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Night of joy for Lib Dems

Damon Wilkinson and Helen Johnson
2/ 5/2008

IT WAS smiles all round for the Liberal Democrats as they increased their majority at Thursday’s elections

The party picked up seats in Balderstone and Kirkholt, and North Heywood, but lost out to Labour in East Middleton to finish one seat up from a last year – an overall majority of six.

The Lib Dems now have 33 seats on the council compared to Labour’s 19.

And it is as you were for the Conservatives after they failed to make any gains, leaving them with eight seats.

The council leader, Councillor Alan Taylor, said the result vindicated the changes put in place by his party, such as the switch to fortnightly bin collections.

He said: "I am delighted because we fought a very positive campaign.

"Rochdale has had a Lib Dem council for two years and we are starting to see the difference we have made

"We have listened to people and put them first and they have responded.

"The switch to fortnightly bin collections has been a brilliant success.

"There were a few teething problems to start with but generally people have welcomed it.

"We have increased the amount we recycle and have saved about £2M."

He added the Lib Dems were now looking to stay in power for a long time.

"When people have a Lib Dem council they seem to keep re-electing them," he added

"Look at Stockport. The Lib Dems have been in power there for more than 20 years and that is because people know we do not have to toe the party line.

"We listen to people and act on their concerns."

Outgoing Labour leader Allen Brett who, after not standing in Balderstone and Kirkholt saw his seat taken by Lib Dem Pat Colclough, blamed the disappointing showing on voters’ disenchantment with the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

He said: "It’s disappointing but, having said that, we had some good results in Spotland and Falinge, Smallbridge and Firgrove, and Milnrow and Newhey, where we had a lot of votes.

"This year, national politics were against us."

Councillor Brett added that he was not retiring altogether from politics, but was ‘going into the background’.

Conservative leader Ashley Dearnley, who held his Wardle and West Littleborough seat with the biggest majority of the night, said there were encouraging signs for his party.

He said: "I am delighted we have held every seat that we fought because tonight the public has sent out a protest message to the government.

"They have voted for the party they thought were most likely to get rid of the Labour councillor and in a lot of places they thought that was the Liberal Democrats.

"But a lot of those people are Conservative voters and we will work hard to get them back

"And once they see us getting stronger on a national level, I am sure they will come back.

"We have a young team of people and we are very determined to work at it."

There'll be full in-depth coverage and pictures in Saturday's Observer ...

Results (out of 20 seats up for election): Lib Dem 11 - Labour 6 - Conservative 3

State of the Council: Lib Dem 33, Labour 18, Conservative 8

Balderstone & Kirkholt - Lib Dem gain

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Pat Colclough	Liberal Democrats	821
	Ian Duckworth	Conservative	658
	Darren Pedley	Labour	760

Bamford - Con gain

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Jane Gartside	Conservative	1,766
	Ben Robertson	Labour	388
	Mohammed Shafiq	Liberal Democrats	988

Castleton - Lib Dem hold

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Ronald Crossley	Conservative	467
	Pat Flynn	Liberal Democrats	1,386
	Jean Hornby	Labour	637

Central Rochdale - Lib Dem hold

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Daalat Ali	Labour	1,422
	Zulfiqar Ali	Liberal Democrats	1,869
	Roger Howarth	Conservative	309

Healey - Lib Dem hold

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Tom Bailey	Liberal Democrats	1,214
	Phillip Bethell	Labour	525
	Andrew Neilson	Conservative	920

Kingsway - Lib Dem hold

Candidate		Party	Votes
	David Clayton	Liberal Democrats	1,245
	Phil Grantham	Conservative	314
	Tom Stott	Labour	1,116

Littleborough Lakeside - Lib Dem hold

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Peter Evans	Liberal Democrats	1,086
	John Hartley	Labour	335
	Andrew Jones	Conservative	1,001

Milkstone & Deeplish - Lib Dem hold

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Javed Iqbal	Independent	637
	Sue Pawson	Conservative	178
	Ghulam Shahzad	Labour	796
	Mohammed Sharif	Liberal Democrats	1,872

Milnrow & Newhey - Lib Dem hold

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Debbie Abrahams	Labour	620
	Michael Butler	Conservative	663
	Irene Davidson	Liberal Democrats	1,193

Norden - Con hold

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Anthony Bennett	Labour	278
	James Gartside	Conservative	1,450
	Peter Greenwood	British National Party	421
	Hilary Rodgers	Liberal Democrats	874

Smallbridge & Firgrove - Lib Dem hold

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Jean Ashworth	Liberal Democrats	1,053
	Leonard Branton	Conservative	412
	Amna Mir	Labour	841

Spotland & Falinge - Lib Dem hold

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Surinder Biant	Labour	1,151
	Steven Scholes	Conservative	452
	Barbara Todd	Liberal Democrats	1,304

Wardle & West Littleborough - Con hold

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Ashley Dearnley	Conservative	2,157
	Andy Kelly	Liberal Democrats	264
	Mike Radanovic	Labour	263

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