Parish Elections: Shape of six new councils revealed

The major parties were the big winners on the night, with Labour and the Conservatives both clinching control of two councils each.

A strong showing in the urban areas saw Labour secure a majority of seats on the Central Swindon South and Central Swindon North Parish Councils with 15 and 12 seats respectively.

In West Swindon, the Conservatives exceeded expectations, taking seats in Toothill and Freshbrook to give themselves a majority on the counciil with 12 seats to Labour's three.

The newly created parish of St Andrews, split from Blunsdon in a move that angered some former councillors, went blue across the board giving the Conservatives a full house of all 11 available seats.

But two of the six new councils will see independents given a louder voice. None of the ten Blunsdon councillors who were elected unopposed prior to Thursday's ballot will serve under a party banner, making it a fully independent council.

In the enlarged Nythe, Eldene and Liden parish, no party has overall control with the Conservatives taking four seats, independent candidates three and Labour the remaining two.

The Liberal Democrat's only success came in the Eastcott ward of the Central Swindon South parish where they were able to clinch four out of the available five seats.

The Green Party and UKIP walked away empty handed after what was a disappointing performance for the smaller parties.

Labour's advantage in Central Swindon North was apparent even before the polls opened on Thursday morning.

The party saw eight candidates take up their seats in the uncontested wards of Even Swindon, Ferndale, Moredon and Pinehurst due to a lack of opposition from other parties.

Wins in a further four seats leave them in a strong position moving forward.

The remaining four seats were claimed by independents, one uncontested and three who fought off competition from the Greens and UKIP to claim victory in Penhill and Rodbourne Cheney.

One independent candidate who will take his seat on the council is Paul Exell who secured 439 votes.

Paul said: "I'm very pleased. I've been a parish councillor before and I'm not overly ecstatic about the way parishes have been imposed on the new areas.

"I felt it was important to bring a bit of experience on how parishes work, how they run, and to represent the people as an Independent.

"Parishes should be non-political, 'small p' politics not 'big P' politics."

In Central Swindon South, Labour held on to their heartlands in the Parks, Walcot, and up into Old Town, to secure a healthy majority with 15 out of 23 available seats.

Chris Watts stood in Park South, an area he already represents as a borough councillor, and clinched 565 votes.

Coun Watts has been the Chairman of the Shadow Central Swindon South Parish Council during the transition phase and says he is looking forward to continuing to build on the positive work achieved so far.

"I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout," he said. "We've been getting quite a positive response on the doors as well.

"Our priorities will be making sure that Park South isn't left out on the fringes. Making sure that they get all the services that are required - we'll be in there fighting for that."

While Labour were able to turn safe areas of support into seats on the two central parishes, they had more difficulty in parts of West Swindon where the Conservatives even surprised themselves by picking up more seats than they had hoped.

Matt Walker clinched a seat in Toothill which, along with a strong showing by John Lenton in Freshbrook, will bode well not only for the General Election in five weeks but also for next year's borough council contest.

The Conservatives secured 12 seats in the West Swindon parish in contrast to Labour's three. In addition to many new faces standing for the first time, there were also some familiar names on the ballot paper.

In her role as Swindon Borough Council's Cabinet Member for Communities, Mary Martin has been the leading figure in the rollout of the new parishes during what was not always a popular process.

She stood Westlea and secured the backing of residents alongside her Conservative colleague Suresh Gattapur.

"We had some really strong teams of people coming forward," said Coun Martin. "It's interesting to see how many new faces there are in the parishes, people who haven't necessarily put themselves forward for office in any capacity before.

"I'm passionate about local services and they were always the areas that were the most vulnerable to the nibbling away of budgets, the death by a thousand cuts.

"The parish council is a long term sustainable way of securing those local services. You only have to look now in West Swindon since we've moved to three-weekly grass cutting not four and the whole place looks instantly spruced up."

Coun Martin echoed the words of many of the other successful candidates when she pledged to work in a collaborative manner with colleagues from all parties and none at the parish level, an indication that once the rough and tumble of election season has passed the atmosphere on the councils will be significantly less tribal.

That will be music to the ears of the newly elected councillors in Nythe, Eldene and Liden where no one party has overall control.

The Conservatives hold the most seats with four of an available nine. Independents won three, while Labour clinched two.

Former Labour county councillor Brian Cockbill, now Independent, has been an outspoken campaigner on local issues for a number of years.

He was pleased to take his place alongside councillors from the larger parties and is determined to get his views across.

Mr Cockbill said his priorities are trying to persuade the new management at Thamesdown Transport to introduce a more efficient bus system and seeking a fund to help with housing the homeless.

Independents will also feature heavily in Blunsdon where there won't be any mainstream party representation on the council at all.

The same cannot be said for the other half of the formerly combined Blunsdon St Andrews parish.

Led by Vera Tomlinson, the Conservatives secured a clean sweep of all 11 available seats and they did so by some margin.

One might have been forgiven for getting the sense that the split between the two communities had created a bitter rivalry at the heart of the campaign but Coun Tomlinson argued it was kept as "friendly banter" throughout.

"I'm a great believer that the precept should be spent where it is raised, it shouldn't go to another part of the town," she said.

"Residents have been very supportive."

We'll have further reaction from the count, including from the three main party leaders, throughout the day on the Swindon Advertiser website.

The political makeup of the new councils can be seen below: