Last week’s elections were tremendous. Green Councillors Derek Eagle (Sutton Valence and Langley) and Stephen Thompson (Detling and Thurnham) joined me on Maidstone Borough Council and we will be working with three like minded independent councillors too. We had very near misses in Marden and Yalding where Mick Summersgill’s 35% was just 5% behind the Conservatives and in Coxheath and Hunton where Claire Kehily was also 5% from winning with 38% of the vote.
In Allington we achieved a 17% increase in our vote after a tremendous effort by Rachel Rodwell plus in Fant and Bearsted we achieved second places.
Across Kent we won an additional 21 seats bringing our total number of councillors to 52. This includes being the largest party on Folkestone and Hythe where we are currently negotiating an administration.
Nationally, we gained 201 councillors bring the total to 738 and we took full control of Mid Suffolk council where 70% seats were won by Greens. We gained at the hands of some significant conservative losses – taking a net 155 seats from the Tories. Lewes District Council, where the Greens are already in administration, saw the Greens become the largest party. The Conservatives were completely wiped out in Lewes, going from the largest group to having no councillors at all.
A huge thank you to everyone across the Borough who helped leafleting, door knocking, donating, putting a poster up and of course, voting for your Green candidate. Our local successes were down to you!
Yours,
Cllr Stuart Jeffery
Maidstone Green Party
