A DELIGHTED Clive Rickhards is celebrating after he retained his Warwickshire county council seat for Studley as much of the rest of the county turned Conservative blue in Thursday’s (May 4) local elections.
“It was a very exciting evening and very close,” said Councillor Rickhards.
“At the first count I had a majority of 23 and the Conservative’s agent, quite rightly, called for a re-count and I ended up with another two votes.”
Warwickshire, previously with no overall control following the 2013 election, saw the Tories win 36 of the 57 seats available.
The authority previously had 62 councillors, but these had been cut by five following a review of division boundaries.
One high profile casualty was June Tandy, leader of the Labour group who lost her Attleborough seat to the Conservatives.
Overall Labour crashed from 22 seats to just 10 while the Lib Dems lost two, going from nine to seven.
The Greens however held on to their two seats.
However Alcester stayed blue as Mark Cargill was returned for the Conservatives with 1,841 votes and John Horner emerged victorious in Arden with 2,451 votes.
In the Studley division, which had been enlarged to include many more rural communities and despite a strong challenge from Stratford district councillor Justin Kerridge, Councillor Rickhards won by just 25 votes.
“Clearly the extension of the boundaries worked against me and reduced my majority but the strength of my vote in Studley held up. However I will obviously be working right across the division to represent the interests of everyone.”
The local results:
Alcester – Turnout 40.6 per cent
Mark David Cargill (Conservative) 1,841
Andrew Mark Foster (Labour) 161
Susan Juned (Liberal Democrat) 1,227
Duncan Parker (Green Party) 106
Arden – Turnout 35.9 per cent
Mark Griffiths (Green Party) 187
John Nicholas Horner (Conservative) 2,451
Karyl Arlene Rees (Liberal Democrat) 365
Studley – Turnout 39.1 per cent
Alistair Goddon (Green Party) 67
Justin Antony Lee Kerridge (Conservative) 1,170
Chris Pilkington (Labour) 270
Clive Anthony Rickhards (Liberal Democrat) 1,195
