THE British National Party is targeting Vale Royal by opening an office in the borough.

The party hit the headlines last year after three BNP candidates were elected in Burnley.

But Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democratic leaders of Vale Royal Borough Council are amazed the BNP is setting-up in Vale Royal.

Conservative councillor Keith Musgrave, leader of Vale Royal Borough Council, said: "I can't understand why they would want to stand in somewhere like Vale Royal which has a very small ethnic population - and that seems to be their main reason for being in existence."

Crime

Refugee Action confirmed that there are no asylum seekers dispersed to Vale Royal. The nearest place is Crewe and Nantwich where there are 10 and there are five in Ellesmere Port.

BNP's populist policies on crime, education and employment correspond with main-stream party politics but borough council leaders say it is the BNP's underlying politics which are of concern.

Labour leader Brian Lloyd said: "If they work and deliver good councillors they'll get elected and that will generate a support base."

He added that what concerned most people was the fact that the organisation capitalised on race issues.

Liberal Democrat leader Malcolm Gaskill said: "They operate pavement politics, saying to people vote for us and we'll get your pavements clean and dustbins empty."

BNP spokesman Ralph Ellis said: "The BNP is akin to the Conservative Party of the Thatcher era, rather than the unfocussed liberal Conservative Party of the IDS era."

But conservative Clr Keith Musgrave disagreed. "There are no connections between the BNP and Conservative Party in any shape or form," he said.

Analysts say the BNP has been able to exploit three-member wards in the areas where they have been successful, helping the party to make an impact.

Ten out of 27 wards in Vale Royal are three-member wards. The next borough council election will be held in 2007.

The BNP's policy on immigration calls for a halt to further immigration, immediate deportation of all 'criminal and illegal immigrants' and the introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby immigrants who are in the country legally are given 'generous financial incentives' to return to their lands of ethnic origin.

The BNP also promises to clamp down on the 'flood of asylum seekers'.

ecummins@guardiangrp.co.uk