Eltham local elections results 2014

You've seen all the results by now. Labour of course held the Council, the London Borough of Royal Greenwich, but managed to increase its majority - Labour now have 43 seats compared to 40 in 2010, the Conservatives now have 8 seats, three less compared to 11 previously.

Out of the Council's 17 wards, much of the tension during the count on the Friday, following voting on the Thursday (22 May), was focused on the two Eltham wards which I'm closest to. My brief pre-election post here.

Following the other ward results dribbling in from mid-afternoon, we had to wait until the evening for Eltham North's results, and nail-bittingly a bit later for Eltham South's.

Finally, while I was knee-deep in cooking the family's dinner, the Royal Greenwich twitter account tweeted at 6.47pm:

#greenwich2014 #Vote2014 Labour and Conservative wins in Eltham North @Royal_Greenwich for Linda Bird (L), Wynn Davies (L) Spencer Drury (C)
— Royal Greenwich (@Royal_Greenwich) May 23, 2014

It proved to be one of the most startling results for the borough. The previous three Tory councillors had been reduced to one, with Labour taking the other two, for the first time ever. Here's the full result for that ward:

 Results for Eltham North ward:

Name	Party	Votes
Linda BIRD	Labour	1,946
Paul Stephen BUTLER	UKIP	1,221
Wynn DAVIES	Labour	1,942
Spencer DRURY	Conservative	1,975
Patrick EARLY	Liberal Democrats	205
Nigel FLETCHER	Conservative	1,823
Yvonne NICHOLLS	Liberal Democrats	207
Simon Warwick PEIRCE	Labour	1,556
Rob STEAD	Green Party	591
Adam THOMAS	Conservative	1,519
Roberta Florence Louise WOODS	BNP	307

And here are the two new Labour councillors:

 

Spencer Drury retained his seat - fortunate for them as he is Leader of the Tory Group (and was re-elected as such following this election) and is also the chosen Tory candidate in next year's National Election, against the current popular Labour MP, Clive Efford. Obviously the Tories have chosen to play it safer this time rather than parachute in a candidate as they did last time with David Gold, for this key marginal seat.

The now ex-Deputy Leader of the Tories, Nigel Fletcher, was one of the victims of the Labour gain though his count was very close showing just how highly-contested this ward was. He was much admired for the graciousness with which he accepted his defeat, posting his reactions on Twitter.

So did UKIP steal the Tory vote? Well, if UKIP's 1,221 votes are added wholesale to the total Tory numbers (5,317 + 1,221 = 6,538), then UKIP did steal the Tory hatrick (total Labour votes: 5,444). But we don't know how many previous Labour or BNP votes went to UKIP...

Two other results are startling too.The Lib Dem's total 3,015 votes in 2010 compared to 412 this time. And the BNP's 686 in 2010 compared to 307 this time.

In Eltham South, the Tory-UKIP battle was potentially complicated by the ex-Tory Eileen Glover standing as an Independent. In the end that wasn't a factor. The Conservatives managed to hold on to their three seats in a very closely-fought contest.

Results for Eltham South ward:

Name	Party	Votes
Simon John CHRISTIE	Labour	1,115
Michael David CHUTER	Liberal Democrats	208
Matt CLARE	Conservative	1,394
Eileen Joan COX	Liberal Democrats	206
Mark Stuart ELLIOTT	Conservative	1,298
John Robert EVANS	UKIP	1,069
John David GALLOWAY	Labour	1,016
Nuala GEARY	Conservative	1,183
Eileen Wordie GLOVER	Independent	440
Mark Simon PATTENDEN	Liberal Democrats	181
Thelma Grace PEETE	BNP	248
Jagir Kaur SEKHON	Labour	839
David William TURNER	Green Party	402

The other striking news about the Eltham North ward was its extraordinary voter turnout. Whereas the overall turnout for the borough was 37.25 per cent (65,055 ballot papers) Eltham North had a turnout of 50.26%. Here's the borough's Turnout and verified papers by ward:

Ward	Turnout	Verified ballot papers
Abbey Wood	33.82%	3,581
Blackheath Westcombe	47.69%	4,631
Charlton	37.82%	3,805
Coldharbour & New Eltham	40.49%	3,947
Eltham North	50.26%	4,911
Eltham South	41.36%	3,630
Eltham West	34.87%	2,821
Glyndon	31.78%	3,514
Greenwich West	38.00%	4,531
Kidbrooke with Hornfair	34.97%	3,508
Middle Park and Sutcliffe	40.12%	3,887
Peninsula	38.04%	3,975
Plumstead	35.07%	3,631
Shooters Hill	40.99%	3,968
Thamesmead Moorings	29.60%	3,507
Woolwich Common	31.78%	3,288
Woolwich Riverside	31.36%	3,920

Other results for the Royal Greenwich here.

There have been some interesting and noteworthy results around the Borough which I've been reading about but I haven't got time to cover them!  For that and for a great account of the results of the borough's local elections, including some close-insight into the 'count day', as ever, see the 853 blog.