Bolton by-elections see Lib Dems and Farnworth and Kearsley First gain a seat

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Two new councillors have been selected in by-elections in Bolton. In the Kearlsey ward, hyper-local party Farnworth and Kearsley First were triumphant with Tracey Wilkinson winning by a landslide.

She picked up 1,081 votes with Labour hopeful Jackie Schofield a distant second with 365 votes. The Liberal Democrats were successful in Westhoughton North and Hunger Hill, with newly elected Deidre McGeown picking up 959 votes, beating the Conservative’s Andrea Finney, who gained the support of 665 voters, into second.

Reform UK/Bolton for Change came third with 121 votes with the Conservatives polling just 35 votes. The elections were needed after the resignations of One Kearsley founder and leader Paul Heslop in the Kearsley ward and Conservative member Bernadette Eckersley-Fallon in Westhoughton North and Hunger Hill. READ MORE: "Not a day goes by that we don't miss her..." - Tributes to woman killed by her partner in brutal hammer attack READ MORE: Fire breaks out at row of houses before people evacuate Both quit their posts just five months after being elected to Bolton Council in May.

One Kearsley took all three seats in the ward in the May elections but in the same week that Mr Heslop resigned the two other One Kearsley elected members, Debbie Newall and Melanie Livesey, crossed the floor to become part of Bolton Council’s controlling Labour group.