Local Elections 2023

 

Elections are upon us.

It's Local Elections time and that means my annual Runners & Riders blog

 

Current composition of Basildon Borough Council:

Basildon Council has 42 councillors across 16 wards and holds elections three out of every four years, electing a third of the seats each time. There are fourteen seats up for grabs this year. (NB: there are no elections in Crouch or Langdon Hills because they are smaller two-member wards). The fate of each will help determine who controls the Council.

These will be the final elections fought on the current ward boundaries. The Local Government Boundary Commission have now finished their review of our warding arrangements and, from next year, there will only be fourteen wards - with Wickford Castledon and Vange merged into neighbouring areas, as well as some alterations to the boundaries of other ward, as I outlined in my recent blog. The total number of councillors will remain at 42 and all wards will elect three councillors each, meaning there will no longer be the anomaly of some wards not having elections at the same time as the rest.

The Conservatives have now been back in power at the Basildon Centre for two years, following a long period of political instability, during which power changed hands between us and Labour-led coalitions. Throughout this period, the Tories have consistently remained the largest group on the Council but not always with an overall majority. At present, Basildon Council consists of 25 Conservatives, 10 Labour, 5 'Independents' (in reality a faction led by Cllr. Kerry Smith) and 2 Wickford Independents (or 'Windies', as I call them). So, currently, the Conservative Administration enjoys a working majority of eight.

The magic number for an overall majority is 22 seats – this is the minimum number needed to command an overall majority and form an administration. Just as we were victims of our own success last year, defending many seats, this year we are the beneficiaries of past defeats in 2019 and are only defending five of the fourteen seats up for grabs. Labour are defending six, the Windies both their seats in Wickford and the Smithites one seat in Nethermayne. There is also an Essex County Council by-election taking place in the Laindon Park & Fryerns Division, which encompasses Fryerns, Laindon Park and Lee Chapel North. [NB: Shotgate Parish Council in Wickford was also, allegedly, up for election this year but I am not even going to bother covering that in this blog because, firstly, I don't care and, secondly, clearly nobody else did either because they were uncontested. I have no idea when they were last contested or if, indeed, they ever have been but, essentially, whomever puts their names forward gets in with no questions asked. There are rarely more candidates than there are vacancies, so they are constituted without the bother of elections, which is why parish councils are almost entirely worthless.]  

Once again, Basildon Conservatives are fielding a full slate of candidates across the Borough in every seat, the only party in Basildon to have consistently done so. This time, Labour and the Liberals are also contesting every seat. The Greens are fielding candidates in four wards and there are a smattering of minor parties dotted about. 

As I predicted, the Basildon Community Residents Party or, as I preferred to call them, Basildon Communist Residents Party have not reappeared, following their failure to achieve a political breakthrough in 2021. Erstwhile Labour councillor and former BCRP 'grandee', Phil Rackley, is standing for election in Laindon Park under the banner of 'the Breakthrough Party', which would appear to be yet another left-wing splinter group. His former Labour colleague, Andrew Buxton, meanwhile, is joining long-standing socialist candidate David Murray under the banner of the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition. Surprisingly, Reform UK are only contesting one seat in Wickford and we have a British Democrat in Laindon. The Smithites, curiously, are contesting their Nethermayne seat and Councillor Smith is also endorsing a couple of 'Independent' candidates in Laindon and Pitsea. The Windies are contesting all three Wickford seats, including Cllr. David Harrison, despite his announcing to Full Council that he was retiring. 

If you are not sure which ward you come under, click here and enter your postcode.

 Parties standing / No. of candidates

 The Conservative Party x14

The Labour Party x14

 The Liberal Democrats x14

 The Green Party x4

 The Wickford Independents x3

 Independents (Smithites) x3

 Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition x2

 The Breakthrough Party x1

 The British Democrats x1

 Reform UK x1

Here are the runners and riders locally: Incumbents are marked with an ‘*’

 

BILLERICAY EAST

• BUNYAN, Peter (Labour)
• CLARK, Laura (Liberal Democrat)
• DADDS, David (Conservative)*

M'learned ward colleague David Dadds is seeking re-election in Billericay East for the sixth time. A two-time former Mayor of Basildon, David is currently Chairman of the Joint Standards Committee and of the Staffing and General Purposes Committee as well as Vice-Chairman of the Planning Committee and of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission. He is also the Basildon representative on the Essex Police, Fire and Crime Panel. David has represented Billericay East since 2002 and is a successful barrister and magistrate. Peter Bunyan is standing here again for the second time for Labour, while Lib Dem town councillor Laura Clark is also standing again. David is defending a 64% share of the vote and a majority of 1,292 votes back in 2019.

