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The People of Arun have spoken

Arun Local Elections.

The election results are in and the people have spoken.  Politics at Arun are changing and, as your Councillor, I want to do my best for you, but firstly I have to say thank you for all those who have voted for me. I hope I can repay your trust with hard work and dedication.

I was elected with my colleague, Grant Roberts. Unfortunately my colleague, Robert Wheal, was pipped at the post by the Green Candidate by 32 votes. Robert worked particularly hard on the campaign, so my heartfelt thanks to him.

My thanks also goes out to all those in the team who worked hard on the election, in particular to our agent, Gary Markwell and Chairman Geoff Thorpe.

I have always put my heart and soul into being a Councillor, but I have to admit that I didn’t really work very hard at this election due to Theresa May and her handling of politics at a national level.

I really want to see the Prime Minister move on and allow a different leader to be installed.

Analysis on a District level is broken down as follows: Arun's Conservative group was reduced from 42 Councillors to 21, losing overall control and because the Lib Dems were the largest group at 22 members, it allows them first crack to form an administration.  There were 8 Independents, 2 Greens and 1 Labour candidate making a total of 54 Councillors.

The electorate have given the Conservatives in Arun and nationally a kick up the backside, This proves democracy works, however, without taking away the achievement of the Lib Dems there were a lot of wild promises made locally, particularly in Bognor Regis.

They now have an opportunity to form an administration at Arun. Whether they step up to the task is still yet to be known. A test of their competence will be if they can form an administration that works, but we know that Lib Dems tend to tax more and spend more, so as tax payers we have to worry about what they do with our money.

Also, they have been very poor at turning up to meetings and scrutinising the Council's business. It is easy to grandstand at Full Council meetings when the press are there, but not so easy to turn up on a rainy night and do the hard work.  Will their attendance record improve? Again the jury’s out on that.

Arun’s Conservatives have managed the finances very well with good balances and working within budgets. Will the Lib Dems do this? Or will they spend monies recklessly and damage the current good financial position?

One thing you can be assured of is we, the Conservative group, will scrutinise them and ensure democracy works to the benefit of the taxpayer.