Local Election 2022

Date published: 06 May 2022

The results are in and Middleton Independents Party has picked up five seats from the Labour party in Middleton. 

Labour gained four seats; one each in Balderstone & Kirkholt, Milkstone & Deeplish and two in West Heywood, and lost one in Littleborough Lakeside.

The Conservatives lost two seats in West Heywood and gained one in Littleborough Lakeside.

The Liberal Democrats lost one seat in Milkstone & Deeplish.

The new make-up of the council is as follows:

Labour - 42
Conservative - 10
Middleton Independents Party - 5
Liberal Democrat - 3

The full list of results can be viewed at:

www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/elections/candidates/37

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5.15pm Final results of the night are South Middleton ward where Labour have held all three seats.

The Conservatives have held all six seats in Bamford and Norden wards.

5pm Result: The Conservatives have held all three seats in Bamford ward.

4.30pm Result: Middleton Independents Party take another two seats, with Peter Allonby and Lee Wolf elected alongside Sara Rowbotham for Labour. Donna Williams (Labour) lost her seat. The drawing of lots took place to decide who was elected in third place, following a tie between Lee Wolf and Keeley O'Mara both from MIP.

4.10pm Result: Middleton Independents Party has taken three seats in East Middleton ward from Labour.

 

 

4pm Result: In Spotland & Falinge ward, all three seats are held by Labour with new candidate Amber Nisa elected alongside Faisal Rana and Iram Faisal.

Result: Labour gain two seats in West Heywood with Angela Brown, Peter Malcolm and Linda Robinsons elected.

Result: The Liberal Democrats hold their three seats in Milnrow & Newhey with Irene Davidson, Andy Kelly and Dave Bamford all re-elected. Former leader of the council, Allen Brett has lost his seat, after he stood in Milnrow & Newhey this year.

Result: Central Rochdale has returned three Labour councillors.

3.50pm Result: In Kingsway, Labour hold all three seats.

Result: Labour gain one seat in Milkstone & Deeplish as former mayor Mohammed Zaman, standing for the Liberal Democrats loses his seat. Mohammed Arshad, Shahid Mohammed and Aiza Rashid are all elected.

Result: In Hopwood Hall, Labour gain two seats from Conservatives Jacqui Beswick and Alan McCarthy who moved to this ward following the boundary changes. Susan Emmott and Carol Wardle are re-elected along with new candidate Peter Hodgkinson.

3.30pm Result: Labour have held all three seats in Castleton - Billy Sheerin and Aasim Rashid have been re-elected along with new candidate, Aisling-Blaise Gallagher.

Result: In Smallbridge & Firgrove, Labour have held all three seats with John Blundell, Amna Mir and Aftab Hussain all re-elected.

3.15pm Result: In Littleborough Lakeside, the Conservatives have gained one seat with Peter Reed being elected, alongside Labour candidates Tom Besford and Janet Emsley.

3.05pm Result: Healey ward is held by Labour, Shaun O'Neill and Shah Wazir have been re-elected and new candidate Tricia Ayrton is elected.

3.00pm Result: In North Heywood, Liam O'Rourke (Labour) and Peter Rush (Labour) have been re-elected along with new candidate Bev Place (Labour).

Result: Council leader Neil Emmott is re-elected in West Middleton along with Susan Smith and Philip Burke.

2.50pm Result: All three Conservative councillors in Wardle, Shore & West Littleborough have been re-elected, including leader of the local Conservative party, Ashley Dearnley.

2.35pm Result: All three seats in Balderstone & Kirkholt have been elected as Labour, winning one seat from independent Kathleen Nickson.

2pm Counting continues at both venues.

Steve Rumbelow, Rochdale Borough Council’s chief executive, praised his team of more than 200 - working across two counting sites - for handling the ‘complexity’ of the council’s first all-out election since 2004.

“We have got a great elections team and they know what they are doing,” he said, adding that his job is to ensure that everyone who could vote was encouraged to do so and that they get an accurate result today.

Ballot boxes were stored securely overnight - normally a count would take place overnight, but that is when there are only one third of the council seats up for election.

This year, due to a redrawing of Rochdale’s ward boundaries, all 60 seats across 20 wards are being voted on at once.

Mr Rumbelow said it was the first day count he has run at the council since he became chief executive in 2014.

He said it felt very different walking into an empty count hall first thing.

“Normally you don’t see count venues set up with all your ballot boxes ready and hardly any people, so it was a bit surreal,” he smiled.

The reason for a day count is purely to cope with the complexity of a larger-than-usual count, Mr Rumbelow explained.

With three seats up for election in each ward, the winning candidate - the one with most votes - will take their seat for four years.

To avoid an all-out election again in another four years, the candidate with the second most votes in each ward will stay in place for two years.

The candidate with the third most votes will serve just one year and face another election next year.

1.30pm Andy Kelly, leader of the Liberal Democrats said: "No confidence yet because we haven’t seen the postal votes, I believe that we will see a few changes of seats and it’s looking positive."

1pm - Rochdale Borough Council’s leader, Councillor Neil Emmott, is confident of a Labour majority at these 2022 local elections, despite competition in several wards from Middleton Independents candidates.

 

 

Councillor Emmott, who aims to retain his Labour seat in West Middleton ward, said: “We may have a couple of close-ish results in one or two of the Middleton wards but I’m certainly confident we will be taking control of the council.”

12.40pm Counting is underway at both venues, all wards are being counted at Rochdale.

Leader of the Conservative party Ashley Dearnley and leader of the Liberal Democrats Andy Kelly are at the count in Rochdale. Leader of the Labour party Neil Emmott is at the count in Heywood.

The counters are first verifying the votes from the polling stations. Postal votes were verified last night, in order to save time today.

 

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The local election count gets underway today at 11am at two venues - Rochdale Leisure Centre and Heywood Sports Centre - results are not expected until around 4pm.

A change to ward boundaries means that all 60 seats are being contested – rather than the usual one third.

Labour is fielding three candidates in all 20 wards with the Liberal Democrats fielding 37 candidates in 15 wards and the Conservatives, 36 candidates in 18 wards.

New party Middleton Independents are fielding 15 candidates in the four Middleton wards and Hopwood Hall.

The Greens have 10 candidates, contesting the wards of Balderstone & Kirkholt, Bamford, East Middleton, Kingsway, Littleborough Lakeside, North Middleton, Spotland & Falinge and Wardle, Shore & West Littleborough.

There is one independent candidate this year, standing in Spotland & Falinge and one candidate for the Freedom Alliance party is standing in Balderstone & Kirkholt.

The full list of candidates can be viewed at:

www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/elections/candidates/37

 

The current make-up of the council is as follows:

Labour - 44
Conservative - 11
Liberal Democrat - 4
Independent - 1