Congratulations to Councillor Sara Walton, elected today for Castle ward on Alnwick Town Council, following the resignation of the Conservative councillor through ill health.
The result:
LD Sara Walton 329;
Con 238;
Lab 94
Turnout 24.4%.
LD GAIN from Con.
New councillor Sara Walton said,
Share:It’s very humbling that so many people have put their trust in me. I’m determined to bring a fresh perspective to the Town Council and hope my experience as a solicitor and school governor will be put to good use.
I enjoyed meeting people during the campaign and hearing about their hopes for our town. I will work hard to represent their views and bring solutions to problems where possible.
8 Comments
Well done Sara and the team – excellent result!
Well done Sara – good to see the Lib Dems doing so well in Berwick Constituency – have the Tories peaked there?
Well done Sara
We’re sure you’ll do a fantastic job.
Gillian, Keith and Rosie
Is there anything we can learn from these recent successes – here and in Hemel? Does anyone know why they overturned conservative majorities?
Because it is a parish council election and the candidates get elected by knowing the most people in their village…
I’d be interested in the turnout – 10%?
Congratulations Councillor, a convincing win.
(Turnout, as clearly indicated above, was almost 25% and I would hardly call Alnwick a village.)
@cowley
Can’t you read: 24.4%, not your putative 10%.
thanks for all the supportive comments – it’s interesting to note that I have only lived in the town for four years whilst the Con candidate has lived here for around 20 and is the Chair of the local Conservative party and a local business owner so I don’t think the “knowing most people” theory works in this case – although I can imagine it does often hold true. In my view it was the dedicated hard work carried out by the election team in producing regular leaflets and delivering them over a large ward that raised my profile, followed by regular canvassing on the doorstep (and in the rain) and by phone, also press releases on my part in working to solve a ward related issue. It is also partly due to a very strong local loyalty to our well respected MP Sir Alan Beith giving some brand recognition. Finally I would add that I campaigned on being a new face in the Town Council and not having all those “invisible” networks that do sometimes make local politics seem like a closed shop. I think the team here are all proud of the turnout figure – although of course, we will be looking at the patterns of turnout to see how to improve next time. Can’t wait to get started, will be logging on for advice …