Labour celebrate success in West Norfolk after taking county council seat from Conservatives
THERE were scenes of celebration in West Norfolk as Labour won a county council seat from the Conservatives today.
The swing from right to left saw a Conservative majority of 272 at the last election transformed to a 400 majority for Labour this time.
The Clenchwarton and King’s Lynn South seat went to candidate Alex Kemp who won 824 votes while Conservative Paul Foster polled 424 and came second. Liberal Democrat Kate Sayers had 282 votes while UKIP candidate Michael Stone had 271.
“I am really pleased,” said Ms Kemp, who added that the issue of the proposed incinerator had a major bearing on the outcome.
“It shows what can be done when ordinary people like me go out and talk to people.
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“It sends a really strong message to the leader of the council, Derrick Murphy, and we are not going to rest until he stands on the steps of County Hall and tears-up the Cory Wheelabrator contract for the incinerator,” she added.
The seat had previously been held by Conservative David Harwood, who died earlier this year. He took 39.25pc of the vote at the last election while Ms Kemp took 45.5pc.
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The Labour victory takes the number of county councillors from the party to five, with six Green, 10 Liberal Democrat, one UKIP, two independent and 60 Conservative.
The turn-out for the county election was 22.5pc with 1,809 votes recorded from an electoral register of 8,030.
The results of a West Norfolk Council election for Spellowfields saw an even poorer turn-out with just 19.1pc of residents voting.
Both the county and the borough seats were vacant after the death of Mr Harwood.
Conservative Sheila Young held the Spellowfields seat at the borough council when she polled 348 votes with Labour candidate Ken Hubbard in second place with 243.
Liberal Democrat Ian Swinton had just 22 votes while UKIP’s Michael Stone had 88 and Rob Archer for the Greens polled 61.
