Tories ready to rule

is made up

Conservatives 19

Health Concern 8

Liberal Party 8

Labour 4

Liberal Democrats 2

Independent 1

THE Conservatives are preparing to take charge of Wyre Forest District Council for the first time in 15 years after sweeping to victory in the polls.

The council is poised to return to the hands of the Tories after the party took 19 out of the council's 42 seats at last Thursday's vote.

Although the party does not have a majority of councillors needed to push through every Conservative policy, rival parties have indicated they would not be interested in joining together to form their own coalition administration.

This gives the Conservatives a two-year shot at running the council.

Tory leader Stephen Clee said he was thrilled with the party's election gains - eight more councillors - and said members were eager to put in place its manifesto pledges.

Mr Clee, who was swiftly re-elected as party leader after the results were announced last Friday, said: "Our first task is to sort out the car parking fiasco in Kidderminster. I had a two-hour meeting with the council's chief executive and have asked for a paper on that immediately from officers."

Yet Mr Clee said Conservative councillors - of whom nine are new - would not have their vision for the district dictated by council officers.

He said: "Members will now make the decisions.

"The chief executive is under no illusion that we say what we want to do and the officers implement our policies."

Taking a swipe at Health Concern - which ran the council for the past two years - Mr Clee said: "The previous administration didn't have any policies and they just did what the officers wanted to do.

"An example of this was making the wheelie bin collection fortnightly for the introduction of kerbside recycling. We are going to carry out a thorough investigation on refuse collection because there is great unrest in the community over the fortnightly collection."

The success of the Conservatives' policies - which includes bringing a cinema to Kidderminster and redeveloping the former British Sugar site - will depend upon the support of the rest of council.

While the 23 other councillors are unlikely to form an opposition coalition similar to one established in 2001, they could still unite to vote down Tory ideas.

Liberal Party leader Fran Oborski said: "Every item and policy will be taken on its merits. It is a case of they are a minority so they will have to fight for every policy they want to bring in."

Labour leader Jamie Shaw said his four-councillor group would not move to stop the Tories by forming a coalition with other parties but would seek to "mobilise a majority" against Conservative policies it disagreed with.

The Tories have returned to power for the first time since the Conservative administration of 1988/89. Health Concern took control in 2002 with 21 councillors but is now left with eight - and no leader.

Jill Fairbrother-Millis has taken over from party and council leader Howard Martin, who lost his seat, until the group meets on June 26 to elect a new leader.

The annual meeting of the council will be held on June 30, where the make-up of the administration will be determined, along with the leader and chairman of the council.

Tories give Health Concern the blues

THE tables have been turned on Health Concern after the party's representation plummeted on Wyre Forest District Council and the rival Conservatives secured the lion's share of the seats.

The party, formed during the battle to save Kidderminster Hospital, lost control of the council after its number of seats fell for the second year in a row - but with a far more devastating effect as all 42 council seats were up for grabs at last Thursday's polls.

Health Concern, which ran the council for the past two years, lost seven seats as voters turfed out high profile party names, with group and council leader, Howard Martin, one of the major casualties.

Fellow councillors, Keith Robertson, Dr Howard Eeles, Marian Spragg, Anthony Greenfield and former council leader, Liz Davies, all lost their seats, leaving the party only eight members - close to its first election showing of seven councillors in 1999.

At the same time, the Tories increased their standing by eight seats to a final tally of 19, a massive turnaround over the previous five years, when the party struggled with as few as five councillors.

Taking into account defections which have hit both parties during the past year, the Tories have increased their numbers by 10 since last May's district elections, with Health Concern down by 11 seats.

Last Thursday's results - which came amid widespread expectations of Health Concern losses - saw Labour and the Liberal Democrats keep the same number of seats as before, with four and two respectively.

The Liberal Party boosted its numbers by one - giving it the same number of councillors as Health Concern.

The Liberals strengthened their overall position in Kidderminster by retaining all of the Offmore and Comberton ward seats, and grabbing an extra one with new face, Amanda Poole, in Broadwaters and clinching all three seats in Greenhill.

Tony Hinton, who defected from Health Concern to the Tories earlier this year, left Greenhill to fight in Broadwaters but was not elected. He was the only Conservative sitting councillor to lose on the night and the Tories lost out in both wards.