 

BILLERICAY WEST

• BRENNAN, Andrew (Green)  
• LAWRENCE, Daniel (Conservative)*
• MAY, Chris (Liberal Democrat) 
• PALMER, Gillian (Labour)

Danny Lawrence is seeking re-election in Billericay West for the third time. He has represented the seat since winning a by-election in 2012. Danny is a three-time former Deputy Mayor of Basildon and is currently Chairman of the Licensing Committee and also sits on the People Scrutiny Committee. He is involved in community radio and was awarded the British Empire Medal. Andrew Brennan is standing as a first-time candidate for the Greens, while local Lib Dem town councillor Chris May, who stood in Langdon Hills last year, is contesting Billericay West this time. Gillian Palmer is standing for Labour, presumably as a 'paper candidate' (this is her third election, having contested Wickford North last year and Billericay East the year before). Danny is defending a majority of 422 (a 53% share of the vote in 2019).

 

BURSTEAD

• BLAKE, Kevin (Conservative)*
• DAFFIN, Chris (Liberal Democrat)
• GOSHAWK, Stewart (Green) 
• REID, Malcolm (Labour)

Kevin Blake is seeking re-election in Burstead for the sixth time, having represented the seat since 2002. He is currently Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Environment and Carbon Reduction. He also sits on the Staffing and General Purposes Committee. Prior to moving to Burstead, Kevin had represented Pitsea East for two separate terms, starting in 1992, making Kevin one of the longest-serving councillors on the Council. Chris Daffin is standing again for the Liberals, having contested the seat last year, while Stewart Goshawk, who twice contested Burstead as a Liberal in 2010 and '11, is now submitting himself as a Green. Labour are once again putting up perennial paper candidate Malcolm Reid, husband of Pitsea councillor Pat Reid. This is Mr. Reid's fifth election; his third time contesting Burstead. Kevin is defending a majority of 1,807 (83% of the vote in 2019 - the biggest majority and vote share of the night).

 

FRYERNS

• DAVIES, Allan (Labour)*
• HOWARD, Vivien (Liberal Democrat)
• SANDHU, Sandeep (Conservative)

Labour's Allan Davies is defending this traditionally staunch Labour seat in Basildon, which he has represented since 2007. This will be his fourth re-election battle there. He currently sits on the Overview and Scrutiny Commission. I must confess, I have always quite liked Allan. He is very much 'Old Labour' but not a full-blown Corbynite nutter. He plays a reasonably straight bat and at least you know where you stand with him. He is certainly the only one of the three Labour councillors in Fryerns who appears to do any real work. He was actually first elected to the Council in Pitsea in 2002 and is Labour's longest-serving councillor. Our candidate, Sandeep Sandhu, is a local man and an engineer by trade, who is standing in Fryerns for the third time. He came a fairly distant second last time but remains committed to serving the residents of Fryerns. Viv Howard is standing once again for the Liberals, having stood here the last three elections in a row. This is actually Mrs Howard's sixteenth election. Like her husband, Martin, Mrs Howard is a perennial Liberal candidate and has stood in five different wards around the Borough since 1998. Councillor Davies is defending a majority of 469 (55% of the vote in 2019).

 

LAINDON PARK

• ALLEN, Christopher (Conservative)
• ARNOLD, Tina (Independent) 
• BATEMAN, Christopher (British Democrat)
• JOSEPH, Victoria (Labour)
• McCARTHY, Oliver (Green) 
• McCARTHY, Stephen (Liberal Democrat)
• RACKLEY, Phil (Breakthrough)

