Saturday 4 May 2013

Congratulations Councillor Ian Thomas!!!

This will be the final post of this blog and marks the end of this election. I hope that those of you who have read it have found it helpful, particularly if you are a voter in Redruth South.

After the votes were counted it was finally announced on Friday afternoon that Ian Thomas (Independent) had achieved the most votes and was confirmed as our Cornwall Councillor for Redruth South.

The voting figures for Redruth South were as follows:

Ian Thomas (Independent) - 342 Votes (41%)

Will Tremayne (Labour) - 311 Votes (38%)

Ray Wyse (UKIP) - 173 Votes (21%)

Redruth South has a total of 3062 registered electors. Total number of votes cast was 826 giving a turn out this time of 27%. This is a significant fall from last time when 39% of us voted.

There were 471 postal votes which represents 57% of the votes cast.

All the facts and figures are set out on the Cornwall Council web site.

Redruth South results (opens in a new window)

The picture across the County was intriguing and once again no one political party or grouping has overall control of the Council. We now have our first 6 UKIP Councillors, 8 Labour Councillors and a Green Party Councillor.

The Conservative and Liberal Democrats who were the two largest groups on the Council previously with 88 of the 123 seats between them (Con 50, LD 38), saw gains and losses in various places. Overall the central government coalition parties have ended up with 67 seats between them (Con 31, LD 36). Theoretically this would enable them to join forces and control the Council however it remains to be seen whether they would reach agreement at a local level to make this work, or whether there would be a desire for them to work together with a General Election only 2 years away.

Before this election Cornwall Council was governed by a coalition of Conservative and Independent councillors. Again, theoretically these two groups have just enough Councillors between them to control the Council and form a cabinet. However by definition the Independent Councillors are not a political party so it will be interesting to see whether there is sufficient appetite or common ground amongst them to enable a viable cabinet to be constructed. 

Over the next few weeks there will clearly be much discussion and debate as our Councillors try to form a Cabinet.



    
   

Thursday 2 May 2013

Polls closing, let the counting begin

Well election day is now done and dusted. Votes have been cast andwithin the hour ballot boxes will be sealed and prepped ready for transfer to the counting centres. It's been a long day for the Council staff working in the polling stations.

It's no doubt been a tense day of final campaigning for election candidates across the UK with seats in Town & Parish Councils, Unitary Authorities, County and District Councils and a Westminster by-election in South Shields (courtesy of David Milliband) all happening on this Thursday 02 May. I'm sure there are some exhausted candidates and their supporters out there

Here in Redruth South, I expect that our 3 candidates for Cornwall Council, the unitary council which runs Cornwall, will tonight be trying their best to get a good night's sleep before  tomorrow's vote count begins over at Carn Brea Leisure centre in the morning.

The Council's election officers are expecting the first Divisional results to be announced "around lunch time" and I suspect we will get news drip fed throughout the day and possibly into the evening.

Here in Redruth South and in our neighbouring Divisions (Redruth Central, Redruth North, Four Lanes etc) it will be interesting to see how many of us have turned out to vote - remember we had a whopping 39% turnout here in 2009 - and, crucially, who will be our Cornwall Councillor for the next Council which runs from now until the next election in May 2017. 

For Cornwall as a whole the picture is intriguing. Some of the key questions are:

Will a single group be successful enough to win control of the Council?

What will happen to the share of the vote for the Coalition partners in the UK Government (i.e. the Conservatives and the Lib Dems)?

Will the Independent candidates do well in Cornwall?

Will the Labour and Mebyon Kernow increase their representation on the Council?

Will we see our first UKIP and Green Councillors in Cornwall?

The permutations are probably endless and completely beyond me! I shall be watching with interest. 

For those of you who are interested in seeing the developing picture, Cornwall Council's very clever web team have put together a really good clickable site which helps you to track how our votes are colouring in the map of Cornwall.

Here is the link to it ...

Cornwall live election map 2013 (opens in a new window)