The Conservative Party have topped the poll in Ponteland, with Rosie Hanlon elected as the new councillor for the Ponteland East ward. The vacancy was created following the sad death of former Ponteland Mayor Alan Varley.
Greenbelt featured heavily in the campaigns, after Labour leader Keir Starmer announced at their party conference last year that his party would relax building regulations to allow housebuilding in areas like Ponteland which currently benefit from protection.
The election had a high turnout for a by-election at Town Council level, with 43% of eligible voters took part. Despite regular appearances from Keir Starmer’s parliamentary candidate for Hexham, Labour only managed to secure 234 votes, fewer than the party polled in the Ponteland East county council seat in 2021.
Guy Opperman, the Member of Parliament for Hexham said:
“I know Rosie well and I know that she will make a fantastic representative for Ponteland East.
“The Labour Party fought a hard campaign over the past few weeks. Given previous Labour attempts to concrete over the greenbelt in this area it’s little surprise that the party has never really had much of a presence in Ponteland and the result tells us why.
“I look forward to working with Rosie on the issues that matter to residents of Ponteland East and standing against Keir Starmer’s plans to concrete over our greenbelt.”
"With the support of Ponteland residents, we can now work to keep strong protections for the greenbelt in our updated neighbourhood plan.
Newly elected councillor Rosie Hanlon said:
"With the support of Ponteland residents, we can now work to keep strong protections for the greenbelt in our updated neighbourhood plan.
“Now I've been elected as part of Guy's strong team in Ponteland, I look forward to following in Alan Varley's footsteps and working hard for the people of Ponteland on their other priorities too, like reducing crime and anti-social behaviour, and improving our roads and pavements. Alan was an excellent town councillor and I was proud to call him a friend."
