North East Essex Liberal Democrats celebrate election results

North East Essex Liberal Democrats are celebrating the results of last week's elections in Colchester. The local party covers the rural areas of Colchester within the Harwich & North Essex parliamentary constituency, as well as the entirety of Tendring District, which did not have local elections.

We were very pleased to secure the re-election of Mark Cory to serve the residents of Wivenhoe for a further three years. Wivenhoe Cross, his old ward, had been merged with the Labour-held ward of Wivenhoe Quay to form a three member ward covering the whole village. Despite this, Mark managed to finish second - just 13 votes short of topping the poll. Indeed, the Liberal Democrats came second overall in the ward,* with Sanchia Nash also performing well. We would like to offer our congratulations to Mark, Sanchia, Alex Hale and the Wivenhoe Lib Dem team, and our thanks to the Wivenhoe electorate for placing their trust in us.

Elsewhere, North East Essex Liberal Democrat candidates achieved second place behind the Conservatives in both Lexden & Braiswick (which includes the parishes of Aldham, Eight Ash Green, and West Bergholt) and Rural North wards,* securing our status as the main opposition party in the rural northern area of the borough. We would like to thank those voters who supported us, and promise to work on your behalf to help secure a fairer borough for everyone.

Across the borough as a whole, the results illustrated that the party is well on the way to recovery. Last year, we won just 3 out 20 seats, but this year we won 15 out of 51 and came very close to taking a further 3 - a significant improvement. This shows that the people of Colchester continue to place their faith in the Liberal Democrat led administration, and that the Tory alternative has been thoroughly rejected. Cllr Paul Smith told the that 'The Conservatives have had a bad night - they are the biggest losers […] this is a significant change in the fortunes of the Liberal Democrats - a party which many people were writing off. Clearly the electorate has decided no single party has a mandate to run the council, and we stand ready to work with other parties to provide a forward looking administration that will drive the borough into a prosperous, thriving community where everyone will share in the benefits.'

North East Essex Liberal Democrats look forward to working with the rest of the Colchester Liberal Democrat team to help deliver this vision.

* Based on average vote per candidate for each party.