A CRAVEN election candidate who lost his bid to get onto North Yorkshire County Council on the drawing of straws has joked how he had offered to settle the dead-heat result with a game of poker.

Labour councillor Peter Madeley, and Independent, Cllr Andy Solloway, both received 503 votes in the Skipton West and West Craven division of North Yorkshire County Council in the May local council elections.

The closest race of the county council elections in Craven also saw Conservative candidate Patrick Mulligan, who was seeking to be re-elected onto the county council just two votes behind with 501. The Green Party's Claire Nash took 166 of the votes in the ward, which saw a 35 per cent turn out, one of the lowest in the district.

Cllr Solloway won the seat following a drawing of straws, after the flipping of a coin and the cutting of cards were also considered before being ruled out at the election count at Skipton Town Hall.

At Tuesday's annual meeting of Craven District Council, of which both councillors are members, Cllr Madeley paid tribute to Cllr Solloway, adding that all the candidates knew it would be close.

He said: "People say to me it's unfair but that is life. I did offer to have a game of poker with Andy, but he declined.

He continued: "Losing to Andy is not a bad thing, he is a good man and he works hard."

Cllr Madeley was not in the hall when the election result was announced. A taxi driver, he was instead taking customers to the airport and entrusted the drawing of the straw to Cllr Brian McDaid, his fellow Labour councillor who sits on Skipton Town Council.

Cllr Madeley told his colleagues on the district council as a resident of West Skipton Cllr Solloway would be his representative on the county council and on the future North Yorkshire Council, and he wished him well.

Earlier, council leader, Cllr Richard Foster, paid tribute to the council staff, including returning officer, Paul Shevlin, who was taking part in his last election, for its smooth running.

"It went remarkably smoothy, despite one election going down, not even to a wire, it was a straw. Councillor Madeley and Councillor Mulligan were very unlucky to lose that election in the sense that it was so close," he said.

He added that just nine councillors would be going forward to represent Craven on the new North Yorkshire Council and that there would be a lot to do.

"Its going to be a big workload, but we will do our best to represent the Craven communities," he said.