AThompson

Published at 01:00, Saturday, 12 June 2004

By Andrea Thompson

FORMER Copeland councillor Anne Bradshaw has been re-elected after winning the by-election for the borough’s Harbour Ward.

The 50-year-old retired chiropodist, who is disabled, won the seat for Labour with 408 votes.

The other candidates were Gareth Richard Charles Maley, for the Conservatives, who gained 387 votes, and Francis Graeme Hollowell, for the Liberal Democrats, who received 304 votes.

The Harbour seat became vacant following the resignation of senior councillor Paul Whalley earlier this year.

Six ballot papers were rejected in the by-election and the total number of votes recorded represented 37 per cent of the registered electors.

Copeland leader Elaine Woodburn said she was disappointed with the low turnout, but felt it was more to do with complexity of the postal voting system and the Euro elections than voter apathy.

She was pleased, however, with the Labour victory.

“It goes against the national trend and hopefully it’s a demonstration of how people think we are performing as council.

“Anne Bradshaw was councillor before for Bransty and was extremely hard working then.”

Mrs Bradshaw, of Sea View, Bransty, uses a wheelchair. She lost a leg due to polio as a child.

A qualified chiropodist, she was forced to give up work when her health deteriorated.

Thursday’s city council elections have created a north/south divide in Carlisle, which now has no Conservative councillors south of the River Eden.

Labour took Belle Vue, St Aidans and Yewdale from the Conservatives, to replace the Tories as the largest party.

It was also a good day for the Liberal Democrats who won Castle from Labour and Dalston from the Conservatives, where retired Stead McAlpin boss Trevor Allison scraped home by a single vote.

Carlisle now has 24 Labour councillors, 20 Conservatives, seven Liberal Democrats and one Independent.

The Liberal Democrats hold the balance of power but are likely to support Conservative Mike Mitchelson in the vital vote to elect a council leader on June 28.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk