Results of the Local Elections held on May 6th, 2021
Conservatives take back Basildon Council!
Well, that’s a wrap on our long-awaited local elections and what a
stonker of an election it was! It was a bit of a mixed bag for me
personally, as I was unsuccessful in my bid for election to Essex County
Council, but I came home from our extremely odd and extremely long
all-day count on Friday tired but elated. As you can see from the above
graphic, the Conservative Party have regained control of Basildon
Council, gaining three seats from Labour and one from the Independents.
Having retained our seats in Billericay and Wickford, we made gains
in Basildon, Laindon, Pitsea and won the Langdon Hills by-election.
Although Labour held on to the seats they were defending in Fryerns and
Lee Chapel North, they lost Pitsea South-East, Vange and St Martin’s,
the latter costing the Labour Mayor, David Burton-Sampson, his seat. The
outgoing Labour Leader of the Council, Cllr Gavin Callaghan, only
narrowly held on to his own Pitsea North-West seat and has already
resigned the leadership.
The vote of the (Smithite) Independents more or less held up, with
Cllr Kerry Smith re-elected comfortably to his Essex County Council seat
and he also managed to get two of his factotums elected in Langdon
Hills and Nethermayne, though failed to pick up the second Langdon Hills
seat. The ‘non-aligned’ Deputy Mayor, Derrick Fellowes, who abandoned
his Nethermayne seat, failed to win re-election in Langdon Hills.
The Conservatives remain the largest party on the Council but now on
22 seats, which is the magic number needed to command an overall
majority, so we are now back in control! Labour have been reduced from
15 seats to 12. The Smithites are back to full strength, with four
seats, and we still have two Wickford Independents and two Absolute
Independents.
I have not gone through all the results for Essex County Council, so
do not yet know the full extent of any changes to their composition but
our five county divisions here in Basildon Borough remain largely
unchanged and the Conservatives have retained control at County Hall.
The detailed breakdown of results is as follows:
BILLERICAY EAST – Con HOLD
SULLIVAN, Stuart (Con) – 2,412 (70%) *Elected
HILTON, Tracey (Lab) – 585 (17%)
MANTERFIELD, Karen (LibD) – 364 (11%)
McCAFFERY, Susan (UKIP) – 88 (3%)
Turnout: 36% (+4)
I was delighted to see my ward colleague Stuart Sullivan returned in Billericay East with an increased majority of 1,827, having
seen a 6-point swing to the Conservatives from 2019. The Labour share of
the vote was up by 9 points, seemingly the beneficiary of the absence
of the Green candidate, who came second last time. The Liberal, Karen
Manterfield, increased her own vote share by 3% but was still a very
distant third. The return of former UKIP town councillor, Susan
McCaffery, was entirely negligible.
BILLERICAY WEST – Con HOLD
TURNER, Phil (Con) – 1,885 (50%) *Elected
SAINSBURY, Edward (LibD) – 1,687 (45%)
GODDARD, David (Lab) – 199 (5%)
Turnout: 40% (+5)
Former Conservative leader Phil Turner was returned in
Billericay West but there is no denying that the Lib Dem, Edward
Sainsbury, put up one heck of a fight. Phil has a majority of just 198
(over a thousand votes slashed from his 2016 majority) and Mr Sainsbury,
who contested the seat in 2019 and gave us a fright then as well,
achieved a 6-point swing to the Liberals. Labour put in a nominal
showing. Clearly, the Liberals are gaining traction in Billericay West
and Mr Sainsbury and three of his colleagues were successful in winning
seats in the West Ward of Billericay Town Council, which will now give
them a platform. More needs to be done to make the Conservatives in
Billericay more visible and promote the good work that we are doing in
the town because I know that all three of my ward neighbours in
Billericay West are working hard for our residents.
BURSTEAD – Con HOLD
MOORE, Richard (Con) – 2,394 (76%) *Elected
REID, Malcolm (Lab) – 397 (13%)
CLARK, Laura (LibD) – 362 (11%)
Turnout: 36% (+1)
Dr Richard Moore was re-elected in Burstead with a
increased majority of 1,997. Although our vote share was down on 2019,
there were only two candidates that year; us and Labour. Nonetheless,
our share of the vote was only 7 points down and both Labour and
Liberals were left trailing in Richard’s wake. Richard’s was the largest
majority and the biggest vote-share of the night, confirming Burstead’s
status as the ‘safest’ seat on Basildon Council.
THE BILLERICAY & BURSTEAD DIVISION (x2) – Con HOLD (x2)
HEDLEY, Anthony (Con) – 6,311 (34%) *Elected
MOORE, Richard (Con) – 5,364 (29%) *Elected
SAINSBURY, Edward (LibD) – 2,751 (15%)
CLARK, Laura (LibD) – 1,695 (9%)
HILTON, Tracey (Lab) – 1,165 (6%)
REID, Malcolm (Lab) – 930 (5%)
McCAFFERY, Susan (UKIP) – 315 (2%)
Turnout: 38% (+5)
Our incumbent Essex county councillors, Anthony Hedley and
Richard Moore (see above) were comfortably re-elected with a combined
share of the vote of 63% (6 points down on 2017, which is probably
attributable to the Liberal surge in Billericay West). Nevertheless,
Richard came in 2,613 votes ahead of Mr Sainsbury. Labour and UKIP put
in a nominal showing.
FRYERNS – Lab HOLD
BROWN, Adele (Lab) – 974 (41%) *Elected
SANDHU, Sandeep (Con) – 786 (33%)
HOWARD, Jim (BCRP) – 337 (14%)
WOODROW, Max (RUK) – 210 (9%)
HOWARD, Vivien (LibD) – 66 (3%)
Turnout: 23% (+4)
Labour Deputy Leader, Cllr Adele Brown, was re-elected to her
formerly ‘safe’ Labour seat of Fryerns with a reduced majority of just
188 votes and the Labour vote share slashed by 14 points. Our valiant
candidate, Sandeep Sandhu, put in a strong showing,
increasing the Tory share of the vote in this seat, previously regarded
as a Labour stronghold. Newcomer Jim Howard, representing the
newly-formed Basildon Community Residents Party (BCRP), sadly failed to
make a breakthrough, along with the rebranded Brexit Party (Reform UK).
Councillor Brown was re-elected, despite her role in promoting the
Basildon Town Centre tower blocks but, fortunately, our gains elsewhere
mean that her reign of terror as Chairman of Planning is now at an end.
The Lib Dems were entirely nominal here, securing less than a hundred
votes.
LAINDON PARK – Con GAIN from Ind
WINGFIELD, Kevin (Con) – 1,545 (55%) *Elected
STANBROOK, Angela (Lab) – 765 (27%)
LOW, Tony (Ind) – 155 (5%)
DALE, Mark (BCRP_ – 144 (5%)
McCARTHY, Stephen (LibD) – 100 (4%)
SOUTHGATE, Fred (UKIP) – 65 (2%)
BATEMAN, Christopher (FBM) – 57 (2%)
Turnout: 29% (+6)
In what was easily the most personally satisfying result of the day,
my dear pal Kevin Wingfield was elected as the new Councillor
for Laindon Park with an absolutely stonking majority! Despite the
presence of no less than seven candidates on the ballot paper, Kev
managed to secure more than half the popular vote and won a majority of
780 votes over his Labour rival. All others were left eating his dust,
including ‘Independent’ (jilted Tory) candidate Tony Low, whose wildcard
candidacy more or less cost us the seat in 2019. But his vote
collapsed this time by a whopping 28 points. Labour fared little better,
having won the seat in 2019, their vote was down 9 points. The other
candidates, to be frank, are hardly worth mentioning. I am overjoyed
that ‘Councillor Wingfield’ will be joining us on the Conservative
benches. He will be an absolutely brilliant councillor for Laindon Park
and I am made up for him, and the people of Laindon. They were treated
appallingly by the outgoing Labour Administration – particularly over
the Leader’s shabby handling of the Laindon Community Centre – and they
have made their voices heard, loud and clear!
