Rochdale Lib Dems celebrate as council majority is increased

Smallbridge & Firgrove winner Councillor Jean Ashworth with Council Leader Alan Taylor and MP Paul Rowen

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Rochdale Liberal Democrats are celebrating dramatic wins in Balderstone & Kirkholt, and Central Rochdale, though they had a scare with Mayor Peter Evans perilously close to losing his seat to the Conservatives in Littleborough Lakeside, as Labour failed to win a single seat in Rochdale.

In what was a genuine three way contest in Balderstone & Kirkholt, Conservative candidate Ian Duckworth took votes off Lib Dem Pat Colclough, which had given Labour hope that their candidate, Darren Pedley, would take the ward, but for the second year running Mr Pedley was pipped at the post.

Pat Colclough was “ecstatic” at her win. She said: “It was a close run thing but we did a lot of hard work and have been rewarded for that.”

A bad night for Labour as they had anticipated winning Central, candidate Dalaat Ali told Rochdale Online he was puzzled how he lost because Labour canvassing returns showed him winning until early this week. His victorious opponent, Zulfiqar Ali said: “I was confident we were going to win and I am pleased to continue representing the community.”

Mayor Peter Evans was clearly relieved to retain his seat. It is always very difficult for mayors to retain their seats as they are unable to do constituency work, and three previous Mayors have lost their seat, including Jean Hornby last year. Councillor Evans said: “Getting re-elected during the mayoral year is problematic and I have proved no exception, so I am delighted to have won.”

Labour’s Tom Stott lost again in Kingsway, this year to David Clayton. Mr Clayton told Rochdale Online his brother had phoned him from Munich to congratulate him, having seen his result on the Rochdale Online website.

Probably the most bitter and vitriolic campaign in Rochdale was run in Smallbridge and Firgrove with the Lib Dems and Labour both accusing each other of dirty tricks.

Jean Ashworth held the seat for the Lib Dems and said it had been very stressful, and to win was a huge relief. She added: “The people of Smallbridge and Firgrove have again put their faith in me and I shall continue to work with my ward colleagues to make Smallbridge and Firgrove a better place. I shall also continue to campaign against the cuts in hospital services and will not let the underhand dirty tricks employed by the Labour Mayor-elect get me down.”

Councillor Pat Flynn retained her Castleton seat quite easily and said: "This result shows that the people of Castleton have clearly recognised 27 years of hard work and action on their behalf."

Councillor Flynn's opponent Jean Hornby took defeat badly saying: "Castleton was a very nasty campaign. If I had to rely on this to win I would rather lose!"

Conservative group leader Ashley Dearnley absolutely romped home with a huge majority, polling almost ten times as many votes as his Labour and Lib Dem rivals. He said: “I am delighted at my majority, the largest in the council I think. I shall continue to do my best to repay the faith my constituents have in me. I will work hard and put Rochdale first, supporting sensible policies whichever party proposes them.”

Commenting on the Conservative results he said: “It was a good night for us, we held all the seats of our sitting councillors and we came very close in Littleborough Lakeside and had a good showing in Balderstone and Kirkholt.

“We have a good young team in place in Littleborough and we will be determined to win the seat at the next local elections in two years time.”

Councillor Dearnley added that Labour is very unpopular nationally and the local results had clearly been a protest against their unpopular policies. He said: “Voters have made their views known, Labour are going to struggle not just locally but in a general election and once we have our candidate in place we are confident of doing well.”

Council Leader Alan Taylor was beaming as he talked to Rochdale Online’s reporter, clearly a very happy man at having led his party to an increased majority he said: “It has been an excellent night for Liberal Democrats and I am very satisfied with the results. We ran a very positive campaign, we have a lot of very positive policies to implement and we have already implemented many positive policies, and this has clearly been registered by voters.

“I want to thank all our campaign teams for their hard work and I am particularly pleased that we have now pulled off a hat-trick of wins in Balderstone & Kirkholt, what was until recently a solid Labour seat.

Rochdale Liberal Democrat MP Paul Rowen told Rochdale Online he was pleased with the result, adding: “The increased majority for the Lib Dems gives the town stability as we will continue to lead the council for at least the next two years.”

Rochdale’s outgoing Labour leader, Allen Brett expressed his disappointment at the results, but insisted that they are a setback and not a disaster.

“It is clear that national politics were against us,” he said, “and I feel this has unfortunately obscured the failings of the Lib Dems in Rochdale. But our vote didn’t collapse and many of the seats were decided on less than a few hundred votes. We made significant progress in Spotland and have now turned this into a marginal seat. The challenge is to get our voters back and we will be working hard at a local and national level to do this.”

Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Simon Danczuk, added that voters had decided to give the Government a bloody nose and the Lib Dems had been fortunate to capitalise on this.

“These were local elections but I’m afraid the strength of feeling on unpopular national policies has masked local failings,” he said.

A final thought should be spared for hardworking council staff, some of whom put in a gruelling 15 hour working day. Returning Officer and Council Chief Executive Roger Ellis told our reporter in the empty hall after the count: “The count has gone really well. The first boxes arrived at five minutes past ten and here we are now at 12.30am and we are all finished and the hall is empty; as always the count was superbly organised, a model of efficiency and very accurate.”

Council makeup

The Liberal Democrats have retained political control of the council with an increased majority of one seat. The council makeup is now:

Liberal Democrat: 33 seats

Labour: 18 seats

Conservative: 8 seats

Other: 1 seat (Councillor David Murphy was stripped of the Labour whip just prior to the election).

Turnout

33.21%

Share of Vote

Lib Dem 36.1%

Labour 31.32%

Conservative 30.32%

Total Votes

Lib Dem 18,572

Lab 16,109

Con 15,572