WARRINGTON South Labour is celebrating after sweeping to victory in the Chapelford & Old Hall ward by-election.
Nurse and university lecturer Paul Warburton took a massive 54.7% of the vote to become Faisal Rashid MP’s successor in the Chapelford and Old Hall ward of the borough council.
Endorsed by Faisal and with the enthusiastic support of a large team of local activists, Cllr Warburton is delighted with the outcome. He said “I’m really looking forward to my new role. It’s been great talking to local residents on the doorstep over the last few weeks and I’ve been listening carefully to their priorities for the area. Rebecca Knowles, Steve Parish and I work really well as a team and we are all committed to representing the residents of the ward in the best way possible.”
Faisal Rashid added: “Paul will be an excellent councillor for Chapelford and Old Hall and I couldn’t have wished for a better candidate to be elected to take forward my work in the ward. I wish him all the very best for the future and think he will really enjoy representing the area.”
Steve Wright, constituency party chairman, commented: “It’s clear Warrington residents are struggling with the Government’s cruel austerity policies and the attack on public services. The strong support for Labour in Warrington shows that people are hopeful for real change in the country and a better deal for our town.
“Warrington South Labour Party is a hard working and united team focused on bringing about a very necessary change of government as well as ensuring that locally we are doing our best to look after the needs of the many, not the few. Be a part of that work and real change by joining the Labour Party today.”
Meanwhile in the parish council elections Sarah Williamson replaces Faisal as a representative for the Central ward of Great Sankey Parish Council, with a very strong 49% of the votes cast. Ken Halliday was also a firm winner in the Great Sankey South ward of the parish.
Chapelford & Old Hall result
Bird, Allan Keith – Liberal Democrats – 312 votes
Davies, Stephanie – Green Party – 43
Hayward, Philip George – The Conservative Party – 353
Warburton, Paul Joseph Labour Party – 957 elected
Wilson, Ian Anthony – Uk Independence Party – 86
2 Comments
Labour seem to be taking all the seats of late. Any idea what the turnout was Gary?
I still don’t get how Chappelford, Old Hall and parts Bewsey are now classed as being in ‘South Warrington’ though…..that’s boundary changes for you though I guess….bizarre!
Not sending out poll cards will have reduced the turnout. Labour have a client vote in part of the ward and the two things taken together mean that the opposition, which is divided almost in two, have to know where their vote is to get them out. That seems not to be the case.
On the South North thing: Warrington has enough electors to justify two MPs whilst keeping the electors inside Warrington Borough. The Boundary between the two constituencies has to be on borough ward boundaries (this year it was 2007 boundaries and after the review 2018 it will be 2015 borough ward boundaries). The wards have to be contiguous in each constituency and split the town into two nearly equal numbers of electors (well on the 2007 registers until next year when it is the 2015 registers – not today’s register note). The names could be anything, we nearly got East and West once! However since most of one constituency is north of the other they are called North and South. The name of the constituency has no connotation other that the relative geography of the two of them, it has no relationship to North or South Warrington, the Mersey, the Ship Canal or anything else!!