In an extraordinary swing which reflects results across the country, the Liberal Democrats have gained 18 seats in the new Somerset West and Taunton District Council, while the Conservatives have lost 28, independents have gained 10, Labour and Greens have gained one each and UKIP has lost two. This give the Lib Dems overall control of the council, with 30 seats to 29 for all the rest combined. The Conservatives now have just 10 seats.
The good news in our ward is that we now have two active councillors, Phil Stone and Sue Buller, though the massive workload Phil has been carrying for the last four years may not decrease much since the ward is now much bigger. The numbers here were as follows:
—Sue Buller (Lib Dem) 1,090
—William Coombes (Conservative) 455
—Debbie House (Conservative) 443
—Phil Stone (Lib Dem) 1,362
The more disappointing news is that there was no Parish Council election in Stoke this time round, since there were only 8 nominations for 9 seats. We are looking for someone to fill the missing seat by co-option. If you are interested, please inform any councillor or our new Parish Clerk Kelly de Silva (contact details on the councillors page).