Lib Dems retain Kingston Council in dramatic election night (From Surrey Comet)

Lib Dems retain Kingston Council in dramatic election night

11:17pm Friday 7th May 2010 in News By Martin George

Liberal Democrats today retained control of Kingston Council in an election that saw them increase their majority and wipe Labour off the borough's electoral map.

After a seven hour count, a surprise victory in the former Conservative heartlands of Surbiton Hill took the party over the all-important 24 seat figure.

In total, the Lib Dems won 27 seats, up two, the Tories remained on 21 seats, while Labour lost the two seats it won in 2006, ending the 38-year council career of Councillor Steve Mama.

However, the loss of Surbiton Hill, including campaign manager Nick Kilby and veteran councillor Paul Johnston, masked a strengthening of the Tory presence in Maldens and Coombe and their first seat in the Lib Dem bastion in the south of the borough.

Lib Dem casualties included two young former deputy mayors, Bart Ricketts and Rohan Yoganathan.

Conservatives, who had campaigned on a pledge to freeze council tax for two years, attributed their defeat to the popularity of Kingston and Surbiton MP Edward Davey, who was re-elected with a strong majority on Thursday.

The simultaneous parliamentary and local elections saw turnout rise from less than 40 per cent in some wards last time to between 61 and 76 per cent this year.