Tories win seats in town council by-elections in March and Chatteris

Two Fenland town councils each have a new councillor following by-elections held yesterday.

In March well-known businessman, and a former town mayor, Rob Skoulding was re-elected to represent the March East Ward.

It was a straight race between Conservative Mr Skoulding, and Labour’s Angela Mayes. Mr Skoulding polled 74% of the votes cast, winning 454 votes to Ms Mayes’ 152.

However, less than a quarter of those eligible to vote bothered to do so.

The vacancy for March East followed the resignation by Stuart Harris, a Conservative, who was in danger of being forced off the town council for failing to turn up for the required number of meetings.

In Chatteris, Joanne Fuller won the Slade Lode Ward for the Conservatives by beating Labour’s Jamie Eames. But only 112 people actually took the time to turn out and vote for either of the candidates – which equated to a turn out of 16% of those who were entitled to vote.

Ms Fuller polled 75, while her opponent gained 37 votes.

The Chatteris by-election followed the sudden resignation of British Democrat councillor Ken Perrin at the end of last year.

Mr Perrin himself was elected in a by-election in March last year.

His resignation came at the same time he was being threatened with potential legal action by a developer at December’s town council meeting over comments he had made on social media

Architect Lee Bevens outlined his concerns over Mr Perrin’s remarks on Facebook in respect of developments that Mr Bevens had planned in the town during the council’s open forum.