FIVE candidates will contest next month’s Bolton Council by-election in the Rumworth ward.

The election will take place on Thursday October 6 and Labour, the Conservatives, UKIP, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party will all be challenging to take the seat.

The election has been called after the death of former Labour councillor, Rosa Kay, who held the Rumworth seat for 17 years until her death in July.

Labour will be confident of retaining the council seat through their candidate Shamim Abdullah, who has lived in the ward for several decades.

She said: “I am part of the local community and understand the needs of local people. I am keen not only to champion the needs of individuals and act as their advocate but also to focus my energies on three key areas: to tackle those who litter and fly-tip in the Rumworth ward, to ensure there are sufficient local school places for children living in the ward and to work in close partnership with the police to keep our community safe.

For the Tories, 21-year-old Mohammed Waqas, a politics student and former Bolton Youth Council member, said he wants to offer an alternative to Labour’s policies in Bolton.

He said: “Labour need telling that their policy on fortnightly slim bins is wrong; telling that their policy on the regeneration of our town is failing; telling that educational attainment must always be at the top of the priority list and telling they are not doing enough to train and skill our young people.

He added: “I just ask the residents of Rumworth to give a young enthusiastic Asian lad a chance to show that he could deliver a better deal for them.”

For UKIP, now Bolton’s third party, young candidate Jonathan Baxendale said: “Rumworth is tainted as being the most deprived ward in the borough. In spite of hundreds of thousands of pounds being spent in the area over the past 15 years by the Labour council, deprivation has actually worsened.

“It has obviously been beyond the wit of the incumbent Labour councillors to get to the bottom of the reasons for this and to come up with a scheme for successfully addressing the problem.”

Teacher Becky Forrest is standing for the Liberal Democrats and said: “Many residents across Rumworth, and indeed Bolton, feel they are not being listened to by the current Labour council.

“There seems to be a distinct lack of transparency — with the attempts to prevent a Rumworth councillor’s name for non-payment of council tax being revealed, the huge pay-off for the previous chief exec and the concerns regarding planning.”

Green party leader Alan Johnson will also be standing and will campaign on issues including redeveloping derelict sites in the ward to provide housing, tackling fly-tipping, creating local jobs and supporting people affected by the so-called bedroom tax.