Conservative gains came thick and fast. Louise Edginton won her seat back in Bewdley and Arley, although the party could not depose Health Concern's Mavis Baillie, who pushed out Mrs Edginton in 2000.

While Lickhill stayed solid Health Concern, the party's three-councillor grip over Franche was broken. With two Health Concern sitting councillors not seeking re-election, the Tories clinched two seats, pushing Health Concern leader, Howard Martin, into fourth position. He was beaten, by six votes, by his own party's Mike Shellie, back on the council after losing his place in 2002.

Health Concern stalwarts, Dr Howard Eeles and former council leader, Liz Davies, lost in Habberley/Blakebrook and could only sit and watch as the Tories re-entered the ward, gained a seat in Wribbenhall and beat off Health Concern competition to win all three seats in Sutton Park.

The results will see 14 new faces on the authority- a third of the council.

Ousted leader's scathing

attack on 'promises'

FALLEN Health Concern leader Howard Martin left his position as council leader with a parting shot at the Tories, calling their manifesto "undeliverable" and citing the victorious party's massive election campaign as a chief reason for his group's poor showing.

The former Franche councillor, whose exit from the council was the shock of the election, said: "The Tories have got two years to cock it up, if they are going to. Their manifesto will not be deliverable - people will be saying in a few years, what did we vote for?"

He added: "I think they are going to have a very hard job delivering what they promised and the electorate will soon find that out. Local government should not be about national political parties. It should be about local issues and local people working for the local community. It is about power for the Conservatives.

"Just because someone is running for a political party doesn't mean they are right for the job. Also, with so many new names, there will be a lot of people on a learning curve and I think that could be bad for the district."

He said the overwhelming might of the campaign waged by the Tories - the only party to put forward candidates for every one of the 42 seats - had hit Health Concern hard.

"The Conservative Party have campaigned very robustly and it is very difficult for an individual of a small political party group to compete with the Tory political machine."

He said there were "40 Tories" in Franche on Thursday night, ferrying voters to polling stations to meet the 10pm deadline to vote. "That's fine, that's politics, but not something I want to be part of," he said.

Mr Martin questioned Tory manifesto pledges, especially that of bringing a cinema to Kidderminster, and raised fears that Health Concern initiatives, such as the redevelopment of the British Sugar site, the installation of CCTV in Kidderminster and making Kidderminster Town Hall an arts centre, would not be carried through.

Tory leader Stephen Clee, meanwhile, hailed the party's success. He said: "We predicted that we were going to win the largest number of seats. It was always going to be in doubt if we would get a majority but I am delighted with the outcome - it lived up to our expectations.

"If other political parties put the effort in like we did, by canvassing nearly every day, then they may have had the success that we had."

Mr Clee said the electorate had felt "let down" by Health Concern, which, in turn, had become "complacent". Yet he paid tribute to Mr Martin as someone who had "tried to run a reasonable administration" faced with a party that "doesn't have a manifesto of it's own".

Holding up the cinema issue and parking in Kidderminster as Tory priorities, he said: "There is an enormous task to sort out some of the problems in Kidderminster and I relish the opportunity and challenge of sorting out what has been left behind by the previous administration."

Mr Clee ruled out the party's success as a protest vote against the national Labour Government - he said the Iraq war was not mentioned once by voters doorstepped by the party.

Another major Health Concern casualty was Liz Davies, Mr Martin's predecessor as council leader who lost her Habberley and Blakebrook seat.

She said: "I am very philosophical about it. I am sad but, at the end of the day, the voters have spoken and I have to accept it.

"The Conservatives have worked extremely hard - they have mustered their troops and got people on the streets and got results from it.

"Health Concern have suffered because we didn't take part in the dirty tricks campaign. We stuck to our principle of positive messages only - we have never knocked (other parties) and never will."

Trend is reversed by 38pc turnout

CONSERVATIVES scooped more than a third of the vote during the district elections, putting the party 8,000 ahead of nearest rivals Health Concern.

The victorious group - which won 19 seats at last Thursday's poll - took 38 per cent of the votes cast with 26,373. Health Concern, which held onto eight seats, managed 26 per cent of the vote with 17,650.

The Conservatives were the only party to put up a candidate for all 42 seats on the council, while Health Concern had put forward 27.

