Night of drama and a few surprises leaves town with hung council

Liberal Democrat's Wera and William Hobhouse

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A night of drama and a few surprises has left the town with another hung council. The final count sees the Liberal Democrats by far the largest group on the council now with 30 seats; Labour has 20 seats and the Conservatives 10 seats.

Liberal Democrat leader Alan Taylor, who retained his seat comfortably, said that the Liberal Democrats will be claiming the right to lead the council. He said: “We have 30 seats and are the largest group on the council; the voters of Rochdale have spoken and they clearly want a Liberal Democrat run council. If the other two parties get together to try and deny us that then so be it but we will resist strongly.” Asked about his own ward of Healey, and in particular the strong BNP vote, he said: “I was confident of winning and I don’t think the BNP vote was a factor. The Conservatives got what they deserved for propping up a Labour council. The voters of Healey ward have made it quite clear that they want to continue being represented by the Liberal Democrats.”

Leader of the Labour Group Allen Brett was surprisingly candid in his observations, he said: “We had a very good result in Central ward where Ibrar Khan defeated Lib Dem deputy leader Shah Wazir, but there is no point trying to disguise it has been a very disappointing night for us.” Asked what he thought had cost Labour votes he said: “The Lib Dems are very well organised and put in a lot of effort, however, there have also been national issues, particularly over the past ten days, that I think have badly affected our vote.” He went on to say that though the night had not been a good one for Labour he was even more surprised by what he called the “collapse of the Tory vote.”

Councillor Ian Duckworth, leader of the Conservative Group, could not hide his deep disappointment of the Conservative candidates in Norden and in Bamford losing to Wera and William Hobhouse. He said: “The result is bad for us, though we have gained one seat I expected we would regain both Norden and Bamford and I feel sorry for the excellent candidates we put up that have lost out.” Asked if he felt that co-operating with Labour was the deciding factor he said: “I am the leader of the group so I take full responsibility for that decision. I felt it was the right one at the time, and I still think it is the right one now, though I admit it does not look to have gone down well with our voters.”

Wera and William Hobhouse were clearly elated at having won their seats in Liberal Democrat colours and even they expressed surprise at how comfortably they did so. Wera said: “I have worked hard in the ward and I think the voters appreciated that. I never take anything for granted and I am careful not to make any promises I cannot keep, but it is a good night for William and I and we are very keen to continue representing our wards.” Asked if she was surprised at her husband retaining Bamford when many had predicted he would lose she said: “William is a very organised man, and when he plays games he plays to win, so I am not surprised, he is my husband and so even though I say it myself, he is very good.”

Two first time candidates made gains for the Liberal Democrats, Mark Birkett winning Kingsway with the slenderest of margins to take Labour’s Tom Stott’s seat on the council. Mark said of his win: “I understand the hard work starts now. I had a good team and they did everything they could to get me elected and it has paid off. However, I realise that with the vote being so close I have to convince a lot of people who didn’t vote for me in the ward, but I intend to represent all the constituents of the ward.”

The spectacular gain of the night was achieved by Dale Mulgrew in Balderstone and Kirkholt in what was previously a solid Labour ward. Dale almost doubled the Lib Dem vote whilst Labours vote shrank to just two thirds of the 2004 result. Speaking to Rochdale Online within seconds of the result being announced Dale said: “I am absolutely delighted, I knew I had done well but I didn’t dare think that I had won until all the votes were counted.” He went on to say: “I am very much looking forward to continuing to try and address issues in the ward. I have been active on that front since last year, but being a councillor will make it easier to influence the things that need addressing.”

The one blot on the Liberal Democrat landscape was the loss of Deputy Leader Shah Wazir who failed to hold his Central seat. He feared the worst from his viewpoint as the count progressed and left the Town Hall quickly when the result became apparent.

On a serious note Liberal Democrat Councillor Angela Coric, who held her seat very comfortably despite what she called “the dirtiest campaign I have ever endured” has reported one incident of what she said was “racism” to the police. She was jubilant in victory, but deeply concerned at the effect on her ward of what she called “extremist elements that have peddled lies and tried to intimidate people into not voting.”

Police also had to be called to a voting station on Gale Street Syke, when the BNP candidate Donald Mooney was involved in an altercation.

In Heywood Labour’s Carol Wardle and Alan McCarthy easily retained their council seats, however, Liberal Democrat Peter Rush defeated Nick Maher to take his seat on the council.

Labour retained three of the four seats they were defending in Middleton with former councillor Robin Parker returning to the council chamber having won in West Middleton. However, in the closest result of the night, and one that required a recount, the Conservatives Michael Holly unseated Labours Peter Williams by the slender margin of just 19 votes.

Council Chief Executive Roger Ellis explained to our reporter that the council meeting that will take place on the 17 May will decide who runs the council and is dependent on a vote by all councillors. If all 60 councillors attend and the Labour and Conservative Groups agree to continue working together then a potential 30-30 vote would leave the incoming Mayor, Labour Councillor Jean Hornby with a casting vote.

There could of course be a lot of horse trading between now and the 17th, watch this space…

• View Results in full...
  
  
• View all 60 photos from the nights count...
  
  
• View the live commentary from the Town Hall during the count...

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LOCAL ELECTION 2006
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