LEE CHAPEL NORTH – Lab HOLD
HARRISON, Alex (Lab) – 966 (39%) *Elected
SHUKLA, Deepak (Con) – 921 (37%)
QUESTED, Kay (BCRP) – 354 (14%)
FRIPP, Lewis (RUK) – 123 (5%)
CHANDLER, Michael (LibD) – 113 (5%)
Turnout: 24% (+7)
In this agonising result, our candidate Deepak Shukla came
within a hair’s breadth of winning this usually staunchly safe Labour
seat, vacated by the retiring Labour councillor, Andrew Gordon. After a
recount, Alex Harrison was elected with a majority of just 45 votes!
Deepak increased our vote share by 11 points and went home with his head
held high… Well, not quite straight home, as amazingly his wife was in
hospital in labour at the time! Deepak may not have gained the seat but
he did gain a new baby daughter later in the day and we are delighted
for him, although obviously disappointed that he will not be joining us
on the Council. Next time – Lee Chapel North is now very firmly in play
and is no longer a seat Labour can simply ignore and take for granted.
THE LAINDON PARK & FRYERNS DIVISION (x2) – Con HOLD x1 and Lab HOLD x1
HENRY, Jeff (Con) – 3,206 (25%) *Elected
BROWN, Adele (Lab) – 2,668 (20%) *Elected
SCHRADER, Andrew (Con) – 2,558 (20%)
DAVIES, Allan (Lab) – 2,358 (18%)
LOW, Tony (Ind) – 493 (4%)
FRIPP, Lewis (RUK) – 413 (3%)
SOUTHGATE, Fred (UKIP) – 369 (3%)
SAGGERS, Norma (RUK) – 331 (3%)
HOWARD, Vivien (LibD) – 324 (2%)
CHANDLER, Michael (LibD) – 321 (2%)
Turnout: 25% (+1)
A mixed bag for us, and for Labour, in the Laindon Park & Fryerns
Division, as my friend Cllr Jeff Henry was resoundingly
re-elected to his county seat, topping the poll with a majority of 538
over his new Labour colleague, Adele Brown, who not only regained her
Fryerns seat but displaced her ward colleague and previous Labour
incumbent county councillor, Allan Davies, who fell back into fourth
place. As you can see, Councillor Brown narrowly pipped me into third
place and denied me the second seat. This is clearly hugely
disappointing for me. I rolled the dice and always knew it would be
tough to snatch the second county seat. Although we have held both seats
in the past, the division has tended to ‘split’ this way in recent
years but I massively enjoyed the campaign and would have been genuinely
honoured to represent the division at County Hall. I thought I had it
there for a second but was just 110 votes shy. Jeff will continue to fly
the flag for Laindon. He enjoyed a 6-point swing and has increased the
size of his majority. The result will have been a bitter blow to Allan
Davies, who represented the seat for four years. The other candidates
made little impact.
LANGDON HILLS (x2) – Con HOLD x1 and Ind HOLD x1
ROBBINS, Val (Ind) – 1,023 (23%) *Elected
ALLEN, Christopher (Con) – 949 (21%) *Elected
SANSOM, Charlie (Con) – 840 (19%)
BROWN, Walt (Ind) – 732 (16%)
FELLOWES, Derrick (n/a) – 363 (8%)
ZWENGUNDE, Clarence (Lab) – 276 (6%)
NICKLIN, Timothy (LibD) – 248 (6%)
X, None Of The Above (n/a) – 46 (1%)
Turnout: 38% (+8)
Two seats were up for grabs in this nail-biting contest, which was
actually the last seat to be counted. There were no incumbents, as such,
owing to Conservative councillor Stephen Hillier’s decision to retire
after 20 years and the sad death of Smithite councillor Imelda Clancy
earlier this year, triggering a by-election for the second seat. Kerry
Smith-endorsed candidate Val Robbins topped the poll with a majority of
only 74 over second-place Conservative candidate Chris Allen,
who takes the second seat. Consequently, Chris is deemed to have won
the by-election and will effectively be completing the late Councillor
Clancy’s term, meaning he will need to seek re-election next year when
her term would have been up. Electorally, this seat is all over the
place. Taking them as direct swaps, Councillor Robbins’ majority is a
far cry from the 628-vote majority secured by her late predecessor in
2018. Contrariwise, Councillor Allen’s majority of 217 over the second
Smithite candidate – Walt Brown – is a marked improvement on Steve’s in
2016, when he won re-election by only 2 votes!
