Friday, 17 October 2014

Rutland County Council Election Results

Today the results of the two Rutland County Council by-elections where announced for the wards of South West Oakham and Whissendine. These were called after sad death of the Independent councillor Brian Montgomery for the ward of Whissendine and mysterious resignation without reason by Conservative Joanna Figgs for the ward South West Oakham.


The elections took place yesterday and as usual for local elections in Rutland the turnout was low, as you would expect in Rutland, with only 24.82% of the electorate voting in South West Oakham and a slightly better turnout of 34.67% of the electorate voting in Whissendine. The results of the polls are as follows:

Results for the ward of South West Oakham 

Names of Candidates...................................... Votes recorded
Benjanin Callaghan - Independent 177
Richard Clifton - Conservative Party 240
Richard Swift - Liberal Democrat Party 43
Rejected Ballot Papers 1

Results for the ward of Whissendine

Names of Candidates...................................... Votes recorded
Samuel Asplin - Liberal Democrat Party 192
Jonathan Baker - Conservative Party 179
Rejected Ballot Papers 0

Richard Clifton retained the ward of South West Oakham for the Conservative Party while Samuel Asplin took the ward of Whissendine from Independents for the Liberal Democrat Party. This wouldn't have effected the balance of power in Rutland County Council except for the resignation of Chris Parsons from the Conservative Party who is going to carry on representing his ward for Ryhall and Casterton as an Independent. The change in make up in the council from the 2011 election to today after the by election are as follows:


May 2011 Oct 2014 change
Conservative Party 16 15 -1
Independents 8 6 -2
Labour Party 0 0 0
Liberal Democrat Party 2 2 0
UK Independence Party.. 0 3 +3

Currently the Conservative Party have an overall majority of four on Rutland County Council, if they all turn up to vote, as recently there have been a number of Conservative Councillors off sick. 

It is sad to see such a small turn out at the polls in Rutland yet again, especially after seeing the people so motivated over the Aldi application. Through lack of political debate in the press, lack of choice with no Labour party candidates bothering to come forward  to stand in the wards and the main parties falling to talk about local issues that effect people of the wards it seems that interest in party politics is dead. What has replaced it is issue politics where people are motivated by single issues that effect their lives, hence all the interest in Aldi's planning application. Maybe it is time for a new approach to local politics in the United Kingdom.

4 comments:

Oakham and Rutland News said...

Conservative Joanna Figgis resigned after her husband who was the Deputy Head at Oakham School, took on a new role as Head Teacher at Rugby School. She decided she did not want to commute to meetings.

Roy said...

Thank you Martin, you sure are the font of all knowledge when it comes to matters relating to Oakham and the Council.

Oakham and Rutland News said...

Sad :-)

Here he is in his new role, Former Cllr Figgis gave up a lot more than Councillor she was also a local primary school teacher. http://www.ardingly.com/Ardingly_College_Sussex/Headmaster_Independent_School_Sussex.php

Oakham and Rutland News said...

The Governors description of Mrs Figgis fails to mention she is a director of TIMENUMBER PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LIMITED
not just a teacher