Election Results

I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed with my result in Fant Ward (16%), however it was good not to lose ground from last year. The ward was very fiercely fought by all four parties - certainly unique in this year's Maidstone elections. This means that the the gap between first and last places was very narrow and the vote evenly split (Con:33%, LibDem:28%, Labour:23% and Green:16%), whereas most wards were won with more than by 50%.

Given Morel was defending his Labour seat and had a high personal vote, some of whom would normally vote Green, we clearly picked up new voters this year which bodes well for next time.

Sadly the Tories won the ward and this defies explanation. They have had a static vote in Fant for the past 4 years, yet they managed to find an extra 250 voters this year. Sure, they have had a national swing, but it should not have happened in Fant. Of course the Lib Dems blame the Greens and Labour for letting the Tory in (surely the only people to blame are those people who voted Tory...).

Across the rest of Maidstone, the Tories also took Shepway South from Labour and now have control of the council. A sad day for Maidstone: more housing growth, more shopping centres, more cars, less cycling, less walking, less local shops and businesses, forget any semblance of social justice, and forget ethics - profits will rule now... and will the plan to put houses over the KIG site be resurrected? Looking at the Bearsted vote, I'm puzzled that such a large number of them voted Tory given the Tory's Core Strategy to surround Bearsted with houses, including building them on the site that KIG are after.

Not that the Lib Dem coalition was that much better, though they were just starting to think about how to start reducing the borough's carbon footprint. Of course they didn't have the ideas / policies to achieve this but at least they had the right goal. They never got their head around the economics of resilience and localism which are essential to both combat peak oil and climate change - and it is peak oil which will hurt us sooner and harder than climate change.

Any way the Lib Dems are still wedded to road building and airport expansion...