ELECTION RESULTS: Labour retained its minority control of Kirklees Council

Overall in the district Labour retained its minority control of Kirklees Council after it won 11 seats to remain at 34 in total - one short of a majority.

The Conservatives won six seats and Liberal Democrats took three.

The Green Party, Labour and Co-operative and an Independent candidate won one seat each but there were no victories for UKIP or Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts.

And no sitting councillors were defeated in North Kirklees but Conservative Michelle Grainger-Mead won a seat in the Liversedge and Gomersal ward with 1,803 votes after Labour’s Simon Alvy stood down before the election.

Three Labour newcomers were elected in North Kirklees - Fazila Fadia won with 3,486 votes in the Batley East ward, Mussarat Pervaiz in the Dewsbury West ward with 3,164 and Gulfman Asim took 2,626 in the Dewsbury South ward, securing the party’s stronghold in those wards.

Coun Kath Pinnock (Lib Dem) retained her place in Cleckheaton, Coun Shabir Pandor (Lab) remains in Batley West, Cabinet member Coun Steve Hall (Lab) was re-elected in his Heckmondwike seat and Coun Paul Kane (Lab) also stays as the representative for Dewsbury East.

Sitting Birstall and Birkenshaw councillor Andrew Palfreeman secured his seat alongside fellow Conservative Martyn Bolt, who won in Mirfield.

Incoming Dewsbury South councillor Gulfman Asif (Lab) said: “I’m feeling excited. It’s a surreal moment, I’m still waiting for it to sink it.

“It took the hard work of the sitting councillors and the retiring councillor Abdul Patel for us to get a majority.

“It’s a proud moment, I want to thank everyone who came out and voted.”

Coun Paul Kane, who is the Mayor of Kirklees and has been a councillor since 1995, won 2,285 votes.

He said: “I’m a bit exhausted. It has been hard doing this and the mayorality because I’ve put a lot into that too.”

Coun Kane said he now wants to focus his efforts on the regeneration of Dewsbury town centre .

He said: “It’s really important for me to force upon any developer that they have a commitment not only to their development but the town centre.”

Cabinet member for Schools and Learning Shabir Pandor retained his seat for the Batley West, ward, which he had held since 2002.

He said: “It’s such a relief that we have won. We have been working hard over the past four years, and it’s paid off.”

Mr Pandor laid out his plans for the future: “We are promising to take communities through the austerity programme and improve children’s services in vulnerable areas. I think that we need to rethink how the council works and how the public perceive the Labour party.”

Veteran Birstall and Birkenshaw Conservative Andrew Palfreeman, who has represented the ward since 1998, retained the seat with 1,987 votes.

He said: “We’ve got an exceptionally good councillor team in the ward.

“We get about, we mix with people, groups and organisations. We try to support them the best we can and our door is always open for any individual.”

And Mirfield Conservative stalwart Martyn Bolt said: “It’s always humbling that the people of Mirfield put their trust in me even after 18 years.

“It’s still a relief when you get the result in.

“It’s about regular hard work, communication and working on issues rather than just politics.”

Top Liberal Democrat councillor Kath Pinnock, who is a member of the House of Lords, kept her Cleckheaton seat by beating her closest candidate, UKIP’s Colin Walshaw, by more than 1,885 votes.

She said: “I am so pleased that we have won again. I think we won because we spoke to the community all through the year, not only around election time, to make sure that we knew what the community wanted.

“Not only that but we fought a strong campaign and we really listened to what people wanted. “

Coun Graham Turner (Lab), the Cabinet member for resources who has overseen the council’s budget cuts, kept is Denby Dale seat with 2,631 - just 147 more than Conservative candidate Paula Kemp.

The results in full are as follows:

Batley East:

Fazila Fadia (Lab) - 3,487

Richard Allan Farnhill (Lib Dem) - 248

Abdul Ghaffar (Independent) - 512

Char Stoyles (Green) - 156

Derrick Yates (Con) - 594

Batley West

James Griffith-Jones (UKIP) - 698

Lyndsey Hall (Con) - 648

Christopher Kane (Lib Dem) - 156

Garry Kitchin (Green) - 198

Shabir Pandor (Lab) - 2,833

Birstall and Birkenshaw

Joyce Holbrook (UKIP) - 851

Clare Kane (Lib Dem) - 232

Jasmine Kennedy (Green) - 190

Andrew Palfreeman (Con) - 1,987

Khalid Ahmed Patel (Lab) - 939

Cleckheaton

Aafaq Noor Butt (Lab) - 571

Andrew Gray (Con) - 677

Kath Pinnock (Lib Dem) - 2,592

Colin Walshaw (UKIP) - 707

Catherine Whittingham (Green) - 114

Dewsbury East

Greg Burrows (UKIP) - 758

Mark Eastwood (Con) - 970

Dennis Hullock (Lib Dem) - 191

Paul Kane (Lab) - 2,285

Tony Kelsall (Green) - 111

Dewsbury South

Imtiaz Ameen (Con) - 1,406

Gulfam Asif (Lab) - 2,626

Adrian Cruden (Green) - 525

Bernard Disken (Lib Dem) - 339

Dewsbury West

Simon Cope (Green) - 450

Shehzad Hussain (Lib Dem) - 992

John Nottingham (Con) - 474

Mussarat Pervaiz (Lab) - 3,164

Heckmondwike

Steve Hall (Lab) - 2,281

Sofia Yusuf Layton (Green) - 142

Aleks Lukic (UKIP) - 836

Josie Pugsley (Lib Dem) -119

Robert Thornton (Con) - 701

Liversedge and Gomersal

Michelle Grainger-Mead (Con) - 1,803

Simon Holbrook (UKIP) - 1,151

Mohammed Jawad Afzal Khan (Lab) - 1,243

David Snee (Lib Dem) - 200

Nicholas Whittingham (Green) - 148

Mirfield

Martyn Bolt (Con) - 3,434

John Dobson (Lib Dem) - 172

Karen Rowling (Lab) - 1,442

Isabel Walters (Green) - 358