We are just over two weeks away from the District Council elections AND the referendum on Alternative Voting.
The two current Blackmoor Vale councilors, Tim Inglefield and William Wallace are standing again, in a five-candidate field. Remember – every voter has two votes, so don’t waste the second one.
The Blackmoor Vale candidates are:
Richard CRABB Lib Dem (lives over the border in Sherborne)
Tim INGLEFIELD Conservative (present incumbent, lives Horsington)
David NICHOLS Independent (lives Henstridge)
Jo PENBERTHY Labour (lives Cucklington)
William WALLACE Conservative (present incumbent, also a County Councillor, lives Yenston)
South Somerset District council has 60 Councillors. It is currently controlled by the Lib Dems, with 37 seats, against the Conservatives 17, and 6 independents.
The only clear water between the main parties seems to be finance, and car parking in market towns like Wincanton. The LibDems want to introduce charges, the Conservatives do not.
Dear Ed,
If you had knocked on as many doors as I have over the last few weeks you would know that many voters on the doorstep are keen to make their views felt particularly on the AV referendum issue. My impression is that many are interested enough to say that whilst a change may be due this is the wrong answer at the wrong time. It is conceivable that this might increase the turn out.
AS regards the District election, it has been disappointing to see that our opposition has made little effort to meet their voters or attempt to seek their views. On the doorstep however I have heard many contrary ideas and had many debates, but as the man said, whilst I might not agree with you I will defend your right to have an opinion.
Hope you will put your crosses in the “right” boxes today,
Regards Tim Inglefield
Remarkable how difficult it is to find out the detailed election results but they are there on the South Somerset DC website if you look hard enough. Unfortunately the blog’s steam powered computer, for reasons known only to itself, is unable to cut and paste the results from that website but Tim Inglefield’s door knocking obviously yielded the required result as he and his Conservative colleague William Wallace were both re-elected to serve us in the Blackmoor Vale (why do they spell it differently?) and their opposition to AV was endorsed by two thirds of the UK electorate. So, initial job well done gentlemen: congratulations on your election but I can’t help feeling that you have some hard times ahead.
Congratulations to our elected Councillors Tim Inglefield and William Wallace. Amore, more, ore, re.
Oh, the blog omitted to add that South Somerset DC is now one of only 10 District Councils in the UK that is still controlled by the Lib Dems who have 31 Councillors working with? 25 Conservatives and 4 “others”. In the rest of administrative Somerset Conservatives gained over-all control of West Somerset and Mendip and kept control of Sedgemoor and came within one seat of an over-all majority in Taunton Deane. An extraordinarily good couple of days for the Blues who seem to have managed to avoid the usual mid-term reaction of the electorate against the incumbent Government at the expense of the Lib Dems. They must be relishing the next round of County Council elections in 2013: however a lot can and will happen between now and then.
Although impossible to know for certain, it seems unlikely that AV would have made any difference to the result in the Blackmoor Vale had it been used. Out of a total of 4133 votes cast for all candidates William Wallace topped the poll with 1421 votes and Tim Inglefield followed with 1305. Independent David Nichols secured 605, Richard Crabb grabbed 531 for the Lib Dems and Jo Penberthy brought up the rear with 271 for the Labour Party