Elections 2023: What voters think in the town that ‘re-wrote the electoral map’ just a year ago

Elections for Bury Council are less than a week away with a single seat in all the borough’s wards up for grabs in the poll. Residents are voting to elect a representative in each of the borough’s 17 wards on polling day on Thursday, May 4. A total of 72 candidates are standing for councillor positions in each of the wards which make up the town. Each councillor is elected for a four-year term of office.

Candidates from the Conservatives, Labour and Greens will contest every ward. The Liberal Democrats will be fighting to win in eight wards while Radcliffe First are fielding three candidates.

They are joined by two English Democrats candidates and a single Communist Party contender. Six independents are standing and there is a single candidate for the Reform Party.

In Radcliffe last year there was a seismic shift in the ‘all out’ elections, with voters there re-writing the electoral map by electing eight Radcliffe First party representatives out of the nine councillors in the town. Both the controlling group Labour, who hold a comfortable majority at the town hall and the Conservatives will be hoping to make progress with the electorate of Radcliffe, while Radcliffe First will be trying to maintain their dominance in terms of councillor numbers.

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Radcliffe is earmarked for major redevelopment with a civic hub and leisure centre planned for the town centre and improvements to the market planned. Also on the horizon, is a long awaited and much delayed new high school for the town.

Other issues pertinent to the area include green belt development and the upkeep of roads and pavements. We visited Radcliffe town centre to ask voters what their priorities