10 May 2011
At the May 5th local elections, the Green Party held its 2 seats on Braintree District Council in Bradwell, Silver End and Rivenhall ward. James Abbott topped the poll with 969 votes - the highest ever Green Party votes tally in a BDC election. Bob Wright was also elected with 689 votes. Bob takes over from Phil Hughes, who represented the ward for 12 years from 1999.
Turnout rose to very nearly 50%. The win means that the seat has now been held by the Greens since 1999 - 4 wins in a row.
Across the 4 Witham wards, more than 1,000 people voted Green at the district elections. In Witham West, the Green vote share (1) rose to 17.5% compared to the Lib Dems 9.9%. Andrea Bunn received 362 votes and Phil Hughes got 345.
In Witham South, Joyce Wells received 352 votes.
Top Green result in Braintree was secured by Wendy Partridge with 17.0% in Braintree East ward.
In Hedingham and Maplestead, Green candidate Susan Ransome finished ahead of all 3 Labour candidates.
Green vote share was good right across Braintree and Maldon Districts, but the Greens did not win any new seats. In 2 wards in Maldon District, Great Totham and Wickham Bishops & Woodham, the Green candidates secured 21.9% and second place to the winning Tories, ahead of Labour.
All 3 Green Witham Town Council seats were lost despite over 1,500 voters backing Green candidates across the town. In every ward there were more candidates than in 2007 and all 16 seats this time were won by Conservative or Labour.
In Eastern Region, all Green district/city seats were held and there were 4 gains, (one each in) St. Albans, Mid-Suffolk, Kings Lynn and Norwich.
Nationally, the Green Party made good net gains. On Brighton and Hove City Council, the Greens gained 10 councillors to become the largest party on the council with 23 seats - the first time in the UK that the Greens have done this.
In Scotland (2) and Northern Ireland (1) the Greens held their seats at the Parliamentary and Assembly elections.
Cllr. James Abbott, Green Group Leader on Braintree District Council said
"We were very pleased to secure re-election to BDC and grateful to the support of local voters in Bradwell, Silver End and Rivenhall. As well as the major planning and highways issues facing the ward, we will continue to work on the many local issues raised by people on the doorstep.
We were dissapointed to lose our Witham Town Council seats and we would like to thank Patricia Brunton, Steve Hicks and Nick Scales for their work on the council. The Greens have held seats on WTC most years since 1991 and I am sure we will again in the future.
With an even stronger Tory grip on BDC for the next 4 years it will be important for the opposition groups to maintain a close watch on the administration and to hold them to account when necessary. As we did in the last 4 year term, the Greens are ready to help fulfill that role."
(1) Percentages shown are corrected party percentages using the "Chris Rose" method. This corrects for the fact that in many wards there are not full slates of candidates from all parties.
Donate
Follow us on Twitter
Witham and Braintree Green Party RSS Feed