One seat falls – but Labour still in charge
LABOUR maintained its dominance on Gateshead Council, losing just one seat to the Liberal Democrats as local election results were declared yesterday.
Gateshead Council’s leader of the opposition, Liberal Democrat Jonathan Wallace, was fairly confident of the two gains his party made. These were in Dunston Hill and Whickham East, which had previously been independent, and Pelaw and Heworth which was lost by Labour. The Lib Dems also put up a strong fight for Saltwell, earning 771 votes. However Labour councillor John Adams, and housing portfolio holder, won with 984.
Coun Adams said: “Well of course I’m happy to be re-elected. The people of Saltwell are responding and backing the Labour council and rejecting the campaign of negativity and smears of our competitors.”
Saltwell Lib Dem candidate Leanne Brand took to Twitter saying: “The result proves Labour have neglected Saltwell for decades and residents are sick of being ignored.
“Labour threw everything at it and know they can’t take residents for granted any longer. I will continue to be a strong local voice for residents.”
Council leader Martin Gannon – who comfortably retained his own Deckham seat – said while he was happy with the results, he was cautious about the national counts.
“From a Gateshead perspective I was really pleased,” said Coun Gannon. “There have been really successful results in Gateshead.
“However, we have got to be really clear, the national picture looks mixed. We are doing a lot better than in 2019, but I think we have got a long way to go and we have got to
work for every vote. It has been a good election and a good starting point and we have got to win back people’s trust.”
Once again, the Gateshead Greens just couldn’t manage to secure a seat for their candidate at the local authority.
Jack Philipson, Green candidate for Crawcrook and Greenside, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service during the vote verification yesterday morning voters were keen to see a change rather than resort to
the “two main parties.”
In 2018, the Greens secured 282 votes or 11.4% in the ward. By 2019 that dramatically increased to 653 and more than a quarter of the share of the vote.
In last year’s local elections, the Green party secured 920 votes or 31.8% of the total votes cast. However, Mr Philipson lost to Labour’s Hugh Kelly.
Labour now have 51 seats on the 66-seat council and the Lib Dems have the other 15.