In what is invariably the most hotly-contested seat in the Borough (and with seven candidates, this year is no exception), Labour incumbent Cllr. John Scarola is standing down, being the last Labour councillor left in Laindon Park. Councillor Scarola previously represented the seat between 2012 and 2016, when he retired. His return in 2019 was somewhat unexpected (rumour has it that Labour were struggling to find candidates). First-time candidate Victoria Joseph is seeking to succeed him for Labour. Our candidate, Chris Allen, is a stalwart of the local area, who previously won a by-election in Langdon Hills. Despite working like an absolute Trojan, with insanely high casework figures and delivering much in the ward during his single year in office, it was not enough to retain the seat when it was up again the following year. There are no elections in Langdon Hills, so Chris was invited by the Laindon Branch to apply for the neighbouring ward of Laindon Park. Chris already enjoys a good working relationship with the two sitting Tory councillors, Jeff Henry and Kevin Wingfield, and together they would make a formidable united team all pulling in the same direction for Laindon. If Laindoners want a local councillor who is going to work his socks off for them, they can do no better than Chris Allen. Former Billericay town councillor Tina Arnold, is standing as a Smith-backed 'Independent', curiously on a ticket slagging off Billericay! Noak Bridge parish councillor Cris Bateman is back, standing for the frankly rather unsavoury British Democrats. Steve McCarthy is standing again for the Liberals, having contested the seat the previous two years. Curiously, I have it on good authority that the first-time Green candidate, Oliver McCarthy, is actually his son! There is generally little between the Greens and Lib Dems policy-wise, so presumably this division of party loyalties does not lead to too many disagreements over the breakfast table. McCarthy 'the Younger' is also standing in the County by-election. As mentioned in my opener, former Labour councillor Phil Rackley is standing on behalf of the relatively new Breakthrough Party, the latest in a long line of socialist offshoots and not the first party Phil has entertained a dalliance with. He served as a Labour councillor for four separate terms in four different wards between 1984 and 2016 but had a massive falling out with Labour both locally and nationally. He sat as 'Independent Labour' from 2012 and then latterly as a Green. He was later heavily involved with the Basildon Community Residents Party and his wife, Pat, also a former Labour councillor, stood for them in St. Martin's in 2021. Breakthrough are a new party, founded only two years ago. I actually rather like Phil but he is an unapologetic Marxist throwback, no two ways about it. Victoria Joseph will be nominally defending Councillor Scarola's slender majority of just 56 votes (36% of the vote in 2019). His Tory challenger on that occasion was, as it happens, Chris Allen, who will be hoping to capture the seat this time.

 

LEE CHAPEL NORTH

• CHANDLER, Mike (Liberal Democrat)
• MORDECAI, Martyn (Conservative)
• WEBB, Terry (Labour)*

Labour incumbent Terry Webb won his Lee Chapel North seat in a by-election in 2021, following the resignation of his predecessor Kayode Adeniran, and currently sits on the Licensing Committee. In 2019, Mr. Adeniran had won the seat for Labour with a majority of 433 (53% of the vote) but, following his resignation, Councillor Webb retained the seat in the resultant by-election with a rather more modest majority of just 56 and will be hoping to achieve a majority rather closer to that of his colleague, Susanna Caira-Neeson, last year. Her majority is 357 (56% of the vote in 2022). Seeking to thwart him will be our candidate Martyn Mordecai. This is Martyn's first borough election but he is a former police officer and has served as a parish councillor. He would be a hard working and effective representative for Lee Chapel North. Mike Chandler has returned for the Liberals, having previously contested the seat for them in 2019 and in 2021 (including the by-election). He is also contesting the County seat (see below).

 

LAINDON PARK & FRYERNS (COUNTY DIVISION)

• CHANDLER, Mike (Liberal Democrat)
• McCARTHY, Oliver (Green)
• REID, Patricia (Labour)
• SARGENT, Terri (Conservative)

