Tories turn county blue
Saturday 6th June 2009, 2:15PM BST.
- Conservative MP Phillip Dunne and Councillor Martin Taylor-Smith at the count
Jubilant Shropshire Tories are today celebrating a historic landslide victory in elections to the county’s new unitary council.
They took 54 of the 74 seats up for grabs on Shropshire Council, reflecting the huge Conservative success in local elections across the country.
To see the election results, click here
For election count pictures, click here
The Liberal Democrats were left trailing with just 11 seats and Labour with seven. Two Independents gained places at the Shirehall.
Voter turnout was higher than expected at 42.5 per cent.
And it is believed a large number of young voters went to the polls across Shropshire, many for the first time.
Councillor Malcolm Pate, Shropshire Conservative leader, said today that under his party’s administration the former Shropshire County Council had been high performing and had kept council tax increases low.
“People trust us to deliver good services and know that is what we will do for the next four years,” he said. “They see us as the natural party for Shropshire.
“I think we may have had even more seats if there hadn’t been such public anger with politicians over MPs’ expenses.”
The Tories will also be looking to repeat their success in elections for the new Shrewsbury Town Council.
The count was taking place today at Shrewsbury Sports Village, but the party is already assured of four members being elected unopposed.
Labour suffered humiliation yesterday after the party lost its four remaining county councils to the Tories.
Nottinghamshire was the last to fall as the Conservatives took control, gaining nine seats, while Labour – which had held the council since 1981 – lost 22. Earlier Derbyshire fell after 28 years of rule, while Labour was also beaten by the Conservatives in Lancashire and Staffordshire.
David Cameron, Tory Party leader, described the results as “remarkable”.
“We have won councils we haven’t held for three decades,” he said. “The British people should be given their say – the argument for a general election is now unanswerable.”
Counting for the European Parliamentary elections takes place tomorrow night.
By Local Government Correspondent Dave Morris
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No matter who you vote for, the Government always wins!
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Tough on some genuine hard working local councillors but a message badly needed to be sent over their heads to that bunch of back stabbing weasels in Parliament.
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Most people did not want a Unitary Council – but we got it anyway. Now that the conservatives have 54 seats to the 20 everyone else has, they will need to prove that they can run the “seamless” services they promised. That is going to be a BIG job in Shropshire with all those wide open spaces to cover. The evidence to date for people who have been trying to contact the council is that it is NOT working.
They may be rejoicing now – but they will be judged by what they DO over the next 4 years. Fewer children in schools – more older people in the County. Highways, Housing (including council housing at opposite ends of the County), planning, licensing, leisure, culture. There are lots of difficult decisions to make, with labour and lib dems VERY anxious to magnify any hiccup along the way.
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i agree – the call centre never picks up the phone and the whole thing feels very clincial and distant from the people – bring back the good old local sabc council any day
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will there be a paper on Monday? or will all the Star staff still be celebrating their heroes winning?
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low council tax they must be joking
there is so much waste at shire hall
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as cris eubank says ” WE ARE SIMPLY THE BEST” !
get in there! hahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahahha
eat that gordon brown, socialism is dead, bring on a cameron government and and era of low taxes and high growth for small businesses
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Like I have said in another thread its a natural reaction to a failing Govt and the economic sutuation unfortunately I am just not convinced David Cameron and his Team are up to the job :-(
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Capt Chaos, well, one thing is certain, having got us into this almighty mess (what’s he borrowed, 2 TRILLION IS IT and printed another 75 BILLION) Clown and his tenth rate cabinet (he even has Glenys Kinnock and the comedian and failed Football Manager Alan Sugar now to go with Mandolin and the rest of the Labour Lords)will certainly never get us out of it. We are now witnessing the inevitable and usual end of a Labourite government. They have again holed the ship and now the rats leave it before it really sinks, the Captain of course being the last to leave.
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Stuart your last line made me smile, do you really think a Tory Govt will repair the damage or will we pay for the next 10 years? by the way I will be retired then!
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I’d echo Capt Chaos and his views. Clearly the current government have hit the end of the road. Having ditched their old values and moved into the centre right to get into power, their ideas that the free market knows best have left us with a massive debt.
Cameron and the Conservatives deserve a chance in governemnt, but its hard to see them being significantly different and will simply put the same old centre right policies into operation which have got us to where we are now.
I really think we are crying out for some new ideas and a move away from party politics, where being in power is the be all and end all for polititians.
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Tory, Labour, Lib Dem, the Boy Scouts or the Sugar Plum Fairies, one thing is deadly certain. What we are left with now is going to challenge any Government. This Labour Government took over a soundly based economy, wrecked it by living on credit and have now caused the biggest disaster to this country in it’s history, from bringing about a non-existent penal and punishment policy to engulfing our country in immigrants, both legal and illegal and swamping us in debt which will take 40 years to pay back with increased taxes and reduced public spending in order to do that. Be it Tory or Labour (and Labour won’t admit what they intend to do until AFTER the next election) none of us are going to like the future. We now have 2 1/2 Million unemployed and another 2 1/2 million claiming Incapacity Benefit or unemployment by another name. The future is to hideous to contemplate, neither side can guarantee winning the next election but again, another thing is certain, if the Tories are foolish enough to really try to get in, they are going to have to take the blame for this current disaster. Never has our country been in such dire straights.
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Take a deep breath Stuart, its not that bad! Lets have a bit of the Dunkirk spirt should we and not right off the country just yet! The French have been in debt for years and its never bothered them.
While I think you are right that the current government has significantly contributed to our financial status it would be wrong to lay 100% of the blame on them as the ecomomic crisis is global, and solutions to the problem need to be found on a global scale. We need to re-evaulate our position in the world.
There are actually many opportunities for us as a country, such as developing environmental technologies, being a link between Europe and the US and developing new communications technology which brings different communities together.
We just need political leaders who will think differently to the standard party politics that we have had for the last 30 years and who will build for the long term, not short term political gain.
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good job the libs and lab co-operated to pass on seats where the other could win
well done them
i just wish at a national level the centre left could cooperate more to keep tories out
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Meadow matt, I really wish that I could be more optimistic but one thing is certain, if we follow the reasoning of (in) sane salopian and if his/her wish comes true and we are doomed to another term of this current lot then who knows what the consequences will be. I think I will have to volunteer for the next space shot.
My alternative to kicking the dog or punching holes in the wall is venting my anger/frustration on my PC for half an hour a day and making comments like these in the forlorn hope that I will change the world and put the world to rights. The snag is that Gordon Brown always seems to act on my comments and the world is a worse place as a result. Ah! me.
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