| |  | Elections 2010 | | |  This year's runners and ridersVoting time!
May 2, 2010: Three elections take place in Bookham next Thursday, May 6. One is for your Westminster Member of Parliament to represent the Mole Valley constituency.
The other two are district elections for one seat each in Bookham North and Bookham South.
The candidates in the Westminster election are:
Paul Beresford, Conservative, the existing MP (left of picture)
James Dove, Labour
Alice Humphreys, Liberal Democrat (right of picture)
Leigh Jones, UK Independence Party
Rob Sedgwick, Green Party.
The result in 2005 was:
Candidate / Votes / Share %
Paul Beresford (Conservative) / 27,060 / 54.8%
Nasser Butt (Liberal Democrat) / 15,063 / 30.5%
Farmida Bi (Labour) / 5,310 / 10.7%
David Payne (UK Independence Party) / 1,475 / 3.0%
Roger Meekins (Veritas) / 507 / 1.0%
Beresford, Jones and Sedgwick (or click here) live in the constituency. Dove, a barrister, lives in Chiswick. Humphreys, a solicitor and former Therfield head girl, lives in Hampstead.
District elections
At the moment Bookham south has three district councillors: John Chandler (Conservative); Andrew Freeman (Liberal Democrat); and Anne Howarth (Lib Dem). All live in Bookham. This time, Chandler's seat is up for re-election. The candidates, apart from Chandler, are Phil Harris (Lib Dem), who lives locally, and Julia Langton-Smith (UK Independence Party) who lives in Capel.
In Bookham North, all three seats are currently held by Conservatives: Clare Curran, currently also a Surrey county councillor, David Walker, and Janet Purkiss. Two candidates now compete for one of these seats: Tessa Hurworth (Conservative) and Lib Dem Paul Tillot, both of whom live in Bookham.
| | |
| | No change in Bookham & Fetcham West | | |  Ukip fails to make an impactRespectable Curran win on lower turnout
June 6, 2009: Last Thursday's local election saw Clare Curran (Con) comfortably elected to Surrey County Council as the member for Bookham and Fetcham West.
She beat the Liberal Democrat's 2,711 votes by a margin of 202 to take over the seat from retiring Tory councillor Jim Smith. The UK independence party (Ukip) came in at 658 and Labour 180.
This year's 53.7% turnout compares with 2005's 75.3%. The poll was down a fifth even though the district's number of electors has risen above 12,000 for the first time.
Curran's 2,913 votes, 45.1% of the unspoilt votes cast, puts the Tory take of the poll well below 2005's 51.8% and 2001's 47.7%. The Tory vote dropped 37% compared with 2005. The winning margin over the Liberal Democrats in 2005 was 987, albeit on a larger turnout.
The Liberal Democrats' vote, this time for candidate Martin Joseph, dropped from 3,620 in 2005, a fall of 25 per cent.
No doubt some of Curran's vote was taken by Ukip candidate Julia Langdon-Smith, whose 658 (10.2%) was almost four times Labour's total. However, Ukip seems to have taken votes from all three of the other candidates. Given that the Westminster expenses row has damaged all three main national parties, this was Ukip's big chance and they muffed it.
Labour's decline is stark. In 1997 they polled 1017, just over 11% of the vote. This time Simon Bottomley managed under 3%.
In the European elections, the South East constituency now has four Conservative, two Ukip and two Liberal Democrat MEPs, one Green and one Labour MEP.
Click here for the BBC results for Surrey County Council and for the results of the European elections.
Click here for the overall Surrey County Council results.
Click here for the Bookham & Fetcham district results in the county election.
What do you think? Tell the editor.
| | |
| | The candidates and other information | | |  Bookham goes to the pollsCounty Council Elections
This Thursday, June 4, is election day. There are no elections to Mole Valley District Council (MVDC), but we will be electing a new member of Surrey County Council – Bookham's 'Big Jim' Smith is standing down – and 10 MEPs for the South East European constituency.
The council elections take place in all six divisions in the Mole Valley District Council area. One county councillor is to be elected in each division: Ashtead, Bookham and Fetcham West, Dorking & the Holmwoods, Dorking Hills, Dorking Rural and Leatherhead and Fetcham East.
The Surrey County Council candidates for the Bookham and Fetcham West division are:
Former Howard of Effingham student Simon Bottomley, who contested South Bookham for Labour in last year's district elections.
Clare Curran – Conservative. Curran, solicitor and cricket fan, is Conservative MVDC councillor for Bookham North.
Martin Joseph, Liberal Democrat, an early-retiring Treasury civil servant and former chief executive of Environmental Protection UK.
Julie Langton-Smith – UK Independence Party (Ukip).
European Elections
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland elects 72 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). The south east, one of 12 electoral regions, elects 10.
On Thursday June 4 you will have a choice of over 130 candidates from 15 parties. To download a full list of candidates in the South East region (a 52kb PDF, shown top right), click here.
Polling Stations
Polling stations will be open throughout Mole Valley for residents to vote in both elections.
Residents should by now have received their polling cards informing them of the forthcoming elections and their designated polling station. Residents will be able to vote without presenting their polling card to the polling station staff, but it will help to speed up the process if they take them along on the day.
