Labour joy at holding county seat in Stanwell

Jun 5 2009 By Mark Goode

Victor Agarwal (centre) with Gill Gray and Harold Trace

LABOUR members in Spelthorne have expressed their joy in retaining a seat in the Surrey County Council elections.

Stanwell and Stanwell Moor incumbant, Victor Agarwal, bucked a national anti-Labour trend to retain his county council seat following a count at Spelthorne Leisure Centre in Knowle Green, Staines, today. 

Mr Agarwal, a lifelong Stanwell resident, expressed his joy at being re-elected and pledged to continue to pressure housing provider A2 Dominion keep up to date with repairs, and tackle the issues of anti-social behaviour.

Speaking about the possibility of losing to the Conservatives, he said: "It was certainly a worry because the thing is when there is a one party majority it is not healthy because there will be no debate."

Mr Agarwal won 1414 of the votes, with Conservative candidate Joshua Jogo a close second with 1063 votes. Liberal Democrat Andrew McLusky received 658 votes, with 34.7% of the electorate voting.

Staines candidate Harold Trace, who lost after receiving 397 votes in his division, was very happy that one Labour candidate came into office.

He said: "One Labour candidate in Surrey is better than none, and now at least democracy has a voice, because if you don't have an opposition voice you don't have a democracy."

The Liberal Democrats retained their Sunbury Ashford Common post when Ian Beardsmore was elected for his third county term with 2252 votes.

The Lib Dems also prospered in Sunbury and Haliford division where she received 2434 votes, with conservative Tim Evans coming second with 1314 votes.

But it was the Conservatives who won in the other divisions.

Richard Walsh beat current independent county councillor Laurie Burrell by more than a thousand votes with a safe 1871 votes.

A Spelthorne borough councillor from 1983-91, he said: "I feel very happy and obviously looking forward to the next four years. I wasn't expecting to win, but I was hoping to win, but there were four other candidates so I was a bit nervous."

Staines south and Ashford West councillor Denise Turner-Stewart got awarded with a second term with 1742 votes.

Carole Coleman, conservative councillor for Ashford also got re-elected with 2180 votes, and Staines councillor got re-elected for a third time with 2318 votes – the most she has ever received.

Full Spelthorne elections results on page 2