ELECTION RESULTS: Labour retained its minority control of Kirklees Council
Overall in the district Labour retained its minority control of Kirklees Council after it won 11 seats to remain at 34 in total - one short of a majority.
The Conservatives won six seats and Liberal Democrats took three.
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Hide AdThe Green Party, Labour and Co-operative and an Independent candidate won one seat each but there were no victories for UKIP or Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts.
And no sitting councillors were defeated in North Kirklees but Conservative Michelle Grainger-Mead won a seat in the Liversedge and Gomersal ward with 1,803 votes after Labour’s Simon Alvy stood down before the election.
Three Labour newcomers were elected in North Kirklees - Fazila Fadia won with 3,486 votes in the Batley East ward, Mussarat Pervaiz in the Dewsbury West ward with 3,164 and Gulfman Asim took 2,626 in the Dewsbury South ward, securing the party’s stronghold in those wards.
Coun Kath Pinnock (Lib Dem) retained her place in Cleckheaton, Coun Shabir Pandor (Lab) remains in Batley West, Cabinet member Coun Steve Hall (Lab) was re-elected in his Heckmondwike seat and Coun Paul Kane (Lab) also stays as the representative for Dewsbury East.
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Hide AdSitting Birstall and Birkenshaw councillor Andrew Palfreeman secured his seat alongside fellow Conservative Martyn Bolt, who won in Mirfield.
Incoming Dewsbury South councillor Gulfman Asif (Lab) said: “I’m feeling excited. It’s a surreal moment, I’m still waiting for it to sink it.
“It took the hard work of the sitting councillors and the retiring councillor Abdul Patel for us to get a majority.
“It’s a proud moment, I want to thank everyone who came out and voted.”
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Hide AdCoun Paul Kane, who is the Mayor of Kirklees and has been a councillor since 1995, won 2,285 votes.
He said: “I’m a bit exhausted. It has been hard doing this and the mayorality because I’ve put a lot into that too.”
Coun Kane said he now wants to focus his efforts on the regeneration of Dewsbury town centre .
He said: “It’s really important for me to force upon any developer that they have a commitment not only to their development but the town centre.”
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Hide AdCabinet member for Schools and Learning Shabir Pandor retained his seat for the Batley West, ward, which he had held since 2002.
He said: “It’s such a relief that we have won. We have been working hard over the past four years, and it’s paid off.”
Mr Pandor laid out his plans for the future: “We are promising to take communities through the austerity programme and improve children’s services in vulnerable areas. I think that we need to rethink how the council works and how the public perceive the Labour party.”
Veteran Birstall and Birkenshaw Conservative Andrew Palfreeman, who has represented the ward since 1998, retained the seat with 1,987 votes.
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Hide AdHe said: “We’ve got an exceptionally good councillor team in the ward.
“We get about, we mix with people, groups and organisations. We try to support them the best we can and our door is always open for any individual.”
And Mirfield Conservative stalwart Martyn Bolt said: “It’s always humbling that the people of Mirfield put their trust in me even after 18 years.
“It’s still a relief when you get the result in.
“It’s about regular hard work, communication and working on issues rather than just politics.”
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Hide AdTop Liberal Democrat councillor Kath Pinnock, who is a member of the House of Lords, kept her Cleckheaton seat by beating her closest candidate, UKIP’s Colin Walshaw, by more than 1,885 votes.
She said: “I am so pleased that we have won again. I think we won because we spoke to the community all through the year, not only around election time, to make sure that we knew what the community wanted.
“Not only that but we fought a strong campaign and we really listened to what people wanted. “
Coun Graham Turner (Lab), the Cabinet member for resources who has overseen the council’s budget cuts, kept is Denby Dale seat with 2,631 - just 147 more than Conservative candidate Paula Kemp.
The results in full are as follows:
Batley East:
Fazila Fadia (Lab) - 3,487
Richard Allan Farnhill (Lib Dem) - 248
Abdul Ghaffar (Independent) - 512
Char Stoyles (Green) - 156
Derrick Yates (Con) - 594
Batley West
James Griffith-Jones (UKIP) - 698
Lyndsey Hall (Con) - 648
Christopher Kane (Lib Dem) - 156
Garry Kitchin (Green) - 198
Shabir Pandor (Lab) - 2,833
Birstall and Birkenshaw
Joyce Holbrook (UKIP) - 851
Clare Kane (Lib Dem) - 232
Jasmine Kennedy (Green) - 190
Andrew Palfreeman (Con) - 1,987
Khalid Ahmed Patel (Lab) - 939
Cleckheaton
Aafaq Noor Butt (Lab) - 571
Andrew Gray (Con) - 677
Kath Pinnock (Lib Dem) - 2,592
Colin Walshaw (UKIP) - 707
Catherine Whittingham (Green) - 114
Dewsbury East
Greg Burrows (UKIP) - 758
Mark Eastwood (Con) - 970
Dennis Hullock (Lib Dem) - 191
Paul Kane (Lab) - 2,285
Tony Kelsall (Green) - 111
Dewsbury South
Imtiaz Ameen (Con) - 1,406
Gulfam Asif (Lab) - 2,626
Adrian Cruden (Green) - 525
Bernard Disken (Lib Dem) - 339
Dewsbury West
Simon Cope (Green) - 450
Shehzad Hussain (Lib Dem) - 992
John Nottingham (Con) - 474
Mussarat Pervaiz (Lab) - 3,164
Heckmondwike
Steve Hall (Lab) - 2,281
Sofia Yusuf Layton (Green) - 142
Aleks Lukic (UKIP) - 836
Josie Pugsley (Lib Dem) -119
Robert Thornton (Con) - 701
Liversedge and Gomersal
Michelle Grainger-Mead (Con) - 1,803
Simon Holbrook (UKIP) - 1,151
Mohammed Jawad Afzal Khan (Lab) - 1,243
David Snee (Lib Dem) - 200
Nicholas Whittingham (Green) - 148
Mirfield
Martyn Bolt (Con) - 3,434
John Dobson (Lib Dem) - 172
Karen Rowling (Lab) - 1,442
Isabel Walters (Green) - 358