Elections 2011: Priory Park

Priory Park:

This was an emphatic Conservative win at District and at Town Council level. Even with a combined Liberal Democrat/Labour vote of past years would touch the Conservatives here. This makes Priory Park a Conservative safe seat.

The Town Council result:

The Town ward is fought under a smaller boundary. The District Priory Park Ward contains the Town Council Priory Park Wards and the East Ward. Therefore this must now be considered a safe Conservative ward at Town Council level. Ian Gardner was also elected to Grafham Parish Council.

Previous elections

The 2010 District elections results:

This was in combination with the 2010 General Election. Therefore a much higher turnout.

The 2007 District elections results:

The 2007 Town Council results:

Local Elections: Priory Park

This is a Conservative/Liberal Democrat marginal. The District ward covers much of the north east of St Neots plus Love's Farm. The Town ward excludes Love's Farm which has its own Town ward. There are 4 seats up for election at the Town Council elections in this ward.

The Town Candidates (excluding Love's Farm) for the 4 seats are:

With only 3 Liberal Democrats standing in this 4 seat ward this gives the Conservatives 1 seat. For the Conservatives Barry Chapman is already a District Councillor. Ian Gardner has been brought in from Grafham. For the Liberal Democrats District Councillor Kendal Cooper is standing in both elections. Standing down is Bob Eaton, Alan Cummings and Leigh Ottotangui.  Martin Land, Agent, is having to stand to make up the numbers.

The 2010 District elections results:

This was in combination with the 2010 General Election. Therefore a much higher turnout.

The 2007 District elections results:

The 2007 Town Council results:

A little confusion....

I always wondered in which District ward Love's Farm was in. Looking at the Election Maps website I found this:

This had the Love's Farm in Gransden and The Offords Ward. I therefore wrote to the Electoral Services Department at HDC and received this reply:

"This development does fall with Gransden and the Offords Ward not Priory Park.  I will check with our web people as to the state of the maps."

Having been informed by HDC that Love's Farm development was in the Gransden and The Offords ward. Then there was a bit of a spat on the St Neots Forum which said Love's Farm was in the Priory Park ward.

Later I found the following changes on the Election Maps website:

So the Election Maps website has changed its website to show Love's Farm in the Priory Park ward.

Local Election results held on 6th May

Conservatives/Liberal Democrats swap seats

St Neots Eynesbury - Liberal Democrat Gain

The difference between a proper campaign with a candidate out campaigning is illustrated here. The Conservatives hardly did anything round here. Well done Steve!

Party	2010 Vote	2008 Vote	+/-	2010 %	2008%	+/-
Conservative	1632	Elected - 1031	+601	35.9	54.9	-19.0
Liberal Democrat	Elected - 2007	666	+1341	44.1	35.4	+8.7
Labour	539	182	+357	11.8	9.7	+2.1
UKIP	375	0	+375	8.2	0	+8.2
Total	4553	1879
Majority

Priory Park - Conservative Gain

Party	2010 Vote	2008 Vote	+/-	2010 %	2008%	+/-
Conservative	Elected - 1625	726	+899	49.4	46.4	+3.0
Liberal Democrat	1322	Elected - 742	+580	40.2	47.4	-7.2
Labour	341	96	+245	10.4	6.2	+4.2
Total	3288	1564
Majority	303

The Conservatives did well to take this marginal seat.

Local Elections for 6th May 2010?

If the elections are held on 6th May 2010 (so long as Gordon Brown doesn't mess this up by holding the elections in tandem on 3rd June 2010) we will have local elections in two of the four wards in St Neots. The seats due up are 1 in Eynesbury and 1 in Priory Park. Eaton Socon and Eaton Ford are not due to vote at the locals.

The Eynesbury ward seat is currently held by the Conservative Andrew Gilbert. He is also standing in Birkenhead for the Conservative Party against Frank Field (Labour) at the General Election. So I'm not too sure how much effort he will put into Eynesbury this time round. When the seat was last fought in 2008 the Conservatives won with a majority of 365. This would be hard for the Liberal Democrats to overturn. But with the right strategy Liberal Democrat candidate Cllr Steve Van de Kerkhove could win.

The Priory Park ward is far, far closer. The Liberal Democrats won the seat in 2007 with a majority of just 16. With Liberal Democrat Cllr Bob Eaton up for election this will mean a hard fought ward. But that is if the Liberal Democrats aren't packed off to Huntingdon again!

The trouble is this is very likely to be in tandem with a General Election. It will be very likely that in both seats it will be those who vote for either The Green Party or UKIP who will decide the local elections. To my mind, the local Liberal Democrats should be fighting the Conservatives on Djanogly and the mess the Conservatives have made of HDC.

At this election I'm voting: