Wolverhampton Council election result: Labour delight as they take another seat off Tories

With one seat in each council ward being contested, the ruling party won a seat in Merry Hill from the Conservatives to end the election with a 47-12-1 majority in the council.

For the first time in three years, Merry Hill did not need to go to a recount, with Conservative Chris Haynes losing his seat to Labour's Ben Evans by 81 votes.

Aldersley Leisure Village was a hive of activity throughout Friday as the count for the Wolverhampton Council local elections took place, with one seat from each ward up for election.

There were new names on the ballot alongside established councillors, with several soon-to-be former councillors who had stepped down attending to verify votes and show their support.

It was a tense scene, with plenty of Labour and Conservative members observing the verification process to ensure all eligible votes were ready to be counted.

With just 54,950, or 29.35 per cent, of eligible voters in the city casting their votes, it was a quicker process, with some counts starting just over an hour after verification began and results announced very soon after.

Turnout was low in certain areas, with Bushbury South and Low Hill seeing just 1,905 out of 9,595 eligible voters casting votes, just 19.85 per cent turnout, while Tettenhall Wightwick recorded the highest, with 3,561 out of 8,971 eligible voters casting a vote, with a 39.69 per cent turnout.

The first declaration was given for Bushbury South and Low Hill and saw Paul Sweet reelected for four years, winning by more than 900 votes from Conservative candidate Rob Williams.

He said: "I'm very pleased and grateful for the people who voted for me and while it is traditionally a strong Labour seat, you can never take it for granted.

"The turnout was lower than we'd hoped for, but not to be unexpected and is something we can work on ahead of the general election, not just in Bushbury, but across the city."

Labour were able to hold seats in Graisley, where Jacqueline Sweetman won by more than 1,000 votes, and also held both Wednesfield seats, with Mary Bateman keeping Wednesfield North and Jacqui Coogan winning in Wednesfield South.

Other returning councillors could be found in Bilston South, where Rashpal Kaur won for Labour, Heath Town for Jaspreet Kaur Jaspal and Labour, and Valerie Evans keeping her Labour seat in Fallings Park, while Harinder Singh won for Labour in Ettingshall South and Spring Vale.

Meanwhile, in the Park ward, a new Labour councillor was elected after Muhammad Nasim won by nearly 1,000 votes from the Local Conservatives candidate Surrinder Ram and Leigh New was the newest councillor in Bilston North after her win for Labour, while Iqra Tahir retained her councillor seat in St Peters ward for Labour.

In Oxley, Barbara McGarrity won the right to continue as a Labour councillor in the ward after winning by more than 400 votes, while Zee Russell easily won for Labour in Ettingshall North to secure re-election and her husband Stephen became the newest councillor for East Park.

The leadership for Labour were jubilant at a successful day for the party, with council leader Stephen Simkins saying: "I think today is a wonderful result for Wolverhampton as we were defending more than we were attacking, so it's really pleasing that we've put an extra one on in what has predominantly been a Conservative area.

"I'm really pleased that we've got some young and fresh candidates coming through to represent the authority and represent their individual wards collectively, so it's really important that we do continue the hard work in Wolverhampton that we've been doing.

"I think we're on the right track and the electorate have proved that again."

Outgoing Park councillor and current Wolverhampton Mayor Dr Michael Hardacre said he has been very impressed by the way the elections had been run.

He said: "I have been well impressed by the way the campaigns have been carried out as it's been carried out on the basis of the issues which face the country and people have made their decision.

"I have to say that the officers of the local authority have done an absolutely fantastic job in making this work as smoothly as possible and as mayor, I just want to know and I'm happy that the full civic proprieties have been observed."

It wasn't all red as the Local Conservatives retained seats in Tettenhall Regis through Udey Singh and in Bushbury North, where Simon Bennett won by just 50 votes from Labour candidate Gary Edwards.

Mr Singh said: "It feels great and I think it's been a massive team effort, so I just want to thank Councillor Khan and Councillor Maddox and Craig Bateman and the whole team for supporting me.

"It's never a one man job because you have numerous resident issues and issues you need to resolve, so I think we've campaigned with a local focus around issues that residents are facing and the residents have put their faith in me."

The Conservatives also saw a hold in Penn, where incumbent Paul Singh won by 77 votes from Labour candidate Kashmire Hawker, and kept Tettenhall Wightwick blue after Sally Garner won with a large majority.