This is probably as good a point as any to talk about the County by-election also taking place in the Laindon Park & Fryerns Division, which covers the borough wards of Laindon Park, Lee Chapel North and Fryerns. Unlike Basildon Council, which is elected by thirds, Essex County Council is elected all at once every four years. The last county elections were in 2021 and Laindon Park & Fryerns, which is a two-member division, was won by Conservative Jeff Henry, while the second seat went to Labour's Adele Brown. Councillor Henry's Tory running mate in 2021 was some drongo named Schrader, who came a close third, just 110 votes behind Councillor Brown. This by-election has been occasioned by the resignation of Councillor Brown - who, I am reliably informed, did not so much as open her county email inbox in 2 years. Since the fall from power of her erstwhile leader Gavin Callaghan (whom she inexplicably idolises), Councillor Brown's attendance at both County Hall and the Basildon Centre (where she is a borough councillor for Fryerns) has been markedly poor. She pretty much only attends the bare minimum number of meetings that she has to in order not to trigger a by-election for non-attendance. Casework statistics, accessed via FOI, also reveal that she has logged only one piece of casework in the past 3 years. Labour Group insiders tell me she is also a habitually poor attender at group meetings, generally only turning up when necessary to defend some perceived legacy of her beloved Gavin. She can more or less get away with that at Basildon, where the Labour Group are too weak to do anything about it, but the County Labour Group do at least, it seems, run a somewhat tighter ship and I am told that former MP Ivan Henderson, Labour Leader at County Hall, basically told her to shape up or ship out, so she's quit. For what it's worth, I do genuinely quite like Adele on a personal level. We served for many years together on the Planning Committee and always enjoyed sparring with one another. I am not quite sure what has gone on behind the scenes but I cannot really defend her on this one. I have heard she has been ill but, of course, I have barely seen her to enquire and, in any event, illness is not really any excuse. If you are too ill to do the job for your constituents, you should resign. It really is as simple as that. It is a little frustrating to me, as I was really in it to win it in 2021 and I would have loved to go to County Hall and work alongside Jeff to do a serious job of work on behalf of my old Laindon stomping ground. But, alas, t'was not to be. Standing for the Conservatives at this election will be Terri Sargent, who was formerly a hard-working county councillor for Laindon Park & Fryerns (2009-14). I know Terri has been itching to get back and remains as passionate and committed as ever. There is nothing we can do about all the lost time over the past 2 years but Terri already knows her way around County Hall and I know she will hit the ground running and work effectively with Jeff to get stuff done across the division. Standing to replace Councillor Brown for Labour will be Pitsea North-West borough councillor Pat Reid, who was also previously a county councillor for the Pitsea Division until she lost her seat in 2021. Pat may struggle in this election, as she is also fighting re-election in Pitsea North-West, which is not in the division and is more or less the other side of the Borough, so she may find herself stretched rather thin! Dame Rumour hath that Labour were a little stuck for a candidate thanks to their strict rules around 'all-women shortlists', so Pat may have been somewhat 'pressganged' into standing here. Mike Chandler, who is also standing for the Lee Chapel North borough seat, is standing for the Liberals and, likewise, Oliver McCarthy is standing for the Greens here as well as for the Laindon Park borough seat.  

 

NETHERMAYNE

• CAIRA-NEESON, Calum (Labour)
• EDEMAKHIOTA, Stanley (Conservative)
• LARKIN, Mo (Independent)*
• NICE, Stephen (Liberal Democrat)

Smithite Independent Mo Larkin won her Nethermayne seat in a by-election only last July, following the death in office of fellow Smithite, the late Pauline Kettle. Mo has had a, shall we say, 'eclectic' political career. She was first elected as a Liberal in Billericay East back in 1994 but defected to Labour in 1998 and unsuccessfully stood for election for them in Langdon Hills. She returned to the Council in 2002, this time as a Labour councillor for Lee Chapel North, only to defect again, this time to the Conservatives. She subsequently served as a Tory councillor for Pitsea South-East for two terms between 2007 and 2015, becoming the first Mayor of Basildon after the district was granted borough status in 2010. She retired from the Council in 2015 but last year was recruited as a sort of 'trophy candidate' by Councillor Smith and stood in Nethermaye at his behest and with his endorsement, leading to her being expelled from the Conservative Party (perhaps tellingly, she has not been appointed by him to serve on any committees). Fighting the seat for the true blue Tories will be first-time candidate Stanley Edemakhiota, an energetic and dedicated young man. However, as I have ruefully noted in this blog before, Nethermayne is a somewhat odd and very 'anti-establishment' ward. Formerly a Lib Dem stronghold, it has for nearly a decade been the unassailable personal fiefdom of former UKIP turned quasi-independent demagogue Kerry Smith. Labour are fielding first-time candidate Calum Caira-Neeson, son of Lee Chapel North Labour councillor Susanna Caira-Neeson. This was a bit of a surprise, as we had assumed Calum was a shoe-in for Laindon Park but he may have been the 'victim' of Labour's policy on all-women shortlists. Meanwhile, veteran Lib Dem candidate Steve Nice is back for the fifth election running (his fourteenth election since 2002). Councillor Larkin is nominally defending the late Pauline Kettle's 2019 majority of 1,800 (73% of the vote). In the by-election, her majority was a comparatively modest 676 (63%), albeit on a vastly reduced turnout. Stan would make a great councillor and I hope the residents of Nethermayne will give him a shot. Curiously, given the Smithites' furiously Billericaphobic credentials, Councillor Larkin actually lives in leafy Little Burstead in Billericay.

