REFORM might have been the biggest winner following the Worcestershire County Council elections on May 1, with 27 seats, but they were two seats short of having overall control.
The biggest losers were the Conservatives, who went from being the party in control of Shire Hall with 45 councillors to a humble 12.
Council leader Simon Geraghty lost his Worcester seat after nearly ten years which went to Tor Pingree – one of eight which are now in the hands of the Greens.
The Liberal Democrats are two behind on six seats with Labour and Independent on two apiece.
Reform, mirroring the national picture, picked up wins in each council division. This was notable in Redditch, where every single one of the eight previously Conservative seats went to Nigel Farage’s party.
In Wychavon, however, the Tories fared much better. A visibly relieved Emma Kearsey was delighted to keep her Conservative seat in Broadway, as were her fellow councillors, Adrian Hardman for Bredon, and Linda Robinson for Upton Snodsbury.
They remain the majority party in the area, despite losing seats to Reform, the Liberal Democrats, and the Greens. Reform might have had one more, had it not been for an extraordinary dead heat of 889 votes between its candidate and the Greens’ prospective councillor for Littletons.
The outcome was decided by drawing both candidates’ names out of a box by deputy returning officer Vic Allison, with fortune smiling on the Greens’ Hannah Robson, the current district councillor.
Robson admitted the process had been ‘terrifying’ and was ‘a little bit in shock’ after the outcome but noted that candidates had to work with the official process. “I am very, very pleased and can’t wait to work for the community even more,” she said. While canvassing, her message on the door was that ‘people want something different’ and promised to work with other Greens to make the change she believes the party can offer.
Her priorities for the Littletons division are traffic issues, working with education and schools, and forging closer ties with other district councillors, regardless of political stance.
Michele Hulme said she was feeling ‘ecstatic’ on winning the Evesham South for Reform from incumbent Conservative Emma Stokes who trailed in third place. She said she was very grateful to all her supporters and voters and added that her party’s unprecedented success was unremarkable.
“It’s no surprise to most people who don’t listen to [anything] other than the BBC that Reform are smashing it across the country at these elections,” she said. “We’ll work really hard to get value for taxpayers’ money and listen and act on what our people are telling us, what our supporters and everybody want.”
She added her chief concerns in Evesham were the college closing and examining the financial details of the Hampton Bridge project, and said “there are better things to spend money on.”
It was a double Reform win for Evesham as Sam Bastow took Evesham North West, knocking out longstanding county representative Mark Goodge by a clear 227-vote margin. Harvington also went to Reform with Satinder Bell elected with a narrow 53 majority over the Conservative candidate.
Win of the day went to Dan Boatright-Greene who held on to his Pershore seat for the Liberal Democrats with a massive 1,393 majority over nearest rival Reform.
A tired and exhausted Boatright-Greene said: “I always assume as a Lib Dem there is no such thing as a safe seat, you’ve got to go out there and present what you [have been] doing for the past four years and make sure people are on side.
“My party has got to learn that we can win here if we go and show people that there is an alternative.”
Results for the four other Wychvaon divisions are as follows:
Bowbrook, Peter Jewell – Reform UK
Droitwich East, Daniel Birch – Conservative
Droitwich West, Richard Morris – Conservative
Ombersley, Tony Miller – Conservative
Sam Bastow also gained a seat on Evesham Town Council following a by-election for Bengeworth Ward.