Spare a thought for plucky first-time Conservative candidate Charlie
Sansom, who fought a spirited and full-throated campaign in Langdon
Hills, having initially been selected to succeed Steve Hillier more than
two years ago, whereas Chris was only selected recently to contest the
by-election. They both worked hard but it is clearly a disappointing
outcome for Charlie. But nobody can have failed to be impressed by
Charlie’s energy and enthusiasm and I think we shall be seeing a lot
more of him. One person we will not be seeing a lot more of, thankfully,
is outgoing Deputy Mayor and Gavin Callaghan sycophant Derrick
Fellowes, the nominally non-aligned, non-Smithite, ‘Ukipendent’ lackey
of the Labour Party. I shan’t mince my words, folks; good riddance.
Labour and the Liberals were not even really in this fight but kudos
to ‘Mr None Of The Above X’ and his makeshift abstention option,
gleefully put to use by 46 disaffected Langdon Hills residents.
NETHERMAYNE – Ind HOLD
GREEN, Hazel (Ind) – 1,448 (46%) *Elected
COTTRELL, Mark (Con) – 646 (20%)
BAKER, Michael (Lab) – 527 (17%)
WHITWELL, Lauren (BCRP) – 394 (12%)
NICE, Stephen (LibD) – 113 (4%)
SAGGERS, Norma (RUK) – 39 (1%)
Turnout: 31% (+1)
While the Smith brand may have taken a knock in Langdon Hills, sadly
no such luck in his main stomping ground of Nethermayne, where he now
holds all three borough seats, cementing Nethermayne’s status as Kerry
Smith’s personal fiefdom. Hazel Green, who had been elected in Laindon
Park as UKIP in 2016, but who subsequently defected to Councillor
Smith’s ‘Independent’ outfit, has done the ‘chicken run’ to Nethermayne
to get re-elected there on his coattails. She is now a Nethermayne
councillor, with a resounding majority of 802 over plucky runner-up,
Conservative candidate Mark Cottrell. First-time borough candidate Mark
worked very hard but, sadly, it was not enough to convince the residents
of Nethermayne to back a candidate actually capable of independent
thought. Although we saw a massive 13-point swing to the Conservatives,
another voiceless cipher for Kerry Smith has been elected – albeit with a
pretty marked reduction in his share of the vote. In 2019, his chosen
candidate – Cllr Pauline ‘Abstention’ Kettle – was elected with 73% of
the vote and an insane majority of 1,800; making Nethermayne as safe for
the Smithites as Burstead is for the Tories! While a majority of 802
certainly does the trick, Mark has shaved nearly a thousand votes off it
and pipped Labour into third place. He should be pleased with that.
Perennial Lib Dem candidate, Steve Nice, is nothing if not persistent
but a return to the days when all three Nethermayne seats were held by
Liberals continues to elude him. Dear old Norma Saggers, flying the flag
for the now-Farageless Farage vanity vehicle, Reform UK, was barely
involved with a paltry 39 votes, the lowest number of votes received by
any single candidate in any ward anywhere in the borough.