 

PITSEA NORTH-WEST

• COTTRELL, Mark (Conservative)
• HOWARD, Martin (Liberal Democrat)
• REID, Patricia (Labour)*
• SERINA, Rainbow (Green)

Labour's Pat Reid is defending her Pitsea North-West seat, which she won in 2019 with a majority of 189 (48% of the vote). Councillor Reid may well be feeling nervous, as her two ward colleagues are currently a couple of very hard-working Conservatives, Sam Gascoyne and Stuart Terson. Seeking to join them will be experienced campaigner and parish councillor Mark Cottrell, who has been working closely alongside Cllrs. Gascoyne and Terson for the past year or so. If Mark can pull it off, it will be the first time ever that the Tories have held all three Pitsea North-West seats. Councillor Reid is, to be fair, hard-working and well-liked but she may find herself stretched thin in this election because, as I say above, she is also standing in the Essex County Council by-election in Laindon Park & Fryerns, which is outside her ward, meaning she will have to campaign in the Pitsea North-West ward and then travel across town to campaign in the physically huge Laindon Park & Fryerns county division. No mean feat! Martin Howard returns as our perennial Lib Dem candidate. Believe it or not, Mr. Howard has stood in more elections than any other candidate (but never won a seat) - this is his twentieth elections in four different seats since 1973, originally standing for the old 'Liberal Party' in Burstead. This is his fifteenth try at Pitsea North-West. Rainbow Serina is a first-time candidate for the Greens.

 

PITSEA SOUTH-EAST

•  COJOCARU, Iurie (Independent)
• LANCASTER, Peter (Liberal Democrat)
• RIMMER, Craig (Conservative)*
• WRIGHT, Matthew (Labour)

Craig Rimmer is seeking re-election in Pitsea South-East, which he first won in a by-election in 2018, being comfortably re-elected the following year. Craig is currently Cabinet Member for Regeneration and sits on the Planning Committee. He also serves as the Conservative Chief Whip. Since his election, Craig has campaigned tirelessly for Pitsea, particularly the swimming pool project, which had stalled under Labour. Finally, his hard-won new swimming pool is currently under construction at Eversley, as promised. Peter Lancaster is fighting the seat again for the Liberals, having contested it in 2021, while Wickford town councillor Matthew Wright is standing here for Labour, having come a distant second last year in Wickford Castledon. We also have an Independent candidate named Iurie Cojocaru, who has never stood for election before and about whom I consequently know nothing. I initially pegged him as a genuine Independent, as he is acting as his own election agent, but his literature has revealed that he is, in fact, another Kerry Smith cipher, with literature designed and printed by Councillor Smith and deploying much of his rhetoric. Craig is defending a majority of 290 (52% of the vote in 2019). 

 

ST. MARTIN’S

• BUXTON, Andrew (Trade Unionist & Socialist)
• JENKINS, Philip (Liberal Democrat)
• SHUKLA, Deepak (Conservative)
• YAQUB, Maryam (Labour)*

Labour Leader, Maryam Yaqub, is defending her traditionally safe Labour seat in Basildon Town Centre, having won it in 2019 with a majority of 163 (47%). In addition to being Leader of the Opposition, she also sits on the Overview and Scrutiny Commission, the People Scrutiny Committee and the Staffing and General Purposes Committee. A lot has changed since 2019 though - not least the fact that Councillor Yaqub just had a 'blessed event', with the birth of her daughter just a few weeks ago. There is also the fact that the last time this two-member ward was fought, back in 2021, former Mayor David Burton-Sampson lost the seat for Labour for the first time in the ward's history and Davida Ademuyiwa became the first ever Conservative councillor for St. Martin's (albeit with a slim majority of just 22 votes). This massive political upset came in no small part as a consequence of Mayor Burton-Sampson's backing of Labour's disastrous plans to fill Basildon Town Centre with high-rise tower blocks, something Councillor Yaqub has also supported. These plans have since been robustly opposed by local Conservatives, and certainly by none more so than Davida, who attended and spoke against the tower blocks at every committee meeting and made strong representations at the subsequent appeals on behalf of her constituents. On taking office in 2021, the new Conservative Administration refused to sign off the permissions that had been granted by the previous Labour Administration and subsequently fought developers in several appeals. Although these appeals were ultimately lost and the Planning Inspector granted permission for the developments to go ahead, it is perhaps telling that none of them have thus far materialised. Seasoned campaigner Deepak Shukla is standing to join Davida as hopefully the second Tory councillor for St. Martin's and, having unseated the last two Labour leaders in a row, we would really like to go for the trifecta! Former Lib Dem councillor Phil Jenkins, who only held his Nethermayne seat for less than year (back in 2010-11), is standing in St Martin’s for the third time. This is actually his sixteenth local election since 1988. Another thorn in the side of Councillor Yaqub's re-election hopes will be the presence on the ballot of her Labour predecessor, Andrew Buxton, who represented the seat from 2015 to 2019. A hardline Corbynite, I gather Mr. Buxton had long found himself at odds with Labour both locally and nationally and I believe he was actually expelled last year as part of Sir Keir Starmer's 'purge' of the Corbynistas. He is standing on behalf of the hard-left Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition.    

