Strong showing for the Greens in the local elections

8 May 2019

We congratulate Mark Mullany on being elected to the Stainland and District Parish Council. We had our best results in Calder Valley since 2014 when we did not contest all the seats, taking over 11% of the vote and, compared with 2018, managing to more than double our share of the vote in every seat and more than quadruple it in Hipperholme & Lightcliffe. Calder, Hipperholme & Lightcliffe and Todmorden wards had the highest shares of the vote in Calder Valley.

We had our best results ever in Halifax, albeit with only with around 7.5% share of the vote. In Sowerby Bridge and Northowram & Shelf we gained over 11% and over 10% of the vote respectively and we increased our share of the vote compared with 2018, though much less dramatically than in Calder Valley, in all but one of the seats.

Compared with 2015 when these seats were last contested, we:
• came second in Calder even though our share of the vote was slightly down;
• more than doubled our share of the vote in Brighouse, Greetland & Stainland, Rastrick, Illingworth & Mixenden and Town;
• nearly doubled our share of the vote in Elland, Hipperholme & Lightcliffe, Northowram & Shelf and Ovenden;
• increased our share of the vote in Todmorden and Sowerby Bridge;
• maintained our share of the vote in Luddendenfoot and Ryburn.
In spite of some strong LibDem performances elsewhere, we came in ahead of the LibDems in nine of the seventeen wards: Calder, Hipperholme & Lightcliffe, Rastrick, Ryburn, Illingworth & Mixenden, Northowram & Shelf, Park, Sowerby Bridge and Town.

However, the Labour Party bucked the national trend by taking control of the Council, making the importance of developing an effective opposition voice in the Council more pressing.