Lib Dems take all three seats in delayed ward vote

The Liberal Democrats have won all three seats in Idle and Thackley in a delayed local election for the ward.

Rachel Sunderland, daughter of the late councillor Jeanette Sunderland, received the most votes, with Alun Griffiths and Aislin Naylor coming second and third.

The result means the Lib Dems now have four seats on Bradford Council, while Reform UK have 28, the Conservatives 18 and Labour 17. The rest are shared between the Green Party, the Your Bradford Independent Group, and a number of independents.

Voting in the ward was postponed following the death of Jeanette Sunderland, who died from cancer shortly before polling day.

Rachel Sunderland received 2,784 votes, Griffiths received 2,746 and Naylor received 2,714, all comfortably ahead of the three Reform candidates, who each received just over 1,500 votes each.

After the results were announced, Sunderland, who has had two stints on Bradford Council, most recently between 2019 and 2022, said: "We've had an incredibly warm response from Idle and Thackley.

"We've had a presence there for a long time, my mum was councillor for 32 years.

"This is a great result against a really tough backdrop where Reform has made gains nationally."

On the council's current make up, she said: "For a long time Labour had a strong majority – they could just push things through. We're not in that position now. There are fresh faces in City Hall. It means we might be able to move things forward."

Asked if the party had expected a victory, Griffiths told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "We couldn't predict what would happen, but the mood music was very good. But people have thought they would do alright in these elections only to come a cropper in May."

He described the response from voters as "heartwarming", adding: "It was a real tribute to Jeanette to see how many people from the party who knew her came to work on the election campaign."

Griffiths said he and his fellow ward councillors had made overturning the introduction of parking charges in Idle one of their key priorities, while issues around anti-social driving and the use of Nitrous Oxide would also be on their list.

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