Labour have maintained their majority in Bury, with candidates in 12 of the 17 wards retaining their positions of power.
A total 17 seats were up for grabs today, consisting of one councillor for each ward.
Voter turnout for this election was 36.3%, up by 2% from last year.
Radcliffe First won three seats, while labour dominated, with Labour candidate John Southworth taking over the previously conservative-held seat in North Manor.
Martin Hayes won a seat in Elton, representing Labour. He said: “We need to change to real living wage so that government money is not being wasted on getting people better, because if we simply paid people properly people would start to feel better and need less help.”
Jodie Hook also won a seat as a Labour representative for the ward of Unsworth. She said: “We are going to focus on the predominant issue facing Bury at the moment – the dire state of the roads, especially around Sunny Bank and Blackford Bridge.
“Since the government came into power, they have made massive cuts to roads and we now need to recuperate from that on a local level.”
Alan Quinn, who won the Labour seat in Sedgley, said: “We need Labour to win nationally as well as locally. We need a grown-up who is stable enough to deal with the big issues facing our country, someone who knows that Rwanda and Congo are different countries.
“Every day we still experience repercussions from Brexit, yet not enough people talk about it. This was a political movement which was backed by Johnson and now we are seeing similar incompetence from charlatans such as Sunak.
“The big prize is the general election, however Labour have already made strong improvements locally here in Bury in issues such as regeneration, tree-planting and housing .
“The Tory government talk about levelling up but from my perspective this is the equivalent of taking £100 from somebody’s pocket, giving back £20 and saying sorry.”
Ken Simpson was elected to Radcliffe East, and represents Radcliffe First.
He said: “I have listened to the voice of the people in my ward and there has been a lot of criticism around the work being done which neighbours our area.
“This planning is known as Places For Everyone and it should not be a nuisance for the people of my ward. I will continue to raise this issue, however I am not opposed to housing.”
Many candidates such as Ken have no political background and claim they will give people a voice – three such independent candidates won seats today.
All images by Matthew Kliszcz
