Many Thanks to all our voters and helpers in Swanley

The Tories won the Swanley White Oak by election with 319 votes on an 18 per cent turnout, by a narrow majority. Labour came in second on 307 votes and Lib Dem candidate Robert Woodbridge got 230 votes.

Many thanks to all our voters and helpers in the by election.

It was a disappointing result but given it largely became a single issue campaign which the Tories now think is resolved we shall see whether they can deliver change for all local people and the 82 per cent who failed to turn out to vote.

Issues around financial incompetence, weak local governance, poor service delivery, and the 'Masterplan' remain firmly on the wider political agenda. For example, Swanley Park workers wages are currently in arrears despite local Conservative victory celebrations.

The Tories now need to get their own house in order before building any more homes on the Green Belt. We next look forward to challenging them in the Kent County Council elections on Thursday May 4th.

Swanley's potholes, pavements and roads all still badly need repairing, social services are suffering, street signs and fences are falling down, fly-tipping is rampant, and secondary schools are now charging parents for textbooks, while the Tories max up our council tax hikes yet again.

The smirking Conservative County Councillor for Swanley, who is also sitting on two other local authorities, while holding down a full-time parliamentary job in Westminster for a Peterborough MP, will no doubt find his own meeting attendance record in Eynsford, Maidstone, Sevenoaks and Swanley under intensive scrutiny by his opponents for publication on election leaflets from now on as well in the public interest, as he did to our un-elected candidate in the White Oak by election.

action@swanleylibdems.org.uk