The by-election for Andover South’s vacant county council seat took place last Thursday (21st October) and the result was as follows.

 David Drew (Conservative)                            1183

Len Gates (Liberal Democrat)                    1111

John Newland (Labour)                                     245

Anthony McCabe (UKIP)                                   233

The result confirmed Liberal Democrat predicitions of a close run contest between me and the Tory candidate with the other parties never in the contest. The Lib Dem vote increased by 17.6% which confounds local (left wing) critics who were predicting an election meltdown for the Lib Dems.

Thank you to everyone who voted for me. The response I and the rest of my team found on the doorstep was amazing. The support and encouragement we received from voters made the whole thing worthwhile and was some consolation for loosing by a relatively narrow margin. We will continue to follow up, through your existing Andover town and borough councillors, on all the issues you have raised over the past month. We also look forward to next year’s borough council elections when we will aim to win council seats in both Winton and Millway wards.