There's no change at the top for the Lib Dem team in Brentwood as Cllr Barry Aspinell and Cllr Philip Mynott were re-elected as leader and deputy leader, respectvely, for the municipal year 2019-2020.
In May 2016 the British people were given an over-simplistic vote - to stay or leave the European Union (EU). It split the country almost exactly in half and we are still very divided - and the two main political parties at Westminster in England are ignoring their voters and fighting internally. They appear to be more interested in their own careers rather than providing leadership and direction to the country.
A week ago, Brentwood elected FOUR new Lib Dem councillors and we introduce them here:
What an incredible night for the Liberal Democrats! Our five wins here (out of 11 fought) pushed the country's Lib Dem win total over the 700 seats mark - not a bad result for a party that was being written off in recent years! I just thought I'd comment on a couple of interesting things which emerge from a closer look at the results across Brentwood. The Brentwood Council website is stating that the Conservatives got 42% of the overall vote whereas we got 41%. However these figures actually involve rounding-off fractional percentages. By my calculations the overall number of unspoiled votes cast in Brentwood was 16,447. Of that total we gained 40.92%, whereas the Tories gained 41.56% - a wafer thin 0.64% gap. This is also a massive leap forward from last year, when the Tories got 45% of the vote and we only got 34.5%. Furthermore in terms of the actual totals, the Tories picked up 6836 votes this year, but the Lib Dems were right behind them, on 6731. In other words we were only 105 votes short of their to
The Lib Dems are back across the UK! Here in Brentwood, we made four gains and held the seat we were defending. We won Brentwood North, Brentwood West, Shenfield, Pilgrims Hatch and Warley as well as increasing our vote share across the borough. Our group is now 13 and the Conservative majority has been cut from thirteen to just three. Cllr Barry Aspinell, Group Leader, said: "What a fantastic result! I am delighted to welcome Cllr Mark Lewis, Cllr Sarah Cloke, Cllr Andy Fryd and Cllr Jay Laplain to the team and, of course, to see my dear ward colleague Cllr Vicky Davies back. This result is going to completely change the dynamic of the council and we look forward to an invigorated and larger Lib Dem group, holding the administration to account all year round."
