We've done it !

Nottinghamshire Conservatives have taken control of Nottinghamshire County Council with an overall majority of three and the election has handed Labour one of its most humiliating defeats in County Council history. In all twenty three Labour seats were lost and twenty sitting Labour Councillors were sent packing including their leader and deputy leader, David Kirkham and Mick Storey who lost their seats at Sutton in Ashfield West and Retford East.

It was a day of reckoning for Labour as never before. Their 28 year reign at County Hall came ignominiously to an end. One after the other, their faces as red as the wilting red rosettes they wore, the Labour candidates stood grim faced at the various counts as their seats disappeared before their eyes, nine to Conservatives, five to Liberal Democrats and ten to the various independents.

The average turnout throughout the county was 39.43% with 238,505 of the electorate voting. The highest turnout was in Southwell and Caunton where 56.2% of the electorate voted to retain Conservative prospective Candidate for Gedling, Bruce Laughton. Lowest turnout was in Mansfield West where 30.1% threw out the two Labour councillors in favour of the Mansfield Independent Forum candidates who took all Mansfield seats.

Philip Ingall - Nottinghamshire Area Chairman