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Reform gains and Greens win first seat in Chorley

Sarah Spina-Matthews & Rachael LazaroNorth West
News imageReformChorleyUK/X A man in a suit stands speaking at a lecturn on a stage. It has a sign on the front of it which reads 'Chorley Council'. Other men stand on the stage and others mill around below it. ReformChorleyUK/X
Reform UK won seven out of 14 seats in Chorley, while the Green party won its first seat on the council

Reform UK has seen major gains in Chorley, with veteran Labour councillor and former mayor Steve Holgate losing his seat to the party.

Overall, Labour lost eight seats and Reform gained seven, but Labour maintained majority control of the authority.

Reform Chorley praised the result on X, saying it had won seven of the 14 seats up for election in the hometown of former Labour MP and current Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and came a "credible second in the other seven".

It was also a significant night for the Greens whose candidate Olga Cash took the party's first seat on the council in the ward of Chorley South West.

Cash said the Greens had been rewarded for focusing its campaign efforts on the ward.

She said she was used to being "the Green in the room – the person that puts people first and sustainability to the forefront".

"Also, given what's happening right now, I think learning to collaborate and learning to be bigger than the divisions that are happening at the moment is really important," she added.

'Bigger picture'

Reform Chorley said: "Congratulations to our new councillors. Reform is now the official opposition party in Chorley."

Despite Reform's successes, the Labour leader of Chorley Council, Alistair Bradley, said his party could be pleased with the result as it was still the majority party, with 29 seats.

"It was a tough night but we held on to five of our seats and we still control the council," he told BBC Radio Lancashire.

He added: "Whilst we lost some excellent councillors we held our own when you look at the bigger picture."

News imageWomen sit at desks in a sports hall counting ballot papers
The verification process and counting has begun elsewhere in Lancashire, like here in Pendle

Turnout was unusually high – by local election standards – in some parts of the borough, with eight seats seeing between 40 and 48% of residents make the effort to vote.

Average turnout across the 14 wards was 40.1%.

Chorley is the first of the councils to be declared in Lancashire, with counting still under way in Burnley, Preston, Hyndburn, Blackburn with Darwen, West Lancashire and Pendle.

Additional reporting by theLocal Demoracy Reporting Service.

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