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Conservatives primed to regain control of city council after knife-edge election

5:05pm Friday 6th May 2011 in Politics

Cllr George Beckett believes he will soon be leader of Winchester City Council again Cllr George Beckett believes he will soon be leader of Winchester City Council again

THE Conservatives look poised to take back control of Winchester City Council after a knife-edge set of elections.

Tory leader George Beckett believes he will get crucial support from the two Independents after Thursday’s polling was counted today (FRI). The Independents say he is being premature.

The Liberal Democrats lost one seat to end on 27; the same as the Conservatives, who gained one.

The Independents still have two and Labour are back with veteran councillor Chris Pines snatching his old ward.

There was a merry-go-round set of results. Labour took St John and All Saints from the Lib Dems; the Lib Dems took Whiteley from the Tories by only 12 votes; but crucially the Tories grabbed Compton and Otterbourne from the Lib Dems.

For full report see the Hampshire Chronicle on May 12.

Comments(4)

ValleyBoy111 says...
10:33pm Fri 6 May 11

Great, get stuck with a tory councillor, and then we see Tories stitch up a deal with Chris Pines. Labour.

Sick of Red/Blue.

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rogerslade says...
11:30pm Fri 6 May 11

If the Conservatives do gain control perhaps they will scrap Sunday parking charges a bit quicker than the current lot of incompetents and perhaps, also, we will see some more sensible planning decisions without the casting vote going against the wishes of the majority as should be the case with a democracy.

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Julia M S says...
8:47am Sat 7 May 11

What excellent news that Chris Pines is back as a councillor. The fact that he's a Labour man is less important than the fact that he's a man with vast knowledge and experience about his Winchester ward and what the area needs and wants. As one of 3 councillors with a casting vote, he'll hopefully be able to rein in some of the excesses of the 2 major parties and bring a difference to the inevitable and fairly useless 2-trick pony council in Winchester district. And no, I'm NOT a Labour supporter or voter!

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mjh says...
6:16pm Sat 7 May 11

Neither party has a majority, so why should one have overall control? Surely the Independents and Labour will vote with their conscience, so providing appropriate balance to all decision making. I just hope that on major planning issues such as Barton Farm the Conservatives won't bow down to big business and capitulate to Cala Homes like at least one of their councillors wants them to. If George Beckett gets his way, the poor and underprivileged in Winchester will suffer the most from the inevitable cuts to services.

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