Local MP Steve Brine has spoken of his delight after local Conservatives took control of the city council in a night of high drama at Winchester Guildhall.
In a night of high drama at Winchester Guildhall on Thursday (May 3), the party won a clutch of seats and now have outright control of the authority. They have run WCC for the past year but as a minority administration.
The Conservatives took three seats, in Littleton & Harestock, in St Luke ward covering Stanmore and in Bishops Waltham to move well clear of the Liberal Democrats, who they had previously been tied with on 27 seats each. The result meant Winchester was the only Conservative council gained across the entire country in a otherwise disappointing night for the party.
A resurgent Winchester Labour Party also took a seat from the Liberal Democrats, in the St John ward covering Winnall and Highcliffe.
Local MP Steve Brine said: "This was a stunning set of results, and testament to the extremely hard work of our candidates. We have a young, new generation coming through in Winchester and they're hungry to win so they can make this an even better place to live.
"The job of an MP is very different to that of a District councillor but I am involved in so many local campaigns across the area and it makes it even easier to get tangible results if we have strong local champions alongside me. I look forward to continuing to work with all councillors, whether newly elected, experienced old-hands, Conservative, Liberal Democrat or Labour."
New leader of the Conservative Group, Cllr Keith Wood, is expected to replace George Beckett as leader of the council. He said; "We had good candidates at this election who worked really hard and were trusted to take up the issues that concerned local residents in individual communities. I will ensure that we deliver on what we have promised residents. In these difficult times more than ever we need to manage the council competently and provide the servces people want to the highest quality. That is exactly what we intend to do."
In Chandler's Ford (which lies within the Borough of Eastleigh), Conservatives also bucked the trend; comfortably re-electing Cllr Godfrey Olson in Hiltingbury East and popular local community champion Cllr Mike Hughes in Hiltingbury West.
Steve Brine added that he was really excited about the next generation of local councillors, many of them women, coming forward in the next few years. "Some of them didn't win this year but they are not going anywhere and I look forward to working with them as we push into areas where we haven't had councillors for donkey's years. There are no, no-go areas for the new Conservative Party in Winchester & Chandler's Ford," he said.
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