Batley and Spen by-election: Stories from the 271 bus route
BBCAs the old saying almost goes, you wait ages for one by-election and then three come along at once. First a Conservative win in Hartlepool, then a Liberal Democrat victory in Buckinghamshire, the spotlight now moves 175 miles up the M1 motorway to Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire on 1 July.
A constituency of towns built on a 19th Century textile boom and rural areas rich with agriculture, Batley and Spen is surrounded - and arguably overshadowed - by the much larger urban areas of Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield and Huddersfield.
It is a diverse constituency, with significant disparities in wealth. Almost 10,000 households claim Universal Credit. A fifth of the population is of Asian heritage, compared with the UK average of 7%. GCSE scores are slightly higher than the England average.
And while national attention on its forthcoming by-election will inevitably focus on what the result tells us about the state of the parties and their leaders, the 112,000 people who live here are seeking an MP who will help to improve their lives.
A relative lack of railway stations in the area means that many rely on the bus to travel between its towns and villages. So the BBC boarded the Arriva 271 service, which winds its way across the constituency over 40 stops and about 8 miles (13km), to hear what people in Batley and Spen want their new MP to do for them.
The route starts at the bottom of the valley in the centre of Batley, where 18-year-old Asad Hussain is waiting for his bus home after an hour pounding the treadmill at the gym.
"I think it's a forgotten area," he says. "You mention Batley and Spen and no-one really knows what or where it is. The focus is around the other areas, Leeds, Dewsbury, Huddersfield".
After glancing at the departure board and being momentarily drowned out by the bus station's public address system, he continues: "I've just finished college and I'm hoping to go to uni in September, I'm hoping to go to Leeds and study environmental health.
"There's no universities in the Batley and Spen area, it's Leeds or Huddersfield really. I guess you can't really complain as it's not far away but some people may not want to travel, they may need to stay closer to their families."
The route climbs up through Carlinghow and heads towards Heckmondwike, where 76-year-old Anne Baker is sitting at Market Place waiting for her second bus, despite only making a 3.5-mile (5.6km) journey.
"There's no bank in Heckmondwike - no Lloyds, no Yorkshire, no NatWest, there's not even a Halifax," she says.
"If I need to go into a bank I have to go to Dewsbury or Huddersfield."
She enjoys the rural scenery surrounding her home in the village of Norristhorpe, but is frustrated by using up most of her day to make such a short journey.
"The bus that brings me down here only comes once an hour," she adds.
"I feel ignored, all of the services seem to be aimed at Huddersfield and the smaller towns just get bypassed."
Further along the bus shelter is 19-year-old Ella Peacock, who's on her way to a shopping centre in Leeds in search of some new clothes.
"The shops round here are rubbish. I have to travel further to find shops that you want to go to," she says.
"I'd like a better choice for younger age groups, there's not much here in terms of clothing shops."
The bus climbs 91m (300ft) up the valley to the village of Gomersal, where the signs are being taken down from former Batley and Spen MP Tracy Brabin's constituency office.
Opposite the wittily-named Pressed for Time dry cleaners and Heads & Tales hair salon is Gomersal Cricket Club, where the decision has just been made to cancel the evening training session due to an unfortunate clash with England's latest Euro 2020 fixture.
Pointing to the crease, then to the bar, club steward Carl Laws says: "What we pay the team out here, they tend to spend in there."
Despite the proximity to the new West Yorkshire mayor's former office, the 52-year-old says they never had a knock on the door.
"She was only up the road, literally a two-minute walk, she's not been in here," he says.
"Come and show us a bit of moral support - whatever your constituency is, go round it. Don't just tell us you're there, go to the people and show yourselves."
As the bus rolls into Cleckheaton, where this 33-minute journey ends, former Kirklees Council gardener Pete Fawcett is tending to three street flower displays he maintains voluntarily.
"In the autumn I put in tulips and polyanthus," he says. "The aim is to brighten up that area and give people who come to Cleckheaton a nice welcome. It's nice to have a bit of colour."
The 72-year-old, who's also spent his retirement writing books about his other passions of Irish music and hand-bell ringing, continues: "The NHS and schools should be high on the spending list, but each year the parks have received less money.
"Eventually you end up with a skeleton with no meat, and the gardeners can't cope because there aren't enough of them."
A stone's throw from Cleckheaton Town Hall is Christopher Hookey's Spen Fair Deal DIY store.
The 63-year-old, who's juggling his interview while dealing with a customer struggling to find a roll of duct tape, says: "I've been in this shop 48 years, I was a Saturday lad when I started here and progressed through the ranks.
"We get people sending us Christmas cards. We're not just a shop, we're pretty much friends with most of them, but I've been here that long I remember them being born."
The shopkeeper has survived the downturn caused by Covid so far, but is concerned about what the future may hold for businesses in the area.
"Give us a bit of investment, don't spend it all in Huddersfield," he says.
"I feel a bit let down, where is my rates money going? It doesn't seem to come back to Cleckheaton."
After dropping off its final passengers, the 271 rolls back into the cavernous Heckmondwike bus depot, with 26-year-old driver Thomas Wilson's pet peeve, rather predictably, being the quality of the roads he tackles along the route.
"Certain areas are just pothole after pothole, it affects the quality of your drive and the passengers' comfort," he says.
After driving near-empty buses through a "ghost town", the former graphic designer is relieved he's starting to see some familiar faces stepping on board his bus once again after months of lockdown.
"It's getting people out and about again so they don't have to be cooped up inside," he says.
Below is the full list of candidates for the Batley and Spen by-election (listed alphabetically by surname):
Paul Bickerdike - Christian Peoples Alliance
Mike Davies - Alliance For Green Socialism
Jayda Fransen - Independent
George Galloway - Workers Party
Tom Gordon - Liberal Democrats
Thérèse Hirst - English Democrats
Howling Laud Hope - The Official Monster Raving Loony Party
Susan Laird - Heritage Party
Kim Leadbeater - Labour Party
Oliver Purser - Social Democratic Party
Corey Robinson - Yorkshire Party
Andrew Smith - Rejoin EU
Ryan Stephenson - Conservative Party
Jack Thomson - UK Independence Party
Jonathan Tilt - Freedom Alliance
Anne Marie Waters - The For Britain Movement
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