Next up at the Woodville Theatre tomorrow is a Billy Joel tribute band - and you could almost hear the strains of “the river is wide and it’s too hard to cross” this afternoon as the gulf widened between the Conservatives and their rivals.

Before the band’s arrival the theatre was playing host to Gravesham’s KCC election count; and strangely enough it was another river crossing - the Lower Thames one - that Bryan Sweetland felt contributed to his biggest ever majority.

The conservative councillor won Gravesham Rural with 3,975 votes; 71% of the ballot and a massive majority of 3,235 ahead of Labour’s Doug Christie (740) - and believed his opposition to the crossing had been key to his victory.

“With a couple of others I head up the campaign against the Lower Thames Crossing,” he said. “With the government announcement the first battle was lost, but the war is still on. We’ll take stock and see where we are. We still have a lot to fight for.

“I’ll be looking to KCC to provide the maximum amount of support to people in the area,” he added. “I’m privileged to represent Gravesham Rural for the next four years.”

Things got worse for Labour as the results came in for or Gravesend East; Diane Marsh (Con) retaining her seat with 3708 votes, and Labour’s Colin Caller (2,784) losing out to the Conservative’s Alan Ridgers (3,332) votes.

It wasn’t until late in the day that the stuck record skipped, and Labour stopped the rot, holding on to Northfleet & Gravesend West - Tan Dhesi (3,786) and Lauren Sullivan (3,621) taking 45% of the ballot ahead of Conrad Broadley (Con) who took 3,390 votes (20%) and Gary Harding (Con) who took 3149 (19%).

More in next week's Gravesend Messenger.