Thursday 3rd May 2018 will go down as an historic night for local Conservatives in Bedworth. Last Thursday the Conservatives in the town stunned Labour to take four out of the five Borough Council seats up for grabs at the elections. This means the Conservatives now hold half of the Borough Council seats in the town - an achievement that helped tipped the balance of power at the Town Hall from a comfortable Labour majority to one where the balance of power is on a knife edge.
Conservative candidates won seats in the town's Slough, Heath, Poplar and Exhall wards and missed taking the final seat, Bede Ward, by an agonising 28 votes. The wins represent an historic high for the Conservatives on the Borough Council as they have previously only ever had a maximum of 3 seats at any one time in the nearly four decade history of the Council.
Commenting on the election results local Party Chairman, Damon Brown, commented,
'Make no mistake this is a massive victory for the Conservative Party in Bedworth. To take four out of the five possible seats in a town that people traditionally regard as a safe Labour area is no mean feat. We ran a fantastic campaign over many months with a dedicated and active group of candidates and supporters that worked together as a team. We listened to residents across the town and built a positive campaign that focused on the issues that matter to local people.
Labour, on the other hand ran an almost totally negative campaign so the choice for voters at the polls was between our positive message and negativity from Labour. I am pleased that the people of Bedworth voted overwhelmingly for our positive message. Crucial to our campaign was the issue of Labour's Borough Housing Plan, which is seen by local people as trying to build too many houses in the wrong places in the town, especially in locations that threaten the local greenbelt. What came across in countless conversations on the doorsteps was that people feel their views about local development, the need for infrastructure and protection of the greenbelt are being ignored by an arrogant Labour Party intent on pushing through their plans irrespective of local opposition.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Bedworth for placing their faith in the Conservatives. We'll work hard to show that their faith was not misplaced.'