THE WESTLEY HEIGHTS DIVISION – Ind HOLD
SMITH, Kerry (Ind) – 3,655 (61%) *Elected
SANSOM, Charlie (Con) – 1,404 (23%)
ADENIRAN, Olukayode (Lab) – 627 (10%)
NICKLIN, Timothy (LibD) – 205 (3%)
X, None Of The Above (n/a) – 98 (2%)
MURRAY, David (TUSC) – 49 (1%)
Turnout: 35% (+1)
If Nethermayne was bad, Westley Heights was even worse, where the man
himself, Cllr Kerry Smith, the leader of the so-called ‘Independent’
faction, was re-elected to his county seat in a result that more or less
replicated the result in 2017. Councillor Smith was returned with a
majority of 2,251 over Conservative runner-up Charlie Sansom.
Sadly, despite running a spirited campaign against Councillor Smith, it
did not make a dent – in fact, the Conservative share of the vote is
slightly down on last time. Likewise, Labour are more or less completely
static, while the Liberals lost out somewhat to ‘Mr X’ and the
pointless ‘Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition’ candidate. So, I’m
afraid it’s another four years of Councillor Smith taking credit for
literally everything Essex County Council does, whilst calling them
‘Tory squires of North Essex’ and slagging them off left, right and
centre. Ho-hum.
PITSEA NORTH-WEST – Lab HOLD
CALLAGHAN, Gavin (Lab) – 1,101 (47%) *Elected
TERSON, Stuart (Con) – 987 (42%)
HOGG, Jake (BCRP) – 213 (9%)
HOWARD, Martin (LibD) – 63 (3%)
Turnout: 25% (+5)
In possibly the most frustrating result of the evening, Labour Leader
Gavin Callaghan clung on to his Pitsea North-West seat with his
majority more than halved to just 114 votes and his leadership in
tatters. Having dropped hints in recent days that he was preparing to be
deprived of his seat, our candidate Stuart Terson just
narrowly failed to unseat him, although Stuart did achieve a 4-point
swing to the Conservatives and, on the upside, within hours of the count
starting, Councillor Callaghan had conceded defeat, resigned as Leader
of the Labour Group, posted a long and typically graceless swansong on
social media, completely exhonerating himself of any responsibility for
the bloodbath that was surrounding him, and announced he would be
deleting his Facebook account. I wish I could be more magnanimous in
victory but, frankly, I have no sympathy for Callaghan whatsoever. He is
entirely the author of his own destruction and deserves every single
thing that has befallen him. He is responsible for a great deal of the
toxicity of Basildon politics and my only comfort in the fact that he
will now linger on for some time, languishing on the Labour backbenches,
is that he gets to sit back and watch as we pull his noxious schemes
apart.
I predict a by-election in Pitsea North-West next year. If he even sticks it out that long.
PITSEA SOUTH-EAST – Con GAIN from Lab
CANHAM, Gary (Con) – 1,305 (47%) *Elected
ANSELL, Andrew (Lab) – 1,238 (45%)
TOOLEY, Daniel (RUK) – 95 (3%)
LANCASTER, Peter (LibD) – 73 (3%)
BREEDON, Simon (Ind) – 61 (2%)
Turnout: 30% (+4)
In an early and very welcome gain, former Pitsea Conservative
councillor, Gary Canham, has been elected back onto Basildon
Council, defeating the incumbent Labour councillor in Pitsea South-East,
Andy Ansell, with a majority of 67, in what was a very hotly contested
fight. Mr Ansell was originally elected in the 2018 by-election and Gary
has overturned a Labour majority of just 8 votes on that occasion. With
this victory, Pitsea South-East is now, once again, an ‘All Blue’ ward,
with Gary joining the Pitsea dream team of Luke Mackenzie and Craig
Rimmer. The other three candidates, frankly, were not even really in
this fight, with less than a hundred votes each.
