Pontefract North

Pontefract North is an electoral ward of the City of Wakefield district, used for elections to Wakefield Metropolitan District Council.^[1]

Pontefract North
Pontefract North Location within West Yorkshire
Metropolitan borough	City of Wakefield
Metropolitan county	West Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Police	West Yorkshire
Fire	West Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
UK Parliament	Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley
List of places UK England Yorkshire 53.67°N 1.26°W / 53.67; -1.26

Overview

The ward is one of 21 in the Wakefield district, and has been held by Labour since the current boundaries were formed for the 2004 Council election. As of 2015, the electorate stands at 12,495 of which 94.4% identify as "White British" and 69.3% of who identify as Christian.^[1][2]

Notable landmarks in the ward include Pontefract Racecourse, Pontefract Castle and Valeo Confectionery, with the main areas being Monkhill and Pontefract Town centre.^[3]

Representation

Like all wards in the Wakefield district, Pontefract North has 3 councillors, whom are elected on a 4-year-rota. This means elections for new councillors are held for three years running, with one year every four years having no elections.

The current councillors are Clive Tennant, Patricia Garbutt and Lorna Malkin, all of whom are Labour.^[4]

The last time a Conservative councillor represented the ward was Philip Thomas who elected in the 2008 Council election however, he ran for re-election as an independent as was subsequently defeated in the 2011 election by Paula Sherriff who would later serve as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dewsbury between 2015 and 2019.^[5]

Councillors

Election	Councillor	Councillor	Councillor
1996	Fredrick Hodgson (Lab)	Jack Kershaw (Lab)	Frank Ward (Lab)
1998
1999
2000	David Grason (Lab)
2002
2003			Clive Tennant (Lab)
2004 (new boundaries)	Patricia Garbutt (Lab)
2006
2007
2008		Philip Thomas (Cons)
2010
2011
2012		Paula Sherriff (Lab)
2014
2015
2015 by-election		Lorna Malkin (Lab)
2016
2018
2019
2021
2022

Election Results

2021: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Lorna Malkin	1,653	46.1	+4.7
	Conservative	Chris Hyomes	1,120	31.2	+11.8
	Yorkshire	Ryan Kett	628	17.5	−21.7
	Green	Emma Tingle	183	5.1	+5.1
Majority			533	14.9	+12.7
Turnout			3,584	25.4	+3.3
	Labour hold

2019: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patricia Garbutt	1214	41.4	−18.8
	Yorkshire	Steven Crookes	1148	39.2	+29.9
	Conservative	Chris Hyomes	570	24.9	−5.5
Majority			66	2.2	−20.3
Turnout			2932	22.1	−0.4
Rejected ballots			54
	Labour hold		Swing

2018: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Clive Tennant	1724	60.2	+6.9
	Conservative	Chris Hyomes	714	24.9	+9.2
	Yorkshire	Arnie Craven	266	9.3	+3.7
	Green	Rennie Smith	162	5.7	N/A
Majority			1010	35.3	+7.2
Turnout			2866	22.5	−3.6
Rejected ballots			3
	Labour hold		Swing

2016: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Lorna Malkin	1601	53.3
	UKIP	Joshua Spencer	762	25.4
	Conservative	Chris Hyomes	470	15.7
	Yorkshire First	Arnie Craven	168	5.6
Majority			839	27.9
Turnout			3001	26.1
	Labour hold		Swing

2015 By-election: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Lorna Malkin	909	48.0	−3.7
	UKIP	Nathan Garbutt	453	23.9	+2.3
	Conservative	Anthony David Hill	299	15.8	−5.1
	Yorkshire First	Lucy Brown	124	6.5	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Daniel Woodlock	86	4.5	N/A
	TUSC	Daniel Dearden	24	1.3	−0.2
Turnout			1895
	Labour hold		Swing

*The by-election follows the resignation of Paula Sheriff who was elected the MP for Dewsbury.^[6]

2015: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Pat Garbutt	3398	51.7	+3.1
	UKIP	Nathan Garbutt	1422	21.6	−14.0
	Conservative	Chris Speight	1375	20.9	+7.2
	Green	Rennie Smith	286	4.3	N/A
	TUSC	Daniel Dearden	97	1.5	−0.6
Majority			1976	30.1	+17.1
Turnout			6578	54.0	+25.7
	Labour hold		Swing

