Labour has strengthened its hold on High Peak Borough Council following the local elections.

The party started the day with 19 councillors but now has 29 of the 43 seats on the council, after making gains at the expense of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Council Leader, Councillor Anthony Mckeown, said: “We’re grateful for the confidence that local people have placed in us.

"There was a little bit from our current MP [Robert Largan] asking for competent councillors and we’re grateful that the electorate has increased the number in the Labour group from 19 to 29.

"There’s hopefully some confidence there and we have to now go and make sure we deliver on our pledges and promises and do what we can to turn the council around.

"For the last four years, there’s been a whole host of challenges around Covid and everything else. The hope is we now get a good shot at pushing through on some of those things that just take that little bit longer.

"In Glossop, we’ve got the Municipal Buildings complex which is on schedule and all the works are happening now. There’s some stuff that we’d love to do but it’s just taken forever to get done with everything that’s gone on and we’ll hopefully start to see some of those things come through. But there is always more to do.”

Although High Peak has followed the national picture with Labour making strong gains, Cllr Mckeown explained that is not always the case.

“You know, High Peak is often a quirky place - it doesn’t always follow the trends. You see the mass trends of the national polls which are showing huge swings towards Labour and we’ve not always followed those trends.

“In 2019, we were able to win, and it wasn’t necessarily predicted. We’re grateful that folk have repaid our confidence in them, and they’ve elected us in greater numbers.”

Success for the Greens 

Charlotte Farrell (left) and Joanna Collins after being elected 

The election also saw success for the Green Party, as Group Leader Joanna Collins retained her seat in the Hope Valley ward, alongside fellow Green Charlotte Farrell.

Councillor Collins said: “I am very pleased with the result in the Hope Valley. It shows once again we work hard, harder than previous incumbents and we have support across the board from all other parties.

“We have done well in other places, some of which we didn’t campaign in, which shows strong tacit support for the Green Party and green issues.

“I hope this makes the other parties take green issues more seriously and we will be pushing for this on the council as we have a much stronger mandate.”

Commenting on the party’s performance nationwide, she said: “Greens have done well across the country and have achieved their aims of 100 gains overall. I have so say this shows what a mess the Tory government are doing, a lot of people said at the doorstep, Tories all their lives but are fed up.”

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