 

VANGE

• McGEORGE, Melissa (Labour)*
• MURRAY, David (Trade Unionist & Socialist)
• SMITH, Lewis (Conservative)
• SMITH, Peter (Liberal Democrat)

Despite persistent rumours she was standing down, Labour incumbent Melissa McGeorge is defending her Vange seat, which she first won in 2015. She is currently Deputy Leader of the Labour Group and sits on the Place Scrutiny Committee and the Prosperity Scrutiny Committee. Vange is another two-member ward that does not have elections every year but when the seat was last fought in 2021, Yetunde Adeshile won it for the Tories with a majority of 101 (45% of the vote). She has since become a very hard-working advocate for Vange and first-time candidate and former squaddie Lewis Smith will be seeking to join her to work hard for the ward over the next year. These will be the last elections to Vange Ward, which in 2024 is scheduled to be split up, with northern Vange combined with an enlarged St. Martin's and southern Vange merged with Nethermayne. Peter Smith (no relation) is standing again for the Liberals, having contested the seat in 2021 and arch-socialist David Murray is standing here for the first time. He has been a perennial ultra left-wing candidate, currently standing under the banner of the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition. This is his seventh election since 1995 and his fourth on behalf of TUSC. He has been out of the Labour Party for 30 years and has always stood on a far-left platform (first as 'Militant Labour' and then under various socialist banners) but tends to switch wards a lot. 

 

WICKFORD CASTLEDON

• HARRISON, David (Wickford Independent)
• MORRIS, Don (Conservative)*
• MOTT, Stewart (Liberal Democrat)
• ROTHERY, Francesca (Labour)

Veteran Wickford councillor Don Morris is seeking re-election to his Wickford Castledon seat for the third time. 'The Duke of Wickford' himself, Don has represented the Castledon ward since 2015. Prior to that he had represented the old Wickford South seat for two terms (1990-94 and again 1999-2002) and then Wickford Park (2002-14), making the Duke one of the longest-serving councillors on Basildon Council. Don is a much-loved and highly-respected member of the Basildon Conservative Group and is eager to continue his 30-plus years of service to Wickford. Bizarrely, despite announcing his 'retirement', current Wickford Independent councillor for Wickford Park, David Harrison, is standing as a candidate in Castledon. This at least allows him to complete the 'trifecta', having stood for election in all three Wickford seats - and just in time too, as Wickford Castledon is set to merge with Crouch next year and will become 'Castledon & Crouch'. This is a bold move for Councillor Harrison, who is now in his 80s and is, in fact, the 'last man standing' of the original intake of Basildon councillors elected in the inaugural elections to the new District Council when it replaced the old Urban District in 1973. Back then, of course, he was Labour and has since flirted with pretty much every party going. He defected to the Social & Liberal Democrats (forerunner to the Lib Dems) in 1988 but failed to get elected in Wickford North. Following an almost decade-long sabbatical throughout much of the 1990s, he subsequently stood for election on no less than six occasions under various guises, including the Tories, Senior Citizens and as an anti-development Independent aligned to the Wickford Action Group. It was not until 2014, after a 26-year hiatus, that he returned to the Council under the banner of UKIP, representing Wickford Park. A year later, he fell out with the rest of Basildon UKIP and splintered off to form 'Wickford UKIP' (until that was squashed by UKIP Head Office), finally founding the Wickford Independents. He lost his seat again in 2018 but won it back the following year, this time as a Windy. It would be fair to say that both he and Don are 'colourful' characters in Basildon politics and their total cumulative length of service totals around half a century! So this should be a bit of a "Battle of the GOATs"! Lib Dem Wickford town councillor Stewart Mott is standing again, while first-time candidate Francesca Rothery is standing for Labour. Don will be defending his 395 majority (54% of the vote in 2019).

