Martin Penny Lib Dem no hoper!

The County Council election results are in. In Letchworth North West Labour's Lorna Kercher has managed to get elected for the county council on just 38.9% of the vote with a slim majority of 48 over her Tory opponent Andy Frankland, who despite raising the tory vote on 2009 by 2.5% still failed to get elected.

The big loser on the night though was former HELP councillor and Lib Dem Martin Penny whose vote crashed to just 124. Both Labour and the Tories helped themselves to his vote, though a lot of the former HELP candidates supporters this time backed the English Democrats who won 299 votes.

Meanwhile in Letchworth South Tory candidate Terry Hone (who also claims a salary as a district councillor) won the seat. Interestingly here UKIP's John Barry did extremely well nearly gaining second place, just pipped by Labour's district councillor David Kearns. The Lib Dems, in a seat that they were once in competition for slumped to 4 place just scrapping a place above the Greens.

In Letchworth Eat, Michael Muir was returned again, though Rachel Burgin fought a strong campaign for Labour.

For Terry Hone's safe seat there seemed to be a lot of Tory election activity. Labour didn't even put out a ward wide leaflet. Though clearly the Tories didn't do enough in the North West ward. Perhaps they have fallen out internally.

In each ward on average about 18 spoilt ballot papers and an average turnout of about 28-30%.

The main result is that the two of the county councillors representing Letchworth are also on the payroll for the District Council. Drinks all round, who said politics in Letchworth is a closed shop!

Letchworth Northwest

Bland,  Rosemary   Green Party	201	7.5 [-3.1]
Frankland,  Andy   The Conservative Party Candidate	990	37.1 [+2.5]
Kercher,  Lorna   Labour and Co-operative Party Candidate	1038	38.9 [+14.3]	48
Penny,  Martin  Geoffrey Liberal Democrat	124	4.6 [-9.6]
Vickers,  Charles  Jeremy English Democrats	299	11.2 [-4.1]**

Letchworth South

Barry,  John  Finbarr UK Independence Party (UK I P)	636	19.0 [N/A]
Hone,  Terry   The Conservative Party Candidate	1502	44.8 [-6.6]	839
Kearns,  David  Peter Labour and Co-operative Party Candidate	663	19.8 [+6.5]
Mario,  May   Green Party	251	7.5 [-5.7]
Winder,  John  Paul Liberal Democrat	283	8.5 [-12.6]

Letchworth East

Burgin,  Rachel  Danae Labour and Co-operative Party Candidate	909	29.4 [+12.4]
Muir,  Michael   The Conservative Party Candidate	1593	51.6 [+3.0]	684
Tapping,  Arwen  Jane Green Party	366	11.8 [-2.6]
Winter,  Richard  William Liberal Democrat	204	6.6 [-12.7]