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Video - Election ends in drama by drawing lots



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Published Date:
02 May 2008
The Hastings Borough Council elections ended in dramatic style with two candidates forced to draw lots to decide a winner.
In the night's biggest shock LibDem leader cllr Richard Stevens was a hair's breadth away from sensationally losing his Old Town seat to his Conservative rival Stuart Padget.

Click here to view a slideshow of the count

After five counts the pair could not be separated and for the first time in living memory the seat was settled by the drawing of lots.

Both had 633 votes but cllr Stevens name was drawn from the hat adding the crucial extra vote needed to clinch victory.

It was the only real plus point on a miserable evening for the LibDems who ended the night with only three remaining seats after losing two councillors - including the deputy mayor Vivienne Bond.

The night's real winners were the Conservatives who remain the largest party on the 32 seat council with 15 seats. However the Tories did not manage to wrestle back overall control of the council which remains hung after Labour bucked the national trend and held its own - ending the evening with 13 councillors.

This means the Conservatives will once again be hoping they can rely on the support of the LibDems in the council chamber to force through any new policies.

Both the Conservatives and Labour proclaimed the evening a success, the with Tories arguing it showed local support for how it they had been running the council in recent years while Labour said the results showed the party still had a stronghold of voters in the town despite concerns over more national issues.

In the hotly anticipated Conquest Ward, council leader Peter Pragnell successfully saw off the challenge of LibDem newcomer Margaret Williams - the figurehead of the Hands off the Conquest campaign.

Cllr Pragnell, who polled 835 votes, was the clear winner but Mrs Williams did not disgrace herself, coming in second with 521 votes - a total which would have seen her win in other wards.

Other big winners on the night were Hastings mayor Maureen Charlesworth who scored 868 votes in Maze Hill, fellow Conservative Matthew Lock who got 994 votes in St Helens Ward, Robert Cooke who got 983 votes for the Tories in Ashdown and Labour pair Dominic Sebatien and Paul Barlow who scored 794 in Braybrooke and 718 in Castle Ward respectively.

The British National Party failed to return any councillors in the four seats they stood in but they did get 15 per cent of the vote in Hollington and 14 per cent in Tressell.

Click here to find ward by ward results and more news...

What do you think of the outcome? Was it what you expected? Do you think there is a better way of settling a drawn ward? Are you pleased the Tories came out on top? Perhaps you are celebrating the fact the BNP failed to win a seat. Let us know.

The full article contains 498 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 09 May 2008 10:15 AM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Hastings
 
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Steve Thorpe,

Hastings 02/05/2008 07:39:09
The Lib Dems have suffered for keeping in power the Conservative Council and I hope they have learned their lesson. Local politics should be about what is best for the area not who gets what chair.
2

Darryl,

02/05/2008 08:14:13
The big plus as far as these election results are concerned is that Labour has been kept from power! Had they got in , their loony schemes ie. Compulsory purchase of pier , Climate change proposals etc. would have impoverished a good proportion of people through shy high council taxes.

There was not the political swing nationally in Hastings , perhaps due to the demographics of Hastings , and the particularily good spinning machine that Labour have here through Michael Foster and Jeremy Birch. Sadly strong leadership was lacking from the last council and this must now be addressed. The latter also being a factor in the election results.

No surprise re BNP. I said on these boards that it was a non issue. Both Foster and Birch made great play re BNP to frighten Labour voters out of their complacency , rather than spending their energies on the serious issues for this town.

The Lib/Dems need to get serious and stop backing Labour with such idiotic proposals as the £50,000 Climate Change Project. They need to work with the Conservatives to get the best for this town. Both Conservatives and Lib/Dems should be ashamed of themselves for not investigating the £5000000 Labour Recycling fiasco. Taxpayers want value for money. Lets have it with a clear sense of direction from a listening council.

For Michael …the picture is bleak. The economy is deteriorating and the spin is getting less effective.
He will pay the price for ignoring his constituents.
3

Darryl,

Hastings 02/05/2008 08:18:18

If there is no clear winner as in Old Town ..the election should be held again. Cllrs should not gain power on the basis of a lottery.
4

Mugsborough Citizen,

02/05/2008 08:51:05
This result shows that any "know nothing" who has lots of funding, can fool a lot of people into voting for them.

Conservatives have doubled the paking charges and extended these charges to include Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Conservatives have failed to help Old Town folk in any way. These guys have really put the "con" into Conservative.

Thank goodness that Jane Butters picked out the "Richard Stevens" ticket so that the Old Town remains a winner.
5

Darryl,

Hasings 02/05/2008 09:11:29
Yes the parking charges and the extensions were bad. I know a lot of people got caught out with the sudden change without realising. There was no need for extensions. Parking is bad enough in Hastings anyway.

Its time cllrs actually listened to the people that voted for them. Lets see some of that in the future.

Independent cllr Stephen Springthorpe had agood idea when he suggested abandoning the cabinet system. At least that would help to make the council more democratic and transparent.
6

Heather Sargent,

Old Town 02/05/2008 13:40:20
This is an example of where preferential voting would have been a fairer method to determine the outcome.
Whilst i wouldn't insist it is the best voting method in all circumstances, here an order of preference indicated by the voters would have settled it justly.
7

peter alan,

st leonard's 02/05/2008 16:25:55
very pleased that despite their tricks (e.g. deceiving a venue as to who they were in order to get a booking, untrue propaganda) and this newspaper's generous publicity, hastings rejected the BNP in every ward.

foyle would be relieved the nazis didn't get a foothold on the english coast.

as for labour's drubbing being affected by national issues - well why not? maybe that way birch and co. can pass on the message to gordon brown that he's doing a poor job.
8

Red279,

romney marsh 02/05/2008 19:48:27
Great to see the BNP thrashed, perhaps their voters will return to the Conservative Party. Labour did well, if you read other pages on this site the Lib Dems made all sort of claims yet delivered few.

The next few years will be very intresting, by the way the alleged £500,000 spent on recycling pails in to insignificant compared to the £1,700,000 wasted by Conservative Shepway along the coast. I think we will see more of these spending mistakes as all parties try and appear green. The problem is the Councillors think they should do something but they don't know what.

I bet we could find Councils of all colours who have poor re-cycling schemes, by the way Shepway also has two weekly collections, you don't want them.
9

Hammerfall,

hastings 02/05/2008 21:22:36
What were labours policies in hastings, dont vote BNP,no wonder the tories have more seats.The real nazis in Hastings won 13 seats.The labour party are so obsessed about gagging free speech they forgot the conservatives were running
10

Fidel,

03/05/2008 14:44:17
Darryl/Steven Springthorpe's mouthpiece, I hope that you went out to vote, in between giving us your pearls of wordly wisdom.
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