Conservative group deputy leader Simon Bennett spoke defiantly about the day's results, saying that local priorities shine through and the party was continuing to fight on.

He said: "We've just proved once again that local priorities shine through and that's what we fight on, local ground, and we look at the whole election and have shown that we are fighting on with local battles and local issues and the priorities that people raised with us.

"We haven't done that on national issues and the leaflets that went out during the campaign were all about hyper-local issues that people raised with us on the door steps, whether it was sitting councillors or new candidates in areas we were looking to go for.

"The Labour Party put up national literature, trying to hoodwink the electorate, and what we do is honest, transparent and fighting for local residents."

Results (*denotes elected)

Bilston North: Leigh New (Labour) 1,763*, Audrey Okere (Local Conservatives) 710

Bilston South: Rashpal Kaur (Labour) 1,549*, Richard Wastell (Local Conservatives) 661

Blakenhall: Adam Ansari (Local Conservatives) 453, Patrick Bentley (Liberal Democrats), Tracy Cooper (Independent) 80, Sally Green (Labour) 2,244*, Stephen Petter (Green Party) 126

Bushbury North: Simon Bennett (Local Conservatives) 1,321*, Gary Edwards (Labour) 1,271, Gary Peck (Liberal Democrats) 217

Bushbury South and Low Hill: Ann Jenkins (Liberal Democrat) 152, Paul Sweet (Labour) 1,323*, Rob Williams (Local Conservatives) 403

East Park: Steve Hall (Independent) 294, Stephen Russell (Labour) 1,433*, Joe Stipien (Local Conservatives) 374

Ettingshall North: Amar Bhandal (Local Conservatives) 489, Zee Russell (Labour) 2,224*

Ettingshall South and Spring Vale: Sian Kumar (Local Conservatives) 780, Harbinder Singh (Labour) 1,988*

Fallings Park: Julia Dickens (Local Conservatives) 716, Valerie Evans (Labour) 1,299*, Charlotte Hawkins (Party of Women) 161, Peter Nixon (Liberal Democrat) 113

Graiseley: Amy Bertaut (Green Party) 240, Tony Gething (Local Conservatives) 566, Jessica Pringle (Liberal Democrat) 99, Zahid Shah (Independent) 278, Jacqueline Sweetman (Labour) 1,724*

Heath Town: Banla Joe (Local Conservatives) 432, Vikas Chopra (Liberal Democrats) 98, Jaspreet Kaur Jaspal (Labour Party) 1,305*, Kwaku Tano-Yeboah (Green Party) 193

Merry Hill: Ben Evans (Labour Party) 1,540*, Chris Haynes (Local Conservatives) 1,459, Jennifer Hibell (Green Party) 233

Oxley: Mia Clark (Green Party) 266, Adam Collinge (Local Conservatives) 1,032, Ian Jenkins (Liberal Democrat) 140, Barbara McGarrity (Labour) 1,444*

Park: Paul Darke (Green Party) 491, Bryan Lewis (Liberal Democrats) 293, Muhammad Nasim (Labour) 1,668*, Surrinder Ram (Local Conservatives) 697

Penn: Kashmire Hawker (Labour) 1,656, Anna Khan (Liberal Democrat) 110, Paul Singh (Local Conservatives) 1,733*, Ayden Young (Green Party) 330

St Peters: David Murray (Liberal Democrat) 300, Mohammed Naseem (Green Party) 599, Iqra Tahir (Labour) 1,249*, Gillian Timms (Local Conservatives) 282

Tettenhall Regis: Julian Donald (Liberal Democrat) 251, Don Gwinnett (Green Party) 240, Robert Siarkiewicz (Labour) 1,051, Udey Singh (Local Conservatives) 1,663*

Tettenhall Wightwick: Andrea Cantrill (Green Party) 267, Bahadur Dehar (Labour) 950, Sally Garner (Local Conservatives) 2,228*, Arfan Khan (Liberal Democrat) 90

Wednesfield North: Mary Bateman (Labour) 1,431*, Nathaniel Williams (Local Conservatives) 754

Wednesfield South: Jacqui Coogan (Labour) 1,243*, Pete Dickens (Local Conservatives) 914, Hardev Singh (Green Party) 301