Elmbridge reflects on local election "war" (From Surrey Comet)

Elmbridge reflects on local election "war"

6:20am Tuesday 11th May 2010 in News By Jonathan Portlock

This year’s local elections in Elmbridge were described by one Tory councillor as a war, with both the Conservatives and the Residents’ Association accusing each other of using negative campaigning to gain a political advantage.

Websites and campaign literature produced by both parties were full of claims and counter-claims about the perceived achievements of the Tory administration in the past four years, with the RA claiming their opponents had not listened to the people of Elmbridge and would cut services.

Much of the animosity also centred around the figure of out-going Tory leader Roy Taylor, who was not favoured by RA councillors.

But a Tory councillor told the Elmbridge Guardian the RA had “started it” and said they should not have “started a war they couldn’t win”.

He also said he had studied The Art of War by Sun Tzu, and dealing with the RA had not posed too much of a problem.

However, once the Tories were confident they had maintained control of the council at the count on Friday, May 7, their mood lightened, with many of them, including new leader Councillor John O’Reilly, offering an olive branch to their RA counterparts.

Coun O’Reilly said: “We felt the campaign of fear levelled against us by the RA was deeply irresponsible and it hasn’t benefited them.

“But that’s in the past. We have a mandate to run the administration, but we’re not going to be a divisive administration.

"As much as we can get agreement with the RA councillors on issues, then we want to do that and in many areas there is a degree of consensus.”