2014: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Clive Tennant	1645	48.6	+0.7
	UKIP	Nathan Garbutt	1205	35.6	+24.9
	Conservative	Amy Swift	463	13.7	−0.3
	TUSC	Daniel Dearden	71	2.1	−0.1
Majority			440	13.0	−12.6
Turnout			3384	28.3	+0.2
	Labour hold		Swing

2012: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Paula Sherriff	1,649	47.9	−11.9
	Independent	Jack Kershaw	769	22.3	+22.3
	Conservative	Hannah Crowther	481	14	−9.6
	UKIP	Nathan Garbutt	368	10.7	0
	Green	Rennie Smith	103	3.0	−2.4
	TUSC	Daniel Dearden	76	2.2	+2.2
Majority			880	25.5	−10.6
Turnout			3,446	28.1	−3.1
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

2011: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Pat Garbutt	2,261	59.8	+14.2
	Conservative	Chris Speight	894	23.6	−0.2
	UKIP	Justin Hudson	403	10.7	+10.7
	Green	Rennie Smith	205	5.4	+3.2
Majority			1,367	36.1	+14.3
Turnout			3,784	31.2	−24.4
	Labour hold		Swing

2010: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Clive Tennant	3,051	45.6
	Conservative	Carl Milner	1,594	23.8
	Liberal Democrats	Doug Dale	1,008	15.1
	Independent	Bob Evison	279	4.2
	Green	Rennie Smith	150	2.2
Majority			1,457	21.8
Turnout			6,692	55.6
	Labour hold		Swing

2008: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Philip Thomas	1,352	40.8	−6.4
	Labour	Jack Kershaw	1,323	39.9	−12.9
	Independent	Bob Evison	398	12.0	+12.0
	Green	Rennie Smith	240	7.2	+7.2
Majority			29	0.9
Turnout			3,313
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

2007: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patricia Garbutt	1,695	52.8	−9.2
	Conservative	Philip Thomas	1,517	47.2	+9.2
Majority			178	5.6	−18.4
Turnout			3,212
	Labour hold		Swing

2006: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Clive Tennant	1,757	62.0
	Conservative	Mellisa Wan Omer	1,077	38.0
Majority			680	24.0
Turnout			2,834
	Labour hold		Swing

2004: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jack Kershaw	2,008
	Labour	Patricia Garbutt	1,716
	Labour	Clive Tennant	1,599
	UKIP	Stephanie Wilder	994
	UKIP	Howard Burdon	848
	Conservative	Geoffrey Walsh	838
	Conservative	Eamonn Mullins	838
	Conservative	Catherine Campbell-Reitzik	783
	Socialist Alternative	John Gill	232
Turnout			9,856	35.6

*The 2004 election was the first one with the new boundaries. As such, all three seats were up for election.^[7]

2003: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Clive Tennant	1,443	58.2	−10.0
	Conservative	Richard Molloy	536	21.6	−1.6
	UKIP	Howard Burdon	352	14.2	+14.2
	Socialist Alternative	John Gill	149	6.0	+1.1
Majority			907	36.6	−8.4
Turnout			2,480	19.7	−1.3
	Labour hold		Swing

2002: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jack Kershaw	1,875	68.2	−2.9
	Conservative	Richard Molloy	638	23.2	−5.7
	Socialist Alternative	John Gill	134	4.9	+4.9
	Socialist Labour	Zane Carpenter	103	3.7	+3.7
Majority			1,237	45.0	+2.8
Turnout			2,750	21.0	+4.2
	Labour hold		Swing

2000: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Grason	1,453	71.1
	Conservative	June Drysdale	590	28.9
Majority			863	42.2
Turnout			2,043	16.8
	Labour hold		Swing

1999: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Frank Ward	1,757	81.9
	Conservative	June Drysdale	385	17.9
Majority			1,327
Turnout			2,149
	Labour hold		Swing

1998: Pontefract North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jack Kershaw	1,870	83.1
	Conservative	June Drysdale	372	14.5
Majority			1,498
Turnout			1,498	19.24
	Labour hold		Swing

References

1. Wakefield Observatory (2015). "Wakefield Ward Profile - Selection: Pontefract North Ward" (PDF).
2. "Seat Details". www.electoralcalculus.co.uk. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
3. "Pontefract North - MapIt". mapit.mysociety.org. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
4. "Your Councillors". WMDC. 10 January 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
5. "Dewsbury parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
6. Council, Wakefield Metropolitan District. "Pontefract North by-election result". www.wakefield.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
7. "Wakefield Council - Vote 2004". BBC News. 12 June 2004. Retrieved 11 January 2020.