BOLTON’S Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd has branded the elections which saw him appointed as “shambolic”, after it was revealed votes cast at some polling stations in Bolton barely made it into double figures.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed only 11 people voted at Pikes Lane Primary School in Gibraltar Street, while 26 people turned out at Bolton Town Hall when the Police and Crime Commissioner elections were held on November 15 last year.

Mr Lloyd became Greater Manchester’s first commissioner after being voted in following a turnout of just 13.93 per cent.

Bolton had the fourth highest turnout in Greater Manchester at 14.2 per cent, with 28,020 votes cast at the borough’s 132 polling stations.

After Pikes Lane, the next lowest turnout was at a mobile station at Westhoughton Rangers Junior Football Club in Wigan Road with just 16 voters, followed by 18 votes at St Andrew’s Church in Tonge Moor Road, with only 26 were cast at Bolton Town Hall’s One Stop Shop.

Pikes Lane headteacher Louise McArdle said: “The school was not closed on that day and therefore there was no disruption to the children's learning.

“We are fortunate to have a community room which can be accessed independently of the main school and this is where members of the public came to cast their votes.”

A Bolton Council spokeswoman added: “The council has a responsibility to provide polling stations across the borough, which have easy access for the public.”

Labour’s Mr Lloyd, who represented Manchester Central before taking on the commissioner role, blamed the government for the low turnout.

He said: “I’ve publicly criticised the government for not putting enough resources into raising awareness of these elections, and holding them during a cold, dark night in November.

“Despite this, the low turnout doesn’t take away my mandate to serve the people of Greater Manchester and my priority is to do the job I have been elected to do, representing the views of the people of Greater Manchester.

“I have a responsibility to listen to the public of Greater Manchester and to serve those who not only chose to vote for me, but those who didn’t.”

The elections have drawn criticism from both the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) and the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA).

The ERS said the elections had “failed both candidates and voters alike” due to government mismanagement, while the AEA said the Home Office “did not have sufficient resources or the level of expertise” to organised the elections effectively.

Mr Lloyd added: “The process was a shambles and appeared to have more to do with political expediency in London than engaging with voters in the rest of the country.”