Polling stations will be open from 7.00am and will close promptly at 10.00pm. Staff will be on hand to answer voters' questions about voting.
Residents wishing to know which polling station to attend or who require further information about voting in the forthcoming Elections should contact Arabella Davies, Democratic Services Manager, on 01306 879137. Details of candidates standing in the Election can be viewed in the Council Offices, at the HelpShop or at www.molevalley.gov.uk
Voting if you are a European Union citizen
European Union citizens who have not opted to vote at the European election in this country (via the form recently sent to them) will only be allowed their local Surrey County Council vote. To be able to vote in the European election, they will need to return to their home country.
If you are a citizen of a European Union country, wish to vote in the UK at the European election and have not yet returned your form to the Democratic Services office, please do so before 19 May at the very latest. Alternatively, contact Democratic Services on 01306 879137/139/384/355
| | |
| | Bookham has its say | | | Bookham and the democratic deficitApril 23, 2008: It's a busy time in Bookham. Tomorrow night sees the open meeting of ROME – the Residents of Middlemead Estate. That's Thursday, April 24th from 7pm to about 9pm at the Harrison Room, Barn Hall.
BRA AGM
On Friday, April 25th, the Barn Hall hosts the Bookham Residents' Association's annual general meeting. It will discuss the admission policy at Howard of Effingham School; the latest on Leatherhead and Epsom Hospitals; the reorganisation of Mole Valley District Council; the Youth Centre; and the police neighbourhood panel meetings. There will be tea and coffee before the meeting and wine and soft drinks afterwards, from about 9.30. The meeting is only open to BRA members but you can join at the door for £2 a household.
Comment: The choice of venue suggests that this year the BRA hasn't allowed local MP Sir Paul Beresford a space for his usual pre-District Election comic turn. On past form Sir Paul has used the slot, ostensibly a report on local hospital provision, to lay into the Labour government. They deserve slagging off, of course, but only because they're pursuing to excess exactly the privatisation policies begun under the last administration of Sir Paul's party.
More to the point, in previous years the 'non-political' BRA has not seen fit to balance Sir Paul's 'report' with views from anyone from other parties. Since the Barn Hall was gifted to Bookham on the condition that it wouldn't be used for political meetings, and the BRA risks its charitable status if it engages in political acitivity, it looks as though, this year, the BRA panjandrums have seen the light. Regretfully the Bugle can't be there this year but we'll try to find out what happens.
Local District Elections
The government's determination to eliminate any distinction between its own policies and those of the opposition may have taken the taste out of politics. But don't let that put you off voting in the District Elections on Thursday, May 1. The 13 Mole Valley seats up for election out of a possible 41 include Bookham North and Bookham South.
The North Bookham Candidates are Conservative Clare Curran and Liberal Democrat Joseph Leonard. Curran, whose assentors include Sir Paul Beresford (see above) and BRA stalwart John Pagella, has been a strong supporter of the campaign to save Bookham's youth centre. Former councillor Michael Anderson is endorsing Leonard.
South Bookham has four candidates, which will make things more than usually interesting. Current member Anne Howarth, Liberal Democrat, faces opponents from Labour and, for the first time, UKIP as well as the usual Conservative. The vote for the Conservative, Graham Hems, might be diluted by votes for UKIP's Julie Langton-Smith. In normal times the Lib-Dem vote might expect some losses to the Labour candidate, former Howard of Effingham student Simon Bottomley, but, given the government's unpopularity, Howarth, a doughty and well-liked local figure, is unlikely to have any such problem. Labour voters will probably find something interesting on television.
| | |
| | Freeman and Walker re-elected | | | Andrew Freeman, the Liberal Democrat Councillor for Bookham South, and Andrew Walker, Conservative Councillor for Bookham North, were both re-elected yesterday.
Click for more information | | |
| | Familiar faces in District race | | | Familiar faces in District raceTwo Bookham seats are at stake in the Mole Valley district local elections on Thursday, May 3. Andrew Freeman (Liberal Democrat), standing in Bookham South, is a former chairman of the Bookham Residents’ Association and is the only local councillor who spoke out against the National Trust's plan to build a new car park in the Green Belt. He is head to head against Conservative Mark Aspinall.
David Walker (Conservative) is standing in Bookham North. He has been closely involved in negotiations with Surrey County Council over the future of the local Youth Centre. Walker is standing against two candidates: Paul Tillott (LibDem) and Richard Lambert (Green Party) respectively. The split may well work in his favour.
The full list of nominees can be downloaded from the Mole Valley website.
| | |
| | Haque loses bid for Council seat | | | Following Conservative candidate John Chandler's win, Bookham now has four Conservative and two Lib Dem councillors.
Bookham North Ward
Janette Patricia Purkiss Conservative 1431 (Elected)
Paul William Tillott Liberal Democrat 906
Bookham South Ward
Simon Peter Bottomley Labour 97
John Frederick Chandler Conservative 1441 (Elected)
Jehangir Haque (commonly known as Raj) Liberal Democrat 991
One shock overseas was the displacement of Conservative Julian Shersby by a Lib Dem in Capel. Shersby was a strong supporter of the Sainsbury's development in Dorking.
That aside, Mole Valley District Council now passes from 'no overall control' to a Conservative majority. For full results follow the link. Click for more information | | |
|
