Labour increase their already large majority on Rochdale Council

Castleton Labour Party members celebrating victory with newly elected councillor Aasim Rashid, Councillor Billy Shreein and Councillor Jean Hornby at Rochdale Town Hall

A superb night for Labour as they increase their already large majority on Rochdale Council with seats gained in Castleton (Aasim Rashid), Balderstone & Kirkholt (Kathleen Nickson), Healey (Kieran Heakin), Milnrow & Newhey (Neil Butterworth), Littleborough Lakeside (Janet Emsley) and South Middleton (Andrew Bell).

The Lib Dems are left with just one councillor, Councillor Peter Rush in North Heywood, who won but saw his 700 majority from 2010 slashed to just 99. Lib Dem leader Andy Kelly lost his Milnrow and Newhey seat to Labour's Neil Butterworth by just 13 votes after a recount.

UKIP contested 12 seats and though they came second in four wards, failed to gain a single seat. Warren Mitchell came very close to unseating Alan McCarthy in West Heywood, where he was just 23 votes behind Councillor McCarthy. David Kenworthy was another close second just 72 votes behind the winning Labour candidate, Christopher Furlong.

The Conservatives lost seats in Littleborough Lakeside - where now former councillor Stephanie Mills lost to Labour's Janet Emsley - and South Middleton, previously the seat of Councillor Mike Holly but contested this time for the Conservatives by Bernard Braiden, who lost to Labour's Andrew Bell. Councillor Holly switched from South Middleton and contested Norden, which he won gaining the seat from the Lib Dems. Councillor Robert Clegg held his Wardle & West Littleborough seat.

With the Lib Dem vote collapsing in Central, Councillor Sultan Ali held his seat with a massive majority of 2,281 votes, up from a majority of 658 in 2010. Sameena A Zaheer 
also polled 2,111 votes for Labour in Milkstone & Deeplish to win with a majority of 1,673. Another with a large majority was Labour councillor Dalaat Ali in Kingsway whose 1,934 votes gave him a majority of 1,579 up from 565 in 2010.

The Green Party had seven candidates standing in the election with none of them succeeding in taking a seat.

Leader of the Council, Councillor Colin Lambert said: “We now have 48 seats in the council and that shows that we have made great progress in the last three years.

“If we weren’t liked we would not have gained seats and kept our existing seats.

“It is now about unity and everybody listening to the people of this borough. The people who pay the rates, the people who use the schools, the people who have their bins emptied.

“Our plans moving forward are about this building, the Town Hall. I have said it before and I will say it again, it is a peoples building and it will remain a peoples building as long as I am in charge. It is not for sale and our heritage is not for sale.

“It has been a sad day in many ways with the anniversary of the death of Lee Rigby but we are leading the way with the Armed Forces Covenant, we are proud of providing services and we now have a significant role as one of the 10 authorities in Greater Manchester.”

Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party Councillor Andy Kelly expressed his disappointment after his party lost four seats, including his own, retaining only one.

Speaking to Rochdale Online, he said: “I am very disappointed but I have to firstly thank the people who came out and voted and secondly to all of the volunteers who have come and supported the campaign.

“We are now going to go away and sit down and have a chat and start planning our campaign for 2015.

“I don’t think there is anyone to blame. I know in my area I have worked hard for the people and there are over 1,000 people in Milnrow who voted Liberal Democrat and we have got to keep doing it for those people but we will see what happens over the coming months.

“It is just a shame that there isn’t an effective voice in the council to go up against the status quo.”

The make-up of the council is now:

Labour – 48
Conservative - 11
Liberal Democrat - 1

The overall turnout across the borough was 34 per cent.

Full results at: www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/elections/election-results/21