UPDATED: The Conservative’s Steve Hastings starts today (Friday) as councillor for Central Wight following his victory in yesterday’s by-election.
The need to vote for a new ward councillor came about following the registration of Bob Seely after his success in becoming the Island’s MP.
Hastings, who stood for the Newport Central seat in last year’s local elections, won by somewhat of a country mile taking 49.7% of the 1,101 votes cast.
Central Wight – By-Election Results (25th January 2017)
• Steve Hastings (Conservatives) – 547 (elected)
• Nick Stuart (Liberal Democrats) – 286
• Daniel James (Green Party) – 143
• Simon Haytack (Labour) – 101
• Terry Brennen (UKIP) – 24 votes
The turnout was 38.61%. No ballot papers were rejected.
Vix Lowthion, party spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Green Party, has said:
“Central Wight was the safest Conservative seat on the whole IW Council – no longer. Last night saw their vote almost halve.
“Island Conservatives must surely be asking themselves why they have lost the confidence of so many island residents.
Article continues below this advertisement “IW Greens continue to work hard as a team across the whole Island – and we look forward to gaining more councillors in the main County Elections in 2021.”
Councillor Steve Hastings has said of his victory:
“I would like to thank the residents of Central Wight for trusting in me to represent them at County Hall; I consider it an honour and a privilege.
“My thanks also to the other candidates who all worked very hard to give residents a good range of options.
“We achieved more votes than the other three main party candidates put together and in such a hard fought campaign this result endorses the Islands Conservative Administration and how we are working for all residents on this Island.
“As Julian Critchley, Labour’s Parliamentary Spokesperson admitted to me the other parties hadn’t previously put a big effort into Central Wight because in May last year they all had more marginal wards to concentrate on so in view of the full concentration this time I think we did well to achieve this result.
“This time we did have a candidate from the Liberal Democrats unlike in May 2017, which seems to have reduced the Greens vote by almost half compared to last May’s result.
“A special thanks goes to Bob Seely MP for his hard work as the previous ward councillor and I look forward to working alongside him into the future.
“I thank the Isle of Wight Conservative Association, George Cameron my Campaign Manager and the local branch for selecting me for this seat.
“A special thank you goes to my wife Beverley for her help and support throughout this campaign.
“I am looking forward to joining the Conservative Group in County Hall to work hard for residents of Central Wight and the Island as a whole”.
