Nick Peel becomes Bolton Council Leader
The Labour councillor has been elected as the borough’s leader at a town hall meeting, replacing Conservative leader Cllr Martyn Cox in the minority-controlled administration.
Cllr Cox led Bolton Council since the death of previous Conservative leader Cllr David Greenhalgh in August 2021. Before that, the Conservative Party led the local authority since 2019.
Labour Cllr Peel’s election as leader comes after the Labour Party became Bolton’s largest in this month’s all-out local elections, gaining five seats and finishing with 26 councillors in post out of a possible 60.
In the same election, the Conservatives lost seven council seats and now have 17.
- READ MORE: North West local elections 2023 results
With 26 seats, Labour holds the most seats in Bolton, however without a majority Cllr Peel needed support from other parties in order to be elected.
This support came from the councillors for One Kearsley, who voted to approve, and the councillors for Horwich and Blackrod, who abstained.
Among Cllr Peel’s promises to Bolton is the regeneration of the town’s centre, as well as introducing measures to tackle climate change.
Bolton Council’s political makeup is 26 Labour, 16 Conservative, 12 independents, and six Liberal Democrat.
I wish Cllr Peel every success but he and the rest of the council have a huge job on their hands. The town centre has been left to decay and has seemingly only got worse over recent times. There has been encouraging news recently about possible developments but seeing is believing. Then there are the areas around the town centre. The councillor makes reference to tackling climate change and whilst this is a noble cause I think the first order of business should be cleaning all the rubbish from the streets around Halliwell. Maybe Bolton Council could take a broken windows view to try and deal with some of the wider issues which are impacting the town.
By Anonymous