Saturday 4 May 2013

Comment on the unitary council elections


I am very proud of the 26 MK members who stood for election to Cornwall Council. We polled well across Cornwall and managed a very credible series of results, though we are obviously disappointed that we failed to win a number of seats by a handful of votes.

Our candidates achieved a total of 6,824 votes. Four candidates were successful and the average vote-share was over 24% in those divisions contested by MK.

All three sitting councillors successfully defended their seats and each increased their share of the vote. I polled 834 votes in his my St Enoder division, ahead of a single independent opponent. My share of the vote equated to 87%, up from 78% in 2009. Andrew Long meanwhile managed 712 votes (61%) in Callington, up from 54% in 2009, while Loveday Jenkin amassed 751 votes (55%) in Crowan and Wendron, significantly higher than the 36% which she achieved in the 2011 by-election.

The highlight of the election was Matthew Luke’s win in Penwithick and Boscoppa. He managed 356 votes and defeated the sitting Liberal Democrat councillor (295 votes) and a Conservative challenger (165 votes).

Sadly a number of candidates missed out by a handful of votes.

In Fowey and Tywardreath, Fiona Carlyon fought an outstanding campaign. She managed 477 votes, out-polled a prominent local Conservative, but missed out by only 13 votes to the sitting Lib Dem councillor.

In Newlyn (East) and Goonhavern, Rod Toms also fought an amazing campaign and managed 529 votes – just 26 behind the Conservative.

And in Illogan, Stephen Richardson lost out to the sitting Conservative by only 41 votes – but out-polled Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP candidates.

In Camborne, hard-working town councillors Mike Champion and Alan Sanders also missed out. Both received a very positive response on the doorstep, but this did not materialise largely because of a late UKIP surge which strangely appears to have impacted on the MK vote. And although both finished in fourth place, Mike was only 28 votes short of success and Alan was only 32 votes behind the victor.

I am confident that we will be able to build on these results and we will be able to push MK to the next level.

4 comments:

cornubian said...

Would an alliance with the Greens have helped win a few extra seats?

kevin.bennetts@hotmail.com said...

I feel for you, so near yet ao far, despite the damage they have done to our Country of Cornwall the Lib Dems are still a force, can people not see through them what will it take?

Until Westminster politics is stifled in Cornwall we are going to stagnate, the Conservatives are running scared of UKIP and Labour may be crowing about more seats but given their clout it was still a poor show for them.

The focus must be on housing and infrastructure not artificial growth through deliberate inward migration, the damage that the Lib Dems have done to us all must be clinicaly and ruthlessly exposed.

Kevin Bennetts

Unknown said...

Green supporters did contact me to offer support as there was no Green candidate. Perhaps just an agreement whereby we endorse each other where we are not opposing. There's still masses to do on getting the message out there; many believe we are a one policy party and that policy is 'Cornwall for the Cornish'. The exclusivity of the name Mebyon Kernow is a barrier fromk the outset. Well done to those who stood and especially those who won, it's inspirational. DGX

cornubian said...

David,

I'm sure on an unofficial basis support was offered in both directions, and who knows, perhaps with others parties as well. However election flyers, posters and a general campaign with both MK and the Greens clearly displayed together under the title Cornwall Ecology (for example) would have had a lot more impact on the public. It would have gone some way of combating the 'Cornwall for the Cornish' xenophobic and one-trick-horse images that seem to cling to MK. Putting the Greens alongside MK would stop people and make them think twice about their preconceptions. How could MK be seen as xenophobioc or right-wing if in alliance with the Greens? How many seats did we miss out on by just a small number of votes? Couldn't surfing on the higher profile of the Greens - plus the challenging of preconceptions brought about by such a progressive ecological alliance - have tipped the balance in some places?