Elections 2023: Independents win Fenland villages

There were celebrations as two independents took seats in Elm and Christchurch on Fenland District Council.

Full result: Petya Kneksis (Con) 396; Boryana Pehlivanova (Con) – 317; Marian Phillips (Lab) – 211; Dal Roy (Ind) – 402; Matthew Summers (Ind) 447. Turn out 25.11%.

Dal Roy and Matthew Summers saw off challenges from both the Tories and the Labour party to win the villages.

There were also cheers when the Conservatives won the three seats in Whittlesey East, but it was a close run thing as independent Bob Wicks came within touching distance of winning one of the seats.

After the announcement of the results a victorious Chris Boden, who has been leader of Fenland District Council for the past four years, highlighted how the Conservatives in our district were bucking the national trend.

He said: “It has not been a great day for the Conservatives nationally, unfortunately local elections often mirror what’s going on at a national level. But here in Fenland we are one of the few areas in the country to see an increase in majority.

“Now the hard work begins to do our best for Fenland as a whole.”

Full result: Chris Boden (Con) – 698, Stephen Clay (Lab) – 302; David Habbin (Green) – 312; Alex Miscandlon (Con) – 631; Haq Nawaz (Con) – 579; Bob Wicks (Ind) – 520. Turn out 25.92.

The result for Whittlesey North West was: Peter Gilman (Lab) – 266; Dee Laws (Con) – 689; John Male (Green) – 247; Elisabeth Sennitt Clough (Con) – 597. There were two seats and Dee and Elisabeth were the winners. Turn out 25.95%.