HARLOW: Conservatives sweep to power in "disastrous" night for Labour

1:35am Friday 2nd May 2008

The Conservatives have won a decisive victory in local elections - captialising on a disastrous night for Labour and sweeping into power in Harlow.

Overall the Tories took eight of the ten seats up for election - with the Liberal Democrats taking the other two seats.

Meanwhile Labour candidates could only look on as result after result saw them slipping from power.

The vote means that the new look council will comprise of 18 Conservatives, eight Lib Dems and six Labour councillors.

Overall the Tories gained Little Parndon and Hare Street, Netteswell, Staple Tye, and Toddbrook wards.

The night held a few surprises for each party, including the shock result of the Little Parndon and Hare Street vote, which saw popular Labour Councillor Mike Danvers ousted by his Tory rival Shona Johnson who squeaked through with just a 121 vote margin between the two.

Speaking after the announcement, Mrs Johnson said she was "shocked and excited" by the result.

She said: "This is a great day for me, I'm really excited and am looking forward to doing my best for the people in Little Parndon and Hare Street."

Lib Dem candidate Manny Doku took the Bush Fair ward, while Conservative Cllr Simon Carter retained his Church Langley seat with a gap of 1,100 votes between him and his nearest rival, the Labour candidate Ken Lawrie.

He was joined by Tory party stalwart Cllr Eddie Johnson who received 1,164 votes in the Great Parndon Ward election - trouncing his Labour opponent, who received just 478 votes.

The evening dragged for Labour who lost the Mark Hall ward, which was snapped up by Liberal Democrat candidate Nick Macy.

Netteswell Lib Dem cllr Ian Jackson fell from grace with the voters- losing his seat to Conservative Mark Gough.

New faces amongst the blues included 22-year old Joel Charles,who took the Toodbrook Ward.

Mr Charles said he was looking forward to "getting on with the job"

Labour Group Leader Cllr Tony Durcan said he was "shocked and disappointed" with the results.

He said: "We knew we were going to be in for a difficult night but this is very disappointing. We campaigned on important local issues like keeping weekly bin collections and building new council houses, but clearly our message didn't get across strongly enough."

He issued a warning to the Conservatives that Labour would be watching them closely.

He said: "They will now take on the big challenge of running Harlow Council and I can promise that we will be an extremely effective and tough opposition."

Lib Dem Group Leader Chris Millington said he would be interested to see how the Tories coped with the responsibility of power.

He said; "We intend to be a vociferous opposition - we will not sit back and let them get away with anything."

He added:" I'm disappointed in the loss of Ian Jackson - he is a fantastic councilor and a true ambassador for the town."

Conservative Leader Andrew Johnson was jubilant at the result, saying:" I'm thrilled by it. Harlow is indicative of the national situation. We've won here, we're going to form the next Government, Robert Halfon is going to be our next MP and Bill Rammell will soon be finding out what it's like to be on the dole."

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