Former Tameside Mayor ousted by surprise Conservative swing

Former Civic Mayor of Tameside and Labour councillor Leigh Drennan has dramatically lost his Ashton Hurst ward seat to the Conservatives.

Dan Costello - who stood as the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Tories in the 2019 General Election against Angela Rayner - took the seat with 1503 votes.

Leigh Drennan, who last won the seat in 2016, was 154 behind with 1349 votes. He had been the Civic Mayor of Tameside between 2019-2020.

Labour had gained a seat from the Conservatives in the ward back in 2018, when Labour’s Dolores Lewis beat the Tory’s Paul Buckley. But now that seat has turned blue again.

The significant Labour defeat was the only surprise result in Tameside by mid afternoon.

The new councillor said it had been a really long campaign with no elections last year due to the pandemic and said it felt like the end of a marathon, but he was ‘absolutely delighted’ to have won the ward.

An elated Dan Costello told us he can’t wait to get to work in Ashton Hurst. pic.twitter.com/e2fe3aXdeF

— Tameside Reporter (@newsintameside) May 7, 2021

“It’s my local area, where I live, where my family live so I’m really keen to make it as good as it can be for all of the residents of Hurst,” he said.

Stating that he couldn’t wait to get to work on behalf of residents, he said one of the key local issues raised on the doorstep while he was campaigning was the matter of speeding motorists.

“There are real hotspots around St Albans Avenue, Broadoak Road and Ladbrook Road and I’ve been speaking with residents living there to look at some of the things we might try to do to sort some of those problems out and make sure our roads are as safe as possible in Hurst.”

More widely he said issues like increasing Council Tax and decreasing services - especially waste collections - had also been key topics.

Former Tameside Conservative leader John Bell said Dan Costello had worked extremely hard to win the seat.

Former councillor John Bell congratulated @Tameside_Tories Dan Costello on his win. pic.twitter.com/SaNe3NRblh

— Tameside Reporter (@newsintameside) May 7, 2021

“You don’t get results like this without working hard,” he said.

“In Tameside as a whole I think the Labour group have been very complacent,  taken the population of Tameside for granted - something which has happened locally as well as nationally and it’s reflected in the results.”

He said younger people like Dan needed to be given a chance to bring in new ideas.

Follow the live Tameside Council election results as they come in via our live blog here.

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