Labour victory in Queen’s Park!

Tories dejected

The Labour party scored a fantastic victory in the 4th February Queen’s Park by-election, polling over 50% of the total vote.  Conservatives had high hopes in this by-election but finished in a poor third place with just 174 votes. 

The by-election was caused by the long term absence of former Liberal Democrat Councillor, Yusuf Sidat and the public voted with their feet and rejected the Lib Dem candidate emphatically. 

There was a great cheer in the Town Hall from Labour supporters when the result was announced and Conservative Party leader, Michael Lee looked particulary disappointed.      

The result was as follows:-

Mustafa Desai (Labour Party) – 638

Imtiaz Patel (Liberal Democrat) – 366

Asghar Ali (Conservatives) – 174

Turn out – 29%

Labour to stick to weekly bin collections

Blackburn with Darwen Labour group has reaffirmed its pledge to maintain the weekly bin collection scheme should the party regain control of the council in May’s local elections. In addition to this the Labour group has criticised the Tory led coalition for its cuts to the refuse collection service and the number of street sweepers. Over the last few weeks we have seen bins left uncollected and overflowing in the back streets of the town. Labour’s regeneration spokesman Cllr Andy Kay said, “The borough was never in such a state when Labour ran the council. It has become clear that the cuts made by the coalition have put too much pressure on the refuse teams.”