Leaders react to election result

Rochdale’s Labour leader Allen Brett said he was not surprised his party avoided a ballot box backlash as his party tightened its grip on the borough council.

Campaigns sprang up across the borough against green belt development under the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework plan after a ‘radically’ rewritten second draft emerged at the start of the year.

Residents were also hit with a council tax of more than 5 per cent in the March budget.

Yet Labour went unpunished at the ballot box, holding all their seats and taking Littleborough Lakeside from the Conservatives.

Councillor Brett said that this came as no shock to him come election night.

He said: “No, it didn’t come as a surprise because I talk to people.

“We will listen when we analyse what the feedback is from the GMSF and if we have to tweak it yet again, we will. We are now analysing what the responses have said.”

He said the council tax issue was never raised on the doorstep, where discussions were dominated by the country’s protracted withdrawal from the European Union.

“The big issue on the doorstep was Brexit,” said Councillor Brett.

“But what I kept saying to people was ‘what do you think of the council’ and 90 per cent overwhelmingly said they thought the council had done a good job.

“I won’t say I feel vindicated; I just feel pleased that we have another member and if we had not had that crazy defection [Councillor Kathleen Nickson joined the Liberal Democrats in January] we would now have 48 members.”

He hailed the gain made by Tom Besford in Littleborough Lakeside, which brought Ann Stott’s eight years representing the ward to an end.

Councillor Brett said: “He is an excellent candidate who will be a credit to the council, and I think he will bring a lot to the council.”

 

 

The Conservatives remain the council’s second largest group – albeit by some distance – having held on to all their seats bar Littleborough Lakeside.

Deputy leader Pat Sullivan said Rochdale’s Tories had managed to ‘buck the trend’ on a disastrous night for the party across the country.

She said: “The national picture is awful – and it’s not much better for Labour.”

And with UKIP candidates finishing second in eight different wards, Councillor Sullivan was in no doubt Brexit was a factor.

“There was obviously a huge protest vote going on and it’s interesting to see the Liberal Democrats doing so well elsewhere, but not here considering the Liberal Democrats used to be very popular in Rochdale,” she said.

She added that her successful defence of Bamford – together with Councillor Rina Paolucci and Councillor Peter Winkler holding on to Norden and Wardle and West Littleborough respectively – proved the electorate valued ‘hard working councillors’.

 She said she was ‘very sad’ to have lost Ann Stott in Littleborough, whom she described as a ‘great councillor’ and tipped her to return to the town hall.

On her party’s overall showing, she added: “It is disappointing, no doubt about it but it’s that kind of area. The north west of England is a strong Labour area, it’s hard to change that, but things do change.”

 

 

Liberal Democrat leader Andy Kelly successfully defended his Milnrow and Newhey seat by a resounding margin.

While he said he was ‘very, very pleased’ to have done so, he was disappointed by the low turnout and he also believed Brexit had played a significant role in the election.

Councillor Kelly said: “That’s what people were saying on the doorstep to us, they were losing faith in the political process rather than the parties.”

And unlike Councillor Brett he said he was surprised Labour did not suffer more of a ballot-box backlash.

He said: “What we will now be doing is holding those councillors to account, particularly in wards like Littleborough Lakeside [Councillor Tom Besford] where the councillor has said he will vote against the spatial framework.

“I think people will be watching that very, very closely.”

Labour says this is a representation of the Councillor Besford’s position and that he ‘opposes certain things in the spatial framework as it is at the moment’.

Councillor Kelly also predicted a bright future for the Lib Dems, hailing the number of ‘committed and loyal’ activists who have joined the group over the past four years.

“It’s onwards and upwards and I have four years to do that now,” he said.

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter