Conservatives Retain Their Grip On The County Council But Turnout Is Low

THE Conservative party maintained its grip on Cambridgeshire County Council this week thanks to marked success in the East Cambridgeshire district. The party retained all 42 council seats it held from the 2005 elections thanks largely, to a number of hig

THE Conservative party maintained its grip on Cambridgeshire County Council this week thanks to marked success in the East Cambridgeshire district.

The party retained all 42 council seats it held from the 2005 elections thanks largely, to a number of high-profile gains it made across East Cambs at the expense of the Liberal Democrats.

A stream of Government scandals and public outcry in recent months appeared to stunt voter interest however, as most wards suffered a steep drop in turnout, Haddenham for example slumped from almost 67 per cent in 2005 to 42.99 per cent on Thursday.

Results came in thick and first over the course of Friday afternoon (June 5) with news of the first gain of the day coming in Littleport as Leader of East Cambs District Council Fred Brown, took the county council seat with more than 54% of the vote.

Turnout for the vote was slightly more than 28 per cent, a worrying drop from almost 52% in 2005.

In the Soham and Fordham Villages, Conservative candidate James Palmer secured a seat on the county council at the expense of the Lib Dems, after polling almost 32 per cent of the vote.

The other seat in the two councillor constituency was taken by Conservative John Powley who secured re-election with 26.03 per cent of the vote. Turnout in the areas largest constituency was almost 20 per cent down on the 2005 elections.

There were holds for Liberal Democrat candidates in both Ely seats but the Conservative candidate David Brown, swept to success in the Burwell ward with just 31 votes seeing him to the seat ahead of Hazel Williams.

Elsewhere there were holds for Philip Read in Sutton and Bill Hunt in Haddenham while Mathew Shuter held his seat in Woodditton.

The story nationally was a similar one for the Conservatives with a number of council's changing hands at the expense of the two other main parties.

At the European elections meanwhile, the status quo was maintained as three Conservative candidates Geoffrey Van Orden, Vicky Ford and Robert Sturdy retained the parties' seats in the EU parliament.

Euro-sceptic party UKIP, meanwhile was celebrating after it held on to its two seats in the region, keeping it ahead of both the Liberal Democrats and Labour. David Campbell-Bannerman and John Agnew were elected to fill the two allocated seats.

The bad news continued for the Labour party meanwhile as it came in a dismal fourth place behind UKIP and the Liberal Democrats, collecting just one seat with 10.5 per cent of the vote.