ST MARTIN’S – Con GAIN from Lab
ADEMUYIWA, Davida (Con) – 697 (40%) *Elected
BURTON-SAMPSON, David (Lab) – 675 (38%)
RACKLEY, Patricia (BCRP) – 309 (18%)
JENKINS, Philip (LibD) – 83 (5%)
Turnout: 25% (+4)
I said it! I’ve been saying it for TEN YEARS, since I first stood
there myself way back in 2011. I have always said that, if properly
worked, St Martin’s could be ‘flipped’! It is a tiny little two-member
ward, you can leaflet it in an afternoon, and Labour take it entirely
for granted – with good reason; it has literally never elected a
Conservative councillor… until now.
In one of the first – and possibly most groundbreaking – result of
the day, Conservative candidate Davida Ademuyiwa unseated the
incumbent Labour Mayor, David Burton-Sampson, with a majority of 22
votes. Labour’s vote was down 9 points and Davida overturned a majority
of 238 to deprive the Mayor of his seat. To be perfectly honest, I feel
somewhat for Mayor Burton-Sampson. He is a decent enough guy and I have
always found him friendly, affable and decent. But, sadly, he could not
escape his willing complicity in many of Gavin Callaghan’s outrageous
antics and was an enthusiastic cheerleader for the Administration’s
deeply unpopular plans for Basildon Town Centre and now those chickens
have come home to roost, coupled with Davida’s tireless campaigning over
the past two years. Former Labour councillor for St Martin’s turned
BCRP candidate, Pat Rackley, came a distant third and mainly seems to
have taken votes from the Liberal, poor old Phil Jenkins (also a former
councillor). She doubtlessly snatched a few from the Mayor too and, for
that, we thank her! I am delighted that Davida is joining the Tory
benches and am sure she will make a great addition as the first, ever,
Conservative Councillor for St Martin’s.
VANGE – Con GAIN from Lab
ADESHILE, Yetunde (Con) – 749 (45%) *Elected
McGURRAN, Aidan (Lab) – 648 (39%)
RACKLEY, Phil (BCRP) – 220 (13%)
SMITH, Peter (LibD) – 50 (3%)
Turnout: 24% (+5)
In another stunning early gain, Gavin Callaghan’s attack dog, smug
former newspaperman Aidan McGurran (aka The Mirror’s ‘Lenny Lotto’),
lost his Vange seat to local community activist Yetunde Adeshile with a majority of 101, overturning McGurran’s narrow 26-vote
majority, which he won over Yetunde in a by-election in 2019. Words can
hardly express how beyond delighted I am that Yetunde is finally
joining us on Basildon Council, after a couple of really close previous
attempts. There is no doubt in my mind that she will be an outstanding
Councillor for Vange. As with St Martin’s, the BCRP candidate was a
distant third but may well have taken enough votes off of McGurran to
allow us to unseat him – in which case, our old friend former Labour
councillor Phil Rackley was doing nothing less than God’s work! We were
delighted when McGurran first retired from the Council in 2016, gutted
when he made a comeback in 2019, and very pleased to see the back of him
again. Let’s hope he stays gone this time. Sadly, he won’t be too far
away, as he won one of the Pitsea county seats. Sigh!
