A total of 43 candidates are set to contest 10 council seats in district council elections in and around Keighley this month.

Nominations have now closed for people wanting to stand in the elections scheduled for May 22.

The full list of candidates standing was released by Bradford and Craven district councils last Friday.

The UK Independence Party is mounting its biggest challenge yet in those wards which cover Keighley district.

Candidates for this party are standing in all three Keighley town wards, as well as in the Worth Valley and in Bingley Rural.

There is also a UKIP candidate standing in Craven District Council’s Glusburn Ward.

In addition to Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, two smaller parties are also looking to make an impact locally.

The Green party has candidates running in Keighley Central, Keighley West, Worth Valley, Craven and Bingley Rural.

Bradford MP George Galloway’s Respect party is also represented, with its candidate Shazad Murtaza standing in Keighley East.

A number of the candidates will already be familiar to many people through their existing presence on town and parish councils.

Keighley deputy mayor and town councillor Judith Brooksbank is standing for the Liberal Democrats in Keighley East, and Keighley town councillors Peter Corkindale and Brian Morris are representing UKIP’s cause in Keighley West and the Worth Valley respectively.

A recently elected Keighley town councillor, George Firth, is standing for UKIP in Keighley Central, while another Keighley town councillor, Pauline Rogan, is running for the Liberal Democrats in the same ward.

In Craven Ward, two seats will be contested on May 22, as a seat has been left vacant by the death of Councillor Michael Kelly in February of this year.

Among the candidates in this ward are David Mullen, Chris Atkinson and Catherine Coates who respectively chair Steeton-with-Eastburn Parish Council, Silsden Town Council, and Addingham Parish Council.

Other local hopefuls include 18-year-old Luke Maunsell - Labour’s youngest election candidate to contest a Keighley district council seat - and Conservative candidate Allan Doherty, Keighley’s former police chief.

 

CANDIDATES STANDING IN KEIGHLEY DISTRICT FOR BRADFORD DISTRICT COUNCIL

Keighley Central Ward - Akbar Ali (Conservative), Rohman Ali (Green), George Michael Firth (UK Independence Party), Abid Hussain (Labour), Pauline Rogan (Liberal Democrat).

Keighley West Ward - Barbara Elizabeth Archer (Green), Ryan Thomas Andrew Brown (Conservative), Keith Dredge (Labour), Brian Morris (UK Independence Party), Jack Taylor (Liberal Democrat).

Keighley East Ward - Ian Bannister (UK Independence Party), Judith Brooksbank (Liberal Democrat), Allan Joseph Doherty (Conservative), Shazad Murtaza (Respect), Steve Pullen (Labour).

Worth Valley Ward - Peter Allan Gilchrist Corkindale (UK Independence Party), Mark Curtis (Labour), Celia Ruth Hickson (Green), Glen William Miller (Conservative), Alan Sykes (Liberal Democrat).

Craven Ward - Christopher Michael Atkinson (Independent), Val Carroll (Labour), Catherine Jane Coates (Independent), Kathryn Forrest (Green), Sam Harris (Liberal Democrat), Andrew Charles Mallinson (Conservative), Luke Edward Antony Joseph Maunsell (Labour), David Mullen (Independent), Michael Robert Thomas Powell (Liberal Democrat), Andrew Charles Rowley (Conservative).

Bingley Rural Ward - Michael Ellis (Conservative), Stephen Henry (UK Independence Party), Kay Kirkham (Liberal Democrat), Andrew Mccormick (Labour and Co-operative Party), Brian Newham (Green).

CRAVEN DISTRICT COUNCIL

Aire Valley with Lothersdale Ward - Alan Frank Hickman (Labour), Patrick Thomas Mulligan (Conservative)

Glusburn Ward - Barrett Philip Melvin (Independent), Roger Harry Baxandall (UK Independence Party), Tanya Ilsa Graham (Conservative), Hazel Keirle (Labour).

Sutton-in-Craven Ward - Stephen Spencer Place (Independent), Vivien Thompson (Labour).