THERE were plenty of smiles on Conservative members’ faces after they strengthened their position on Malvern Hills District Council.
Last Thursday’s (May 7) election saw the Tories pick up a further two seats, meaning 23 of the 38 councillors will now represent the party on the council.
There was disappointment for former Conservative leader David Hughes, however, as he was ousted from his Alfrick and Leigh seat by Independent Sarah Rouse.
Aside from that, Coun Melanie Baker said it was an ‘absolutely fabulous’ result for the party which had been making the key decisions at the Council House since 2007.
“I don’t think I have ever smiled so much for so long in my life. I feel elated,” she said.
“Based on the feedback we were getting on the doorstep when we were going out to meet the electorate we thought that we would still retain control of the council.
“I had predicted the amount of seats we got but actually lost some we didn’t expect to lose and we gained some we didn’t expect so its swung around a bit.
“I’m so proud of them as they’ve worked so hard and deserve all the seats they’ve won.”
The Independents got the next best result with seven councillors elected while the Green Party got three and Julian Roskams, leader of the Democratic Group, confirmed they would continued to join forces.
“We met on Saturday to decide whether we still want to be a group because most of the group are independent so they are free to do what they like,” he said.
“But we have decided we will continue to sit together.
“As a group, we had ten councillors before and we have ten councillors now and that’s quite an achievement given what happened nationally.
“Elsewhere in the country the Conservatives picked up a lot more seats than they did here, so for us to have held our position I think is a very good sign.”
The Liberal Democrats lost six of the seats which they won in 2011, but Coun Tom Wells still felt his group bucked the national trend as it had five councillors elected.
“It was something of a relief given the national situation to find ourselves with a local Government base in Malvern and I think that is testament of our candidates,” he said.
“We are a very tight-knit group of five very committed councillors who will look to play a meaningful role on the council.”
