Labour retained the one seat we were defending in this year’s Craven District Council elections. Peter Madeley increased his share of the vote in Skipton West going from 36 per cent to over 50 percent. We also gained a seat on Skipton Town Council with Gerardo Iannaccone joining sitting councillors Peter Madeley and Alan Hickman who both retained their seats. Congratulations to them and commiserations to our other candidates who did not do as well but did at least give all our supporters an opportunity to put their x against the party name – something none of the other parties can claim.

Overall, in the 11district council seats  where elections took place this year, the Conservatives went down from seven seats to four; the Independents went up from two to five. The Greens gained one and UKIP lost its only seat.  This now means that the Conservatives have lost overall control of Craven District Council, with just 15 out of the 30 seats. The Independents have nine seats, we have three, the Greens two and Lib Dems one.

The full results are on the Craven District Council website at Council elections 2019

Turnout overall was 37 per cent but  ranged from 50percent in Upper Wharfedale to just 29 percent in Skipton South. The previous time that most of these seats were contested coincided with the 2015 general election. Which parties contested which seats also varied from 2015 so it is hard to draw too many conclusions. But we were proud to be the only party contesting all the district council seats. In many cases we held or even increased our share of the vote and where it went down this was largely due to the range of opponents. UKIP and perhaps more surprisingly the Lib Dems no longer appear to be a force in Craven and the gains for Independents and Greens reflect what appears to be a national trend.

Thanks once again go to all our candidates, those who signed their nomination papers and the many activists who turned out to campaign across the borough.