Calderdale Mayor-elect has to fight election before she can take up office

This year’s local elections are set to take place on May 5, 2022.

At February’s meeting of the full Calderdale Council, Mayor-elect Coun Angie Gallagher announced that her Deputy Mayor would be Coun Stephanie Clarke.

Annual Council is held in mid-May – it is scheduled for Wednesday, May 18, 2022 – after the elections and a major part of the day’s business is the Mayor-making ceremony.

Coun Gallagher (Lab, Elland) was first elected to serve in Elland ward in 2014 and re-elected in 2018 – with her seat being up for election in the May contest this year.

Among her ward work and other council duties, Coun Gallagher is Chair of the council’s Flooding Scrutiny Panel.

She has experience of the duties Calderdale’s civic heads carry out, having being Deputy Mayor to Coun Dot Foster (Lab, Sowerby Bridge) when Coun Foster was at the helm for two years from 2019-21, through the early part of the pandemic.

Coun Clarke (Lab, Illingworth and Mixenden) was elected to serve her ward in 2019.

Among her ward work and other council duties, she is Chair of the council’s Licensing and Regulatory Committee and Licensing Sub-committee.

The borough’s new civic heads will take over the reins from this year’s Mayor of Calderdale, Coun Chris Pillai (Con, Rastrick), and his Deputy Mayor, Coun Howard Blagbrough (Con, Brighouse), who took office in May 2021.

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