Although Labour (16%) took almost 3,000 more votes than the Liberal Party (12%), it only retained four seats, while Liberal councillors took up eight posts. The Liberals had put forward nine councillors and Labour submitted 24.

The seven Liberal Democrat candidates took six per cent of the whole vote, as the party retained its sitting councillors, Peter and Helen Dyke.

Voters reversed the turnout trend for the district elections, which last year slumped to its lowest for five years, at just under 31 per cent.

This year the overall turnout came in at 38.83 per cent as voters went to the polls for what was the most significant district council election since 1979, and to vote in elections for the European Parliament.

Wolverley again made the highest turnout, with 54.36 per cent. The lowest turnout was in Oldington and Foley Park, with 31.56 per cent.

I have a bit of fuel left, says Independent

A FAMILIAR face has returned to the district council - clawing back a seat snatched from him during the first wave of Health Concern victories.

Independent John Simmonds is district councillor for Rock again following what he described as a four-year "sabbatical," imposed when outspoken Health Concern candidate, Reg Johnstone, took the seat.

Mr Simmonds, who had been on the council since its inception in 1974, said he was thrilled to be back.

He explained: "I have had a nice rest and came back because I have a bit of fuel left in the tank and I still have a feeling for it.

"Since I have not been a district councillor I have still been doing quite a lot of work. People have come to me with questions and problems and I couldn't just pass them on and say I am no longer a councillor because I felt I was a councillor, even though I wasn't on the council."

Mr Simmonds said he did not take his re-election bid "for granted" when faced with the Tory election machine - which had put forward the only other candidate for the ward.

He beat Conservative, Douglas Godwin, by 68 votes.

Health Concern's Dr Johnstone left the district earlier this year and the party did not put forward another candidate for the ward.

Now the only independent on the council, Mr Simmonds said: "I will take the district into account, of course, as a whole and generally support things like car parking and hospitals but my number one interest is the people I represent. I think politics interfere with that."

Former Labour mayor is back

LABOUR held on to its four seats on the council - but only after saying goodbye to one of its members.

Albert Adams - who was elected to Areley Kings in 2002 - was ousted by the Tories' Michael Partridge, ending up seventh out of the ward's eight candidates.

Labour leader, Jamie Shaw, retained his seat in the ward and his party managed to claw one seat back, with stalwart and former Kidderminster mayor Mike Kelly winning in Habberley and Blakebrook.

Mr Kelly nudged into second place in the three-seat ward - where Labour's Lynn Hyde was re-elected with the most votes - after a recount found 50 votes for Mr Kelly had been placed in a Conservative pile.

Conservative Arthur Buckley took the third seat.

Labour veteran, Jim Cooper, and constituency chairman, Keith Budden, failed to get on the council, although Cookley's Chris Nicholls again swept to victory, for his 13th year .

Lost seat after quitting party

A FORMER Tory who left the party with a stinging attack on its Wyre Forest leader lost his district council re-election bid - to a Conservative.

Nigel Addison said he was "philosophical" about his defeat in Wolverley, which came just over a year after being elected for the Tories and three months after his departure.

Mr Addison - who had slammed party leader Stephen Clee over his stance on the closure of a Wolverley special school - lost by 71 votes to Malcolm Hazlewood.

Mr Addison said: "I am disappointed, obviously, but philosophical about it. There is a lot of work in the ward that I have started which I hope he continues and makes sure the people of Wolverley get the representation they deserve.

"Independents are a one-man band - I have had to do it all alone so I couldn't compete on the campaign side. I tried and I think I did extremely well to pool that many votes."

Mr Hazlewood - who celebrated a double win on Friday after also being elected to Wolverley and Cookley Parish Council - said: "Nigel has been a friend for a long time. He has his own issues and he chose to go on his own. I am sure I can work on the projects Nigel was involved in.

"I have won because of the time that has been put in - we have all put in a lot of effort."

Mr Clee said: "Wolverley has come home. At the end of the day, the electorate has voted for the best man. Malcolm lives in the heart of community, he is an intelligent man and will make a first class district councillor."

Mr Addison became an independent candidate after leaving the party in March, in protest over the Tory vote at Worcestershire County Council to close Alexander Patterson Special School. Mr Clee, he said, should have done everything in his power to make sure the school remained open.

He defeated Labour's John Wardle at last May's district council elections.