Election Results May 2011

Independent Party - crunch time approaches!  - by Nigel Holdcroft, Leader of Southend Council

No doubt the members of the Independent Party will be pretty happy after yesterday's elections having increased their tally by 2 councillors. The time to start referring to them as a "party" is clearly here as in general terms their activities are indistinquishable from the other parties with coordinated campaigns, candidates, publicity and voting.

Of course there is one difference - they continue to have no common policies or vision for the future development or regeneration of the town. This is not surprising bearing in mind they comprise a group including a non adopted Conservative councillor, unsuccessful Labour candidates and others who have failed to receive the support of a political party because they were simply not good enough to meet the standards required. Working for individual residents and helping with their problems is only one part of our role - the other is to develop a vision for the future whether as the administration or as a viable opposition. It is not enough to simply oppose everything on the doorstep - particularly without similar opposition in the council chamber or without a viable alternative.

The public tell us that they don't like negative campaigning. Maybe - but last night's results in St Lukes, Shoebury and elsewhere confirm that negative campaigning, mis information and personal attack can deliver short term gains for the Independent Party but for how much longer? We are told by councillors who only appear to have found a taste for an Independent label when striving to gain an otherwise unachievable seat, that the public are tired of party politics. I disagree -they may have believed the spin which has conveniently coincided with more general misgivings about the political sysytem, but any council officer will confirm that to function effectively and efficiently a local authority needs a clear direction and element of certainty - whatever the underlying party political direction. To move into the vacuum of independent policy would be a sure route to disaster in these financially challenging times.

 

Southend-on-Sea council seats at a glance

                                               2010/11                2011/12                 +/-

Conservatives                              28                           28                   0              

Liberal Democrat                          12                           10                  -2

Labour                                           4                            4                    0

Others                                           7                            9                  +2      

Southend-on-Sea West constituency seats at a glance

                                            2010/11                  2011/12               +/-

Conservatives                             13                         15                   +2

Liberal Democrats                        12                         10                   -2    

Labour                                          0                           0                    0

Independents                                 2                          2                    0

         Total number of seats on Southend Council is 51. Number of seats in Southend West is 27. Number of seats in Southend East is 24.

 

Southend West election results 2011

Belfairs Ward

  • Rob Cadman                  Liberal Democrat                    600
  • James Mills                   UKIP                                     409
  • Lesley Salter                Conservative                        1624
  • Matt Zarb-Cousin           Labour                                    506

 

No change. Turnout 42.84%

Blenheim Park Ward

  • Tony Borton                   Labour                                   553
  • Tino Callaghan               UKIP                                      442
  • Jim Clinkscales             Liberal Democrat                     959
  • James Courtenay         Conservative                       1017

 

Conservative gain. Turnout 38.43%

Chalkwell Ward

  • Lucy Courtenay                 Independent                       634
  • Lars-Goran Davidsson       Labour                               481
  • Stephen Habermel           Conservative                   1256
  • Mark Maguire                    Liberal Democrat                285

 

No change. Turnout 39.41%

Eastwood Park Ward

  • Trevor Byford                   Conservative                      1554
  • Keith McLaren                   UKIP                                     375
  •  Liam Overy                      Labour                                  498
  • Linda Wells                       Liberal Democrat                   542                              

 

No change. Turnout 39.41%

Leigh Ward

  • Iain Blake-Lawson                     Labour                           497
  • Lucky Luckmore                       UKIP                             148
  • Georgina Phillips                    Conservative                 936
  • Peter Wexham                          Liberal Democrat          1230              

 

No change. Turnout 38.65%

Prittlewell Ward

  • Garry Cockrill                           UKIP                            467
  • Melvyn Day                             Conservative                941
  • Ric Morgan                              Liberal Democrat          1161
  • Helen Symons                         Labour                          494

 

No change. Turnout 40.32%

St. Laurence Ward

  • Reg Copley                            Labour                          500
  • Adam Jones                          Conservative               976
  • Dan Lee                                 Green                          134
  • Carole Roast                          Liberal Democrat           878
  • Bob Smith                             UKIP                             279

 

Conservative gain. Turnout 37.05%

West Leigh Ward

  • Christopher Bailey                  Liberal Democrat            1157
  • Gwen Horrigan                     Conservative                 1769
  • Len Lierens                           UKIP                                214
  • Jane Norman                         Labour                             400

 

No change. Turnout 50.20%

Westborough Ward

  • Bob Howes                            Liberal Democrat              265
  • Kevin Robinson                      Labour                            623
  • Douglas Rouxel                      Green                              217
  • Martin Terry                            Independent                    835
  • Roger Weaver                       Conservative                  415

 

No change. Turnout 40.08%.

 

Election report - Howard Briggs 

Whilst grateful for the good weather, the election results on May 5th were extremely difficult to predict and there was general agreement that it would not be wise to put money on any particular result. Would the Liberal Democrat party's difficulties in the government coalition cause them problems and if so, where would their votes go? Would voters have forgotten the disastrous performance of the last Labour government which resulted in a national deficit which was bringing the country to its knees and forcing the coalition to take extremely unpopular decisions? Would the Alternative Vote referendum make any difference to the local results?

We had certainly received no guidance at all from the Labour Party leadership on how they would correct the deficit and how they could justify their hypocrisy in denying that any difficult decisions needed to be made at all. They continue to believe that we can carry on borrowing ever more money even though we are already far above our credit limit. "Now is not the time to act!" they say. When will that time be?  A bankrupt country, just like a bankrupt individual or a bankrupt company loses control over its own affairs after which it becomes impossible to act and forces the creditors  to make the decisions on the debtor’s behalf. Had we taken the route advocated by the Labour party, along with democratic control, we would have thrown away our self respect, the respect of other countries and would have been forced to take decisions that would make the Chancellor’s last spending review and budget seem positively benign.

To his credit, Nick Clegg sees that clearly and has resisted the siren calls from those in his party who see their short term popularity as being more important than the future of our nation. He is a man of honour and integrity who deserves something better than the party he leads.

As it happened the Labour party did not gain any seats but all who were at the count observed a large increase in their vote in almost every ward which shows you can fool a lot of the people some of the time. The main sufferers were the Liberal Democrats who lost two seats and this was because of national issues which led to many swinging their votes across to Labour combined with a lot of very hard work by all the Conservative candidates.

The trend for an increase in voting for Independents continues. It is quite extraordinary how individuals, some of whom have been rejected as candidates by the political parties because of their inadequacies or lack of application can really believe that they have anything to contribute. Intelligence, expertise and articulacy seem no longer a requirement to represent others on Southend Council and we will all be the losers on the long run. Who vets these people? No one. Even if they do not always succeed in their aim, political parties try very hard indeed to get the best possible candidates who believe in something beyond their own egos.