THE PITSEA DIVISION (x2) – Con HOLD x1 and Lab HOLD x1
MACKENZIE, Luke (Con) – 3,573 (25%) *Elected
McGURRAN, Aidan (Lab) – 3,257 (23%) *Elected
REID, Patricia (Lab) – 3,115 (22%)
RIMMER, Craig (Con) – 3,091 (21%)
TOOLEY, Daniel (RUK) – 501 (3%)
HOWARD, Martin (LibD) – 454 (3%)
JENKINS, Philip (LibD) – 422 (3%)
Turnout: 26% (+4)
In a result that was eerily similar to that in the Laindon Park &
Fryerns Division, the Pitsea Division returned a split vote between us
and Labour. My old friend and colleague and sitting Pitsea South-East
Conservative borough councillor, Luke Mackenzie topped the
poll with a majority of 316 over the second-place Labour candidate,
Aidan McGurran. This is a significant increase on the slim majority
enjoyed by his Conservative predecessor, retiring Pitsea county
councillor Stephen Hillier, who won in 2017 with a majority of only 49
votes. In a strange twist – again, as in Laindon – Aidan McGurran
displaced his own Labour predecessor, Pat Reid, who came in 142 votes
behind, achieving third place but losing her the seat and overturning
the 292-vote majority she previously enjoyed over the next-placed
Conservative candidate that year. Disappointingly, our second
Conservative candidate, fellow Pitsea South-East councillor Craig
Rimmer, came in fourth place. Given that he was only 166 votes behind
Councillor McGurran, one cannot ignore the fact that if even half the
Reform UK candidate’s votes had gone to Craig, we would have won both
the county seats. This is what we mean when we say “Vote for a third
party, Get Labour”. As with Allan Davies in Laindon, I have a lot of
sympathy for Pat Reid, who remains a Pitsea North-West borough
councillor, as I believe she was a genuinely good county councillor and
enjoys a lot of respect across the chamber, unlike her successor, who
has ironically gained the county seat in the same election that saw him
lose his borough seat in Vange!
CROUCH – Con HOLD
ALLEN, Stuart (Con) – 1,428 (72%) *Elected
BURTON-SAMPSON, Mark (Lab) – 312 (16%)
BLAKE, Simon (LibD) – 100 (5%)
BARLOW, Sean (Ind) – 90 (5%)
HUNTLEY, Neil (RUK) – 67 (3%)
Turnout: 30% (-0)
Stuart Allen was comfortably re-elected in Crouch with a
significantly increased majority of 1,116 over the Labour runner-up,
Mark Burton-Sampson. Although the Conservative share of the vote was
slightly down on the last time the seat was contested in 2018, that can
probably be attributed to the presence on the ballot of the Independent
and Reform UK candidates. It has little significant impact on the result
and Crouch remains safe as houses.
WICKFORD NORTH – Con HOLD
MORRIS, Carole (Con) – 1,611 (52%) *Elected
BALL, Alan (WInd) – 1,035 (34%)
PALMER, Gillian (Lab) – 328 (11%)
HOAD, Nicola (LibD) – 104 (3%)
Turnout: 30% (+3)
Long-serving Tory stalwart Carole Morris was re-elected to
Wickford North for the fifth time with a massively increased majority
of 576 and a plurality of votes. This seat saw a 9-point swing back to
the Conservatives in what was a huge relief following the loss of the
seat in 2019, when the Wickford Independents won it with a 65-vote
majority. Fortunately, it seems that the voters of Wickford are wise to
the ‘Windies’, who have served as part of the Labour-led ‘Basildon
Borough Alliance’ since 2019, despite Labour routinely coming a distant
third in Wickford elections. They were not to be fooled again and Carole
has been comfortably returned.
THE WICKFORD CROUCH DIVISION (x2) – Con HOLD x2
BALL, Tony (Con) – 5,752 (36%) *Elected
BUCKLEY, Malcolm (Con) – 4,472 (28%) *Elected
BROCKMAN, Eunice (WInd) – 1,660 (10%)
BURTON-SAMPSON, Mark (Lab) – 1,131 (7%)
PALMER, Gillian (Lab) – 1,001 (6%)
BARLOW, Sean (Ind) – 836 (5%)
HOAD, Nicola (LibD) – 386 (2%)
BLAKE, Simon (LibD) – 376 (2%)
HUNTLEY, Neil (RUK) – 234 (1%)
Turnout: 29% (+1)
No change in the Wickford Crouch Division, where the incumbent
Conservatives, Tony Ball and Malcolm Buckley (pictured) were re-elected
with a combined share of the vote of 64% (an 8-point swing to the
Conservatives on 2017, which is probably a reflection of the drop in
support for the Wickford Independents). The Windies secured an 18% vote
share in 2017 but, oddly, chose only to field one candidate this time,
despite Mr Barlow – who was labelled as a standard ‘independent’
candidate on the ballot paper – being touted as a Windy in their
literature, appearing alongside Eunice Brockman on their leaflets and on
social media. As it stands, he was beaten into a very distant sixth
place by the two Labour candidates.
