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Tory success on election
night in Medway

Conservatives have tightened their grip
on power at Medway Council following the local elections.

They suffered an early setback when they lost
a councillor in Luton and Wayfield as Labour swept back into the
ward, taking all three seats.

But they soon hit back taking a Lib Dem slot
in Watling ward and then winning a seat from Labour in River and
the Independents in Walderslade.

Traditional Tory strongholds stayed firm with
most of the party’s big hitters returned to power
with comfortable majorities.

The Tories now have 35 seats on the council, Labour 15, Lib Dems
three and two Independents giving an overall Conservative
majority of 15 compared to 11 before the election

The most closely-fought wards were Gillingham
South and Gillingham North.

South saw Lib Dems lose a seat to Labour with
just 96 votes separating the leading five candidates.

And the Lib Dem vote collapsed in North where
two Independents and a Labour candidate were returned.

Medway did not offiicially declare any results
until 6am, eight hours after the polls closed.

It was expected that there would be a delay because the AV
referendum votes had to be sorted out from the local election
ballot papers before counting could begin.

But that delay stretched on because Medway had to get clearance
from the AV regional returning officer in Brighton befiore it could
confirm and declare its own results.

At 5.30am, returning officer Neil Davies said some results had
been ready for an hour and a half but he still could not declare
them.

Instead, he was allowed to informally tell candidates and agents
some of the results ahead of the official announcement.

Turn-out in the Medway elections ivaried from ward to ward from
32 per cent to just over 50 per cent.

In the AV referendum 73,852 people voted, a turn-out of 39.76
per cent.