 

WICKFORD NORTH

• BROCKMAN, Eunice (Wickford Independents)*
• COLLINS, Dave (Reform UK)
• HOAD, Nicola (Liberal Democrat)
• METCALFE, Mike (Conservative)*
• WOOD, James (Labour)

Wickford Independent Eunice Brockman is seeking re-election to her Wickford North seat, which she won in 2019. She currently sits on the People Scrutiny Committee and also serves on Wickford Town Council (which always amuses me, as she opposed it being created). Councillor Brockman was the first 'Windy Original'; the only elected Windy councillor to have been elected as a Windy, having never stood for or been elected under any other party banner. She generally cuts a somewhat lonely figure at meetings nowadays, as her leader, Cllr. David Harrison, has had bouts of ill health. She served as part of the Windy coalition with Labour in 2019-21 but I do not get the sense that she was admitted to the 'inner circle'. She is, therefore, 'neither fish nor fowl' to some extent. She tries to get on with everyone, and I actually quite like her and find her good-natured and approachable, but she is invariably the 'outsider' at meetings, I suppose, and consequently tends to abstain in votes a lot of the time, particularly if they are contentious. The Conservative candidate is local Wickford resident Mike Metcalfe, who will be seeking to join local Tory ward members Peter Holliman and Carole Morris. Another Lib Dem Wickford town councillor, Nicola Hoad, is standing for them (her third run at the seat), while first-time candidate James Wood is standing for Labour. Dave Collins, also a first-time candidate, is standing here as the Borough's only Reform UK candidate. Councillor Brockman is defending a narrow majority of 65 (45% of the vote in 2019).

 

WICKFORD PARK

• BLAKE, Simon (Liberal Democrat)
• CHILD, Yvonne (Conservative)
• HAMMOND, Trevor (Wickford Independent) 
• WRIGHT, Dylan (Labour)

As mentioned above, despite having announced his 'retirement', the incumbent councillor for Wickford Park, David Harrison, is instead seeking re-election in the neighbouring ward of Wickford Castledon. Nominally defending Councillor Harrison's impressive majority from 2019 (801, or 71% of the vote) for the Windies will be Windy Shotgate parish councillor Trevor Hammond, who came second in Wickford North last year. The Conservative candidate for the seat will be Yvonne Child, a local campaigner who made a name for herself during her tireless efforts to preserve Wick Green from development by the then Labour-Windy Administration. Simon Blake is standing for the Liberals, having previously contested Crouch, and Dylan Wright is standing here for Labour, having previously contested Nethermayne. 

 

TRIVIA

We have two married couple standing this year: Martin and Vivien Howard (Lib, Pitsea North-West and Fryerns) and Malcolm and Pat Reid (Lab, Burstead and Pitsea North-West). Don Morris (Con, Wickford Castledon) is the husband of Cllr. Carole Morris (Con, Wickford North). Calum Caira-Neeson (Lab, Nethermayne) is the son of Cllr. Susanna Caira-Neeson (Lab, Lee Chapel North). Steve and Oliver McCarthy win a special mention for being a father-and-son duo contesting the same ward (Laindon Park) for different parties (Liberal and Green respectively). 

Martin Howard (Lib, Pitsea North-West) is fighting his twentieth election - more than any other candidate. He first stood for Basildon Council in 1973! He also holds the dubious distinction of having fought the most elections without ever winning a seat.

We have four former councillors seeking to rejoin Basildon Council: Chris Allen (Con, Laindon Park), Andrew Buxton (TUSC, St. Martin's), Phil Rackley (B'thru, Laindon Park) and Phil Jenkins (Lib, St. Martin's). Only Mr. Buxton is standing in the seat he previously represented. Messrs. Buxton and Rackley are also standing for different parties than they previously represented on the Council.

We have fourteen candidates who, to the best of my knowledge, are fighting their first election campaigns.

We have one retiring councillor this year – John Scarola (Lab, Laindon Park). He spent a cumulative total of eight years on the Council, from 2012 to 2016 and again from 2019 to 2023.

A vaguery of these elections is that councillors are normally elected to four-year terms but everyone elected this year is effectively standing for a one-year term! Basildon has just completed a Boundary Review and next year's elections will be an 'all-in, all-out' election fought using the new boundaries.