Otley councillor for 36 years, Graham Kirkland, has lost his seat on Leeds City Council.

A former Lord Mayor of Leeds and twice Mayor of Otley, Coun Kirkland was re-elected to Otley Town Council, but will no longer represent Otley and Wharfedale on the city council.

Coun Kirkland, whose place has been taken by new city councillor Conservative Gerard Francis, blamed the strength of the Conservative vote in Bramhope and a poor turnout at the polls.

"I got the fifth highest number of votes of any councillor in Leeds, but it was not enough.

"A lot of people said to me afterwards that they thought I'd get in and hadn't bothered voting.

"The Conservative and postal vote in Bramhope was very strong."

Coun Kirkland will be joined onOtley Town Council by his son, new councillor Jonathan Kirkland, also a Liberal Democrat.

The long-serving councillor said he was pleased with the support shown for his party in the town council election.

"Although we won most of the areas in Otley, we did not win them by enough," he said.

He was also disappointed with the low turnout of 38 per cent.

Both the city council and Otley Town Council will face elections again next year - with all city councillors and all town councillors seeking re-election.

In addition, boundary changes are expected to be in place by next year with Bramhope expected to form a new ward with Cookridge.

Coun Kirkland said: "I'm not sure whether I'll fight again, it's not best to make a decision straight away and I shall have to think about it.

"I'm still on the town council, but I do have a lot more spare time. My wife has been pointing out we have a large garden and my daughter is saying she needs a babysitter."

Fellow councillors have paid tribute to Coun Kirkland and said his presence on the city council will be missed.

Coun Nigel Francis said: "It was sad to see Graham defeated, he is a councillor who really has the good of Otley at heart and it was sad to see such a good and well established councillor who had put such a huge amount of work into the ward go."

And Coun Clive Fox added there was great sadness when Coun Kirkland lost his seat.

"Graham has given tireless service to the people of Otley and Wharfedale ward during which time he came to be regarded as a permanent fixture on the city council.

"It is an indication of his esteem in which he is held that he became the first and indeed only councillor from Otley to become Lord Mayor of Leeds.

"We owe him a debt of gratitude for all he has done for Otley and Wharfedale over his years as a city councillor."

Coun Fox added that Coun Kirkland had also made a valuable contribution to the area's Community Involvement Team.

"He remains of course a member of the town council and doubtless he will continue to make his presence felt in the town."

All three ward councillors for Otley and Wharfedale ward are now Conserv-atives - Clive Fox, and brothers, Nigel and Gerard Francis.

It is the first time in 23 years that all three city councillors in the ward have belonged to the same party.

Coun Fox said: "I'm very pleased, it is particularly encouraging that all three councillors are Conservatives.

"It doesn't affect the control of the Community Involvement Team (CIT), but it will be good to have three councillors working together on the same issues.

"A few years ago we had three councillors all from different parties and we didn't always know what the others were doing," he said.

Coun Fox said issues he expected to be tackled by the three councillors in the coming year were basic problems such as litter, policing and the state of Otley town centre.

Other issues were the Sainsbury's plan to build a store on Bondgate and the housing and east of Otley relief road scheme.

New Aireborough city councillor Stuart Andrew was delighted to be elected.

"I am looking forward to representing the whole of Aireborough as their councillor," he said.

Coun Andrew has identified the future plans for more than 500 homes at the former High Royds hospital as a priority issue.

He said: "I want to make sure we work hard at it and that the views of the people of Aireborough are heard. I will try to do as much as I can to get the number of houses reduced in size."