City Council Election Last Night

After one of the longest election nights ever in the City, the result is that The Labour Party lost one seat to the Conservatives in Bushbury.

In Wednesfield North Conservative Candidate David Bourne retained their seat defeating Gwen Stafford Good The Labour Party Candidate into second place.

It was a long night made worse by a pretty miserable counting system that was long and tortuous and finished after 2.00am. There was a lot of frustration in the room, and the inquest that will surely follow this morning between the political leaderships of the contesting political parties, and the Returning Officer will likely be somewhat fraught.

Whilst all the individuals that had offered themselves to the count were heroes, and had a long and arduous night themselves. The system that the Returning Officer and the electoral officials used was laborious and very ineffective. Several times during the night there were cat calls and even a loud burst of singing " Why are we waiting!"

I do not think that the City will have covered itself in glory after such an arrangement.....people were very frustrated!

In Springvale Malcolm Gwinett once of the Liberal Democrats, but following a dust-up with the Leadership of the Group stood as a Liberal....are you still with me? then defeated the Liberal Democrat candidate who had been recruited to replace him!

So what you have is a Liberal Democrat loss...and a Liberal gain! I had to appeal for calm between the two opposing sides as their frustration burst into some very aggressive anti liberal type verbals after the Returning Officer had declared the result.

Mary and I did not get out of the Civic Centre and return home until nearly 3.00am! and that was after a long and stressful day without even one soothing alcoholic drink!

Whilst it has not been the best result that the Labour Party has ever had in the region and across the country, there is no doubt that Labour here in Wolverhampton has had quite a positive night losing just one seat and retaining control of the City Council.