For me and for Oxted South.
On Thursday 3 May I was elected to Tandridge District Council. In doing so I defeated a Labour Councillor of 17 years standing, on a 19.8% swing, turning a Labour majority of 170 into a Conservative one of 249. In a night of dramatic results elsewhere in the country, my ward was the only one to change hands locally.
The full result was:
Simon Ainsworth Con 987
Robin Harling Lab 738
Brigid McIntosh LibDem 232
Tony Stone UK Ind 179
Spoilt 11
Turnout 49.20%
The question is now elected what do I do now? With an established Conservative leadership and an already successfully run authority, what can I bring to the party?
Well hopefully I will know more when it is decided what committees I'm on (for the anoraks our there - as a relatively small district council Tandridge still runs on a committee based rather than executive led model). However, my aim is to effectively represent the interests of my constituents and communicate with them on the issues facing the Oxted/HurstGreen/Merle Common area of Surrey.
Certainly when out campaigning the issues that interest people locally were local ones - what can we do to recycle more, why can't the roads be better maintained and what can we do to stop overdevelopment from overwhelming our infrastructure.
