The Conservative Party have won in the Ponteland East by-election, electing Rosie Hanlon as their new councillor.

This comes after the unfortunate passing of former Ponteland Mayor, Alan Varley.

Issues around the preservation of the greenbelt took centre stage in the campaigns, particularly after Labour leader Keir Starmer's announcement at their party conference last year to relax building regulations to allow housebuilding in areas like Ponteland which currently benefit from protection.

The by-election saw a high turnout of 43 per cent of eligible voters.

The Labour Party secured 234 votes. The last time that Ponteland East and Stannington went to the polls in the 2021 local elections, Labour finished third. In this election, where under half of that county council ward voted, Labour came a strong second with 30 per cent of the vote. 

Mike Clarke, the Labour candidate for Ponteland East, said: "It has been a pleasure to speak to the residents of Ponteland East over the last few weeks and to hear their concerns about local and national issues. I would like to pay tribute to my excellent team who have helped to achieve this swing to Labour and look forward to seeing this repeated in the General Election."

Guy Opperman, member of parliament for Hexham, said: "I know Rosie well and I know that she will make a fantastic representative for Ponteland East.

"The Labour Party fought a hard campaign over the past few weeks.

"Given previous Labour attempts to concrete over the greenbelt in this area it’s little surprise that the party has never really had much of a presence in Ponteland and the result tells us why.

"I look forward to working with Rosie on the issues that matter to residents of Ponteland East and standing against Keir Starmer’s plans to concrete over our greenbelt."

The newly elected councillor, Rosie Hanlon, commented on her win, stating: "With the support of Ponteland residents, we can now work to keep strong protections for the greenbelt in our updated neighbourhood plan.

"Now I've been elected as part of Guy's strong team in Ponteland, I look forward to following in Alan Varley's footsteps and working hard for the people of Ponteland on their other priorities too, like reducing crime and anti-social behaviour, and improving our roads and pavements.

"Alan was an excellent town councillor and I was proud to call him a friend."

The full election result can be viewed on the official Northumberland County Council website at http://tinyurl.com/z6x4y57d.