Voters to decide future shape of Kirklees Council

KIRKLEES is divided into 23 wards, each of them with three councillors.

One seat in each ward is up for grabs tomorrow.

Labour, which currently runs a minority administration on the council, is defending seven of its 24 seats this year.

The two most vulnerable are Dewsbury East – which the party won by 600 votes in last year’s election – and Heckmondwike, where Labour had a majority of 800 in 2010.

The Lib Dems are the second largest group on Kirklees with 20 seats.

The party is defending eight of them this year.

Clr Roger Batttye faces a tough fight to keep his seat in Dalton.

Labour’s Clr Peter McBride won by 1,000 votes in the ward at last year’s election.

The Lib Dems are also under pressure in Holme Valley North from the Conservatives and independent candidate Ed Holroyd-Doveton.

And the Tories will also be pushing hard to retake the seat they lost to the Lib Dems in Lindley last year by just 150 votes.

The Conservatives are the third largest party on Kirklees with 19 seats, of which six are up for grabs this year.

The party appears most vulnerable in Dewsbury South, where Clr Salim Patel is trying to keep his seat.

Labour won the ward by more than 2,000 votes last year.

The Greens are defending two of their four seats.

The party held Newsome last year with a majority of 600.

The Greens look vulnerable in Kirkburton, where the Tories won by 1,100 votes in 2010.

Seventeen of the 51 seats on Calderdale Council are also up for grabs tomorrow.

The council is currently run by a Lib Dem / Labour coalition, but the Conservatives are the largest party.

KIRKLEES COUNCIL

ALMONDBURY

James Blanchard, Lib Dems*

Craig Fennell, Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts

Tony Leach, British National Party

Elliott Ledsam, Labour

Eileen Marchant, Greens

Janice Thomas, Conservatives

ASHBROW

Bill Armer, Conservatives

Sharon Fallows, Greens

Cath Harris, Labour*

Manjit Singh, Lib Dems

BATLEY EAST

Jon Bloom, Lib Dems

Peter Cunnington, Greens

Mark Griffin, Independent

Mohammed Laher, Conservatives

Amanda Stubley, Labour*

BATLEY WEST

John Birkenshaw, Conservatives

Matt Blakeley, Greens

Irfan Iqbal, Lib Dems

Peter O’Neill, Labour*

BIRSTALL AND BIRKENSHAW

Suzy Brain-England, Lib Dems

Robert Light, Conservatives*

Clive Lord, Greens

Michael Williams, Labour

CLECKHEATON

Robert Barraclough, Greens

Dan Howard, Labour

David Pinder, Conservatives

Andrew Pinnock, Lib Dems*

COLNE VALLEY

Donna Bellamy, Conservatives

Lynn Bradbury, Lib Dems*

Chayley Collis, Greens

Tabatha Ellam, Labour

Melanie Roberts, United Kingdom Independence Party

CROSLAND MOOR AND NETHERTON

Chas Ball, Greens

Jackie Grunsell, Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts

Mahmood Hussain, Lib Dems

Mohammad Sarwar, Labour*

Louisa Waple, Conservatives

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