BRADFORD COUNCIL

Conservatives are celebrating a shock victory in the Worth Valley seat up for grabs.

The vote reflected the attitude district-wide as Labour's big majority on Bradford council was cut by the Tories and Liberal Democrats, though Labour continues to comfortably control the council.

Labour councillor Mike Young lost his Worth Valley seat to newcomer Glen Miller, who won the seat with a 344 majority.

Mr Miller says: "I'm pleased with the result and pleased that the people of Worth Valley have decided that conservatism is the way forward."

Mr Miller believes green belt and housing development issues in areas like Oakworth swayed the balance in his favour. "In the case of green belt housing, people aren't happy with the way that the planning applications are going through, and the fact is the infrastructure can't stand it," he says. "I'm going to try and get some action done about the levels of building. It's early days and I've still got a lot to learn."

Mr Young, who was chairman of Bradford council's social services committee, won the seat from the conservatives four years ago. He says: "I am very disappointed as I feel that I have worked very hard as a local councillor and achieved a number of things which I hope my successor will continue. I think there was a lot of feeling about the school review, particularly with the Bronte Middle School site, even though I opposed the move to close it down."

The rest of the wards in the Keighley area went to form with the Labour Party retaining its three other seats.

Labour candidate Cllr Barry Thorne retained his Keighley West seat with a majority of 462, beating Conservative candidate Arshed Majeed.

Lynne Joyce took the Keighley South seat with 1,763 votes, giving her a clear 1,188 majority over conservative candidate Neil Redman.

Labour councillor Malcolm Slater also kept hold of his Keighley North seat with 2,161 votes and a 736 majority over the Conservatives' Mark Startin.

Bingley Rural was retained by conservative Simon Cooke with a 1,478 majority over labour candidate Mark Gregory.

David Emmott maintained the conservative seat in Craven ward with 1,795 votes and a 786 majority over independent candidate Chris Atkinson.

The overall turnout was predictably low with just a third of the electorate turning out to vote.

The highest turn out was in Keighley North where 34.97 per cent of the electorate voted, compared to Keighley South where only 27.06 per cent turned out.

Across the Bradford district the biggest shock of the night came with the ousting of the man behind the controversial shake-up of Bradford's schools. Cllr Jim Flood - who was chairman of Bradford council's education committee - lost his Bingley seat to the conservative candidate Robin Owens by 532 votes. He had held the seat in 1995 with a majority of 898.

There were also surprise defeats for Labour in the traditionally safe University and Queensbury seats, which were both won by conservative councillors. Labour did however claw back the tory held Toller Ward with Amir Hussain claiming victory with a 330 majority.

During the course of the night Labour lost 12 seats - nine to the Tories and three to the Liberal Democrats. Of the total 90 seats in the district, Labour now holds 54, the Conservatives 26 and Liberal Democrats ten - giving Labour a majority of 18.

CRAVEN DISTRICT COUNCIL

Aire Valley contender William York helped the Conservatives regain Craven council as they won six new seats. Mr York polled 431 votes, beating Liberal Democrat Mark Wheeler with a majority of 93. Father-of-two Mr York is a retired teacher who works part-time for two locally-based charities and enjoys canal boating.

Village shopkeeper Stephen Place held on to the Sutton ward as an independent, polling 587 votes and beating Conservative candidate Valerie Harrison by 322 votes.

Cross Hills man Philip Barrett, standing as an Independent in the Glusburn ward, polled 867 votes and toppled Ian Bannister (Conser-vative), who had been the sitting councillor.

SUTTON PARISH COUNCIL

More than a hundred Sutton residents went animal crackers as they voted for a dog in the parish council elections.

Jess the six-year-old Border Collie attracted 160 votes but failed to win one of the five vacant seats on the council in Sutton Ward.

Jess, who had to stand under the name of her master Andrew Jackson, had wanted to highlight the rights of dogs and cats in the village. The seats went to the other five candidates standing last Thursday: John Horsfall (220), Stephen Morrell (236), Roy Wilkinson (315), Michael Simmons (256) and Christopher Suri (211).

The five seats in Sutton Mill ward were won by Stephen Place (239 votes), Barbara Smith (126), James Todd (127), Betty Hawkins (112) and Kenneth Hart (125).

Cullingworth PARISH COUNCIL

After the first election in its 11-year history, Cullingworth parish council now has its youngest ever councillor. Bradford University student Olivia Thompson, 22, from Hallowes Park Road will replace Elvin Brame on the parish council.

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