CONCLUSION
Despite highs and lows, Friday was
undoubtedly a very good day for Basildon Conservatives, who have
regained control of Basildon Borough Council after two years of
Labour-led rule at The Basildon Centre. The ‘Alliance’ thought they
could ride roughshod over everybody, ignore the residents and,
disgracefully, abuse them over social media. That is all over now and we
can get back to sensible, grown-up leadership.
Councillor Callaghan clearly saw the writing on the wall, early in
proceedings. The loss of St Martin’s, Vange and Pitsea South-East cost
him three of his key supporters in the Labour Group and, although he
clung on by his fingernails in his own Pitsea North-West seat, he
announced his resignation as Leader in a characteristically graceless
and self-justifying post on social media and said he would be deleting
his Facebook account. He will now return to the backbenches and it is
unclear who in the remaining Labour Group will emerge to succeed him
but, whatever happens, it is likely to be a very different kind of
Labour Group moving forward – hopefully a more measured, reasonable and
collegiate Labour Group. There are Labour folk who are perfectly decent
and straight-dealing, who are not political animals determined to win at
any cost, who just want to do the best for their residents and they are
people we are more than happy to work with where we agree and politely
agree to disagree where we do not.
Turnout was up across the Borough but still depressingly low, at 30%
(up 4 points on 2019). All told, the Conservatives won 49% of the
popular vote across the Borough (up 6 points on 2019), while Labour
secured 23% (down a point). The Smithites were on 9% (down 2 points) and
the Windies on 3% (down a whopping 8 points).
In terms of the other parties, the Liberal Democrats are back on 9%
(same as 2019) and making little impact outside of Billericay West.
Meanwhile, newcomers the Basildon Community Residents Party, fighting
their first lot of elections, put in a respectable showing, commanding
5% of the vote, but failed to make any significant electoral impact.
Reform UK, UKIP, For Britain and other independents and third parties
are entirely negligible and completely pointless.
Just for some final stat-crunching, the single highest number of
votes won by any borough candidate was Stuart Sullivan (Con, Billericay
East), who received 2,412 votes. The lowest was Norma Saggers, the
Reform UK candidate in Nethermayne, who received only 39 votes. She
also, unsurprisingly, takes the award for lowest share of the vote of
the night (1%). The largest share of the vote went to Richard Moore
(Con, Burstead), who commanded 76% of the popular vote. He also won the
single largest majority (1,997), making Burstead easily the safest seat
on the Council. These are typically referred to as ‘Billericay-sized
majorities’ and are not generally found in other parts of the Borough,
where votes are more hotly contested. The largest vote share outside of
Billericay was Kevin Wingfield (Con, Laindon Park) on 55%, though not
the largest majority. That went to Hazel Green (Ind, Nethermayne), who
has a majority of 802 compared to Kevin’s 780-vote majority.
The next step now will be for the Conservative Group to hold their
AGM and put together an Order Paper, including our nominees for Leader
of the Council and Mayor of the Borough, to present to the Annual
Meeting of Basildon Council scheduled for May 27th. Basildon
Conservatives have been given a strong mandate to reverse some of the
divisive and unpopular policies the outgoing Administration were
persuing, and we shall seek urgently to unpick these things. But our
Group are also ambitious to deliver real positive change in Basildon and
make our residents’ lives better. We have an awesome responsibility to
deliver on our platform – sort out the Borough’s finances and reduce the
tax burden on residents, continue to deliver good services and support
our communities as we emerge from the pandemic and move towards a Covid
recovery, scale back inappropriate developments, crack down on
enforcement, and proceed our programme of investment, estates
regeneration and economic development.
We are hugely grateful to everyone who voted for us and, regardless
of how you voted, ours will be an Administration that is there to serve
all of you.
