DELIGHTED CONSERVATIVES WIN
Big gains as party bucks national trend
THE Conservatives have retained control of Newcastle Borough Council after winning the local elections.
Twenty-five Tory councillors were elected to the 44-seat authority, up on the 23 the Conservatives had going into the Thursday’s election, giving the party an increased majority in Newcastle – bucking the national trend.
A number of councillors who had defected to the Conservatives, like Gary and Simon White in Madeley, held onto their seats for their new party, while the Tories also made impressive gains in wards such as Thistleberry, Silverdale and Kidsgrove & Ravenscliffe.
But it was a disappointing day for Labour, who could only win 19 seats. While these included gains from the Tories in places like Wolstanton and Bradwell, the party fell well short of regaining power in Newcastle.
One of the most dramatic results of the day came in Crackley & Red Street, where Labour’s Claire Radford and Conservative Lilian Barker were tied on 470 votes each.
This meant the result had to be settled with a drawing of lots – which Ms Barker went on to win. Holditch & Chesterton saw another notable result, with Conservative mayor Ken Owen losing his seat to Labour.
But the most common theme, in line with previous elections in North Staffordshire, was Conservative wins in former Labour-voting areas.
For example, in Kidsgrove & Ravenscliffe the Tories won all three seats, with Gill Burnett, Craig Skelding and Simon Jones all being elected.
The Conservatives put their win in Newcastle down to local factors, such as the track record of the Tory-run borough council, Walleys Quarry and Kidsgrove Sports Centre – which they believe outweighed any negativity directed towards them over Party-gate.
Simon Tagg, who was re-elected in Westlands and is now set to retain his position as council leader, said: “I think our win was down to local issues – like the Town Deal money, which is a massive investment from the governmment that we’re now starting to see the benefits of with the redevelopment of Ryecroft. People can see that there’s investment coming into the borough for the first time.
“On Walleys Quarry we’re pursuing the legal action through the abatement notice, so we are doing everything we can as a local authority. Knocking on doors in my ward, and in Thistleberry, people have been thanking us for that.
“I think we’re still seeing a movement in our direction in the borough. Our vote has gone up in the number of wards, and we have councillors in some wards for the first time in living memory.
“In some areas we’ve seen Labour get more votes as well, so it’s swings and roundabouts, but overall we seem to be in a transition. We’re cementing our position.
“Over the next four years we want to deliver on the investment, with new offices and hopefully a hotel on the Ryecroft site, and a new multi-storey car park, freeing up space for residential on the old one, so bringing more people into the town centre.
“And of course fighting the cause on Walleys Quarry and continuing to improve street scene services.”
Labour saw gains in a few wards, and an increase in vote in others, like May Bank, with their overall number of councillors up one on the 18 they had going into the election – but down on the 20 seats they won in 2018.
The party won a clean sweep in wards like Bradwell, where Andrew Fox-hewitt, Lesley Richards and Annabel Lawley were all elected, but failed to make sufficient inroads in many of its former heartlands.
Labour Group leader Mike Stubbs, who was re-elected in Talke & Butt Lane, admitted it had been a disappointing election for his party, but said the wins they had secured gave them something to build on.
He said: “It’s a bittersweet day for me. I’ve managed to retain my seat but we’ve not managed to break through like we wanted to.
“We have seen increased our vote share – if you look in May Bank for example, we’ve narrowed the gap there, and we’ve managed to take seats across Newcastle. Unfortunately we’ve lost a seat in Kidsgrove.
“I’m obviously very disappointed we’ve not managed to take the council, but our vote share has risen, so it’s mixed fortunes.
“We’re up to 19 councillors, from the 18 we had last week. Would we have liked to have done more? Yes, absolutely we would.
“I remember the utter rejection I felt in 2019. We’ve got a long way to come back from, and we have started that process. We’ve now got two years to put things right for a general election.”
The borough council is now made up entirely of Conservative and Labour councillors, with no other parties winning seats in Newcastle.
The Lib Dems lost both seats they held in Thistleberry, while none of the three Stop the Stink candidates were elected.
Newcastle’s Conservative MP Aaron Bell welcomed the borough council election results.
He said: “I think this was down to the record of delivery from the council. We inherited a failing council from Labour, they couldn’t even run elections properly, the recycling was a mess – we fixed all that. But it’s also down to the investment that we’ve secured for the borough – £50 million of investment for the borough through Future High Streets and the Town Deal – so I think people liked that.
“I think people were putting aside whatever problems there were on a national level and voting for a wellrun council.”
Stoke-on-trent North MP Jonathan Gullis, whose constituency includes Kidsgrove, added: “I’m delighted with the results. In Kidsgrove we got the third seat, which was a massive challenge. We held on in Newchapel and Mow Cop, and we took on Labour in their safest seat in the borough [Talke & Butt
Lane], where they had a 600-vote headstart, and got within 82 votes.
“These results are down to having a Conservative-run council that understands what local people want – Kidsgrove Sports Centre is a classic example.”
Across the borough, the party won 48.7 per cent of the vote, while Labour won 46 per cent.