Exciting times to come – Labour
THE leader of West Lancashire council promises there will be “exciting announcements” in coming months, after Labour won more than half of the newly appointed seats in the council election.
Voters went to the polls on Thursday (May 3), and saw Labour councillors win 10 of the 18 seats available in West Lancashire.
This means that Labour remains in overall control of the local authority.
Speaking of the results, the leader of the council, Cllr Ian Moran, said: “It is an amazing result, thank you to West Lancashire for allowing us to secure our seats and adding two more.
“We were hoping to keep our seats, but this exceeded expectations.
“This was down to the hard work of the candidates and to the people of West Lancashire who voted.
“We are looking forward to an exciting few months of announcements regarding Skelmersdale town centre and sports centres in the borough.”
The opposition, the Conservatives, won seven seats in the election.
The party also lost two seats, Burscough East and North Meols, to two Labour candidates.
A breakdown of votes also revealed that about 40% of those that voted voted for Conservative, while about 50% voted for Labour.
In response to the election results, the leader of the West Lancashire Conservative Group, Cllr David Westley, said: “The loss of the two seats in Burscough East and North Meols was very disappointing and clearly there was a failure to get our message across or get the Conservative vote out.
“In the other seats the Conservatives were defending, it was much more encouraging with the Conservative share of the vote increasing and improved majorities. In Upholland, we doubled the Conservative vote and slashed the Labour Leader’s majority.
“I greatly regret the loss of Ruth Melling in Burscough East as she was an excellent long-serving councillor, one who cared passionately about her ward and who had extensive community involvement.
“Finally, I would like to express my appreciation for all the hard work put in by the Conservative candidates and supporters. I would also like to thank all those electors who voted for the Conservative candidates.”
The remaining seat, in the Derby Ward, was retained by Our West Lancashire.
The party was pleased with the results, however, and claims that the election has proved that “West Lancashire voters are looking for an alternative to the stale, old Labour/Conservative battles”.
Our West Lancashire came to that conclusion after their candidates increased their vote in all three wards where they stood.
Cllr Adrian Owens, the group’s election agent, said: “From these results, it’s clear that many residents are increasingly looking for an alternative to the main parties.
“Two-party politics is failing us in West Lancashire. Labour and Conservative councillors are complacent and have to toe the party line. Residents feel excluded and ignored.
“We are the growing force in local politics. Most of our members and supporters have no previous involvement in local politics but are civicminded and want to help make West Lancashire cleaner, greener and safer.
“New members are always welcome, so we hope this further election success will encourage more local people to join us.”