburn count THE Conservatives made major gains in Hyndburn in Thursday’s elections to build on their general election triumph in December 2019. They won five wards and lost one with former party boss Peter Britcliffe taking over the seat of his daughter Sara in St Andrew’s ward Oswaldtwistle which she has vacated as she is now the MP. They took a second seat in the ward with a victory for Steven Smithson. They also gained councillors in neighbouring St Oswald’s ward, Altham, Rishton, and Church. But they lost the Barnfield ward in Accrington left vacant by the death of their former group leader Tony Dobson to Labour.