5 May 2012
This year the Green Party stood a record number of candidates in the local elections in the Northwest, as well as two Mayoral candidates.
Congratulations to Sarah Jennings for holding her seat on Liverpool City Council in St Michael's ward with 54% of the vote!
In six other wards Liverpool Greens came second.
Unfortunately Pat Cleary narrowly missed out (again!) on gaining a seat in Birkenhead & Tranmere ward in Wirral, but he closed the gap even further, gaining a whopping 41% of the votes in that ward. Labour held the seat by a slim majority of 259 votes. If we could have persuaded just 130 more people to switch from Labour to Green, we would have won it. We need to think about how to mobilize more NW members to help in the places where we can win in future - there were very few people helping with canvassing in Birkenhead, including on our regional action day. So here's an extra BIG THANK YOU to everyone who did help!
We also came second in St Aidans ward (Carlisle) and in South Swinton ward (Salford) - well done to the candidates John Reardon and Joe O'Neill.
There were six seconds in Manchester, one in Warrington, and one in Trafford.
We came 4th in the Liverpool Mayoral Election (out of 12 candidates), with the seat being won by Labour. Our vote share was 5.25%, beating the Conservatives and far-right parties, and saving our deposit. Well done John Coyne!
In the Salford mayoral elections we did less well, with 2.84% of the vote, coming 9th out of 10 candidates. Thanks to Joe O'Neill for flying the Green flag there. Labour won it, which was no great surprise.
In the London mayoral elections, Green candidate Jenny Jones came a very satisfying 3rd out of 7 candidates. She gained 4.48% of first preference votes, squeezed in a close-run contest between Ken and Boris (Boris won, but only just).
Across England and Wales we gained 4 Council seats overall (18 holds, 8 gains and 4 losses), bringing our total to something like 134 councillors on 44 councils.
For more details about gains/holds/losses see the national Green Party website http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/LE12HGLtableforweb.pdf
In Scotland we now have 14 Green Councillors, including 5 Greens in Glasgow (more than the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats combined).
We did really well on overall candidate numbers this year, fielding a total of 943 candidates (up 13% since last equivalent elections), with at least 1 candidate in 74% of all eligible boroughs (up 6% since last time). So things are moving in the right direction for getting more media coverage and public awareness of our policies.
Thanks to everyone who stood as a candidate in the NW - this should stand us in good stead for the 2014 European Elections.
Next year there will be County Council elections in Lancashire and Cumbria, but no scheduled elections in other areas (as far as I'm aware). However, we need all local parties to keep up the activity with leafletting and door-knocking in at least one target ward all year round, so that we will have a good chance of winning more seats in 2014 (as well as more 2nd places so that we can win those in 2015). It's a bit of a long slog, but places like Lancaster and Liverpool have shown that it CAN be done, and the benefits of having elected Greens are huge. If any local party would like to request some training from an experienced Green councillor/campaign manager on how to ‘target to win' Council seats, just ask!
Emily Heath
Find here the results for each town (click on the name for more detail):
Blackburn (1 candidate)
Blackpool (1 candidate)
Bolton (11 candidates)
Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale (4 candidates)
Share of the votes: 6.3%. Best performance was in Vivary Bridge, where Leah Jamieson got 7.5% of the votes.
Bury (2 candidates)
In North Manor Glyn Heath got 355 votes (10.75%), and in St Mary's Andrew McKee got 196 votes (7%)
Carlisle (11 candidates)
John Reardon got 276 votes (21%) in St. Aidans. Another excellent result in Stanwix Urban, where Helen Davison got 288 votes (11.4%). Total share of the vote: 7.3%.
Chorley (3 candidates)
Liverpool (30 candidates and 1 mayoral candidate)
Sarah Jennings holds St Michael's ward with 54% vote share! Greens beat Tories in both mayoral race and citywide council elections
Manchester (32 candidates)
Greens in 2nd place in 6 wards and beat the Tories city-wide. Best results: Deyika Nzeribe (Hulme), 27.8%, David Mottram (Levenshulme), 19.7% Total vote share 8.3%
Oldham and Saddleworth (1 candidate)
Preston (3 candidates)
Salford (6 candidates and 1 mayoral candidate)
Sefton (8 candidates)
Share of the vote: 3.9%. Best performance was in Church, with Julia Thorne getting 7% of the votes
St. Helens (16 candidates)
Share of the vote 8%. Best performance was in Windle, where Andy Donnelly got 15.5% of the votes
Stockport (6 candidates)
South Lakeland/Ulverston (6 candidates)
Share of the vote: 10%, with 16% in Ulverston North for Chris Loynes. The Greens beat the LibDems in four of the six wards!
South Lakeland/Kendal (7 candidates)
Share of the vote is 5.7%. Best performance in Staveley in Westmoreland, where Rachael Millings got 8.9% of the votes.
Tameside (19 candidates)
Trafford (21 candidates)
Share of the vote 7.5% (up from 6.9% last year). Best performance in Longford Ward, where Margaret Westbrook got 13% of the vote, and in Clifford where Anne Power came second wity 11.1% of the vote. Full results here
Warrington (6 candidates)
Share of the vote: 8.4%. Best performance was in Fairfield and Howley, where Lyndsay McAteer got 12.4% of the votes, beating the LibDems.
West Lancashire (7 candidates)
Share of the vote in the wards where Green Party candidates stood: 9.4%. Best performance in Wrightington, with 12.8% for Julie Hotchkiss.
Wigan and Leigh (2 candidates)
In Orrell Donald McQueen got 280 votes (8%), and in Winstanley Steven Heyes got 237 votes (9%)
Wirral (22 candidates)
Pat Cleary got 41% of the votes, sadly just 245 votes short of winning the seat.
Find out more
North West Green Party RSS Feed