Council Elections: The Results in Solihull

LABOUR has been left with one solitary member on Solihull Council after yet another of its leaders lost his seat.
Councillor Alan Nash had fought hard to hold on in Kingshurst & Fordbridge, but was narrowly defeated by UKIP’s Rob Hall.
The loss leaves Mr Nash’s wife Flo as the party’s sole representative on the borough council and capped a bruising night for local campaigners.
However, another married couple with seats on the council have had a rather better 24 hours. Conservative members Bob and Gail Sleigh won comfortable majorities in Bickenhill and Castle Bromwich respectively.
While activists had been concerned last year that UKIP was threatening these traditional Tory strongholds, this time the eurosceptic party failed to mount a serious challenge – its share of the vote seemingly squeezed by an exceptionally high turn-out.
It was a good day generally for Solihull’s Conservative administration, who made several gains south of the A45 and increased their total number of councillors to 32.
The Green Party remain the official opposition and will be pleased with the ease at which they held on to their seats in Chelmsley Wood and Smith’s Wood, although supporters may be disappointed that they failed to make further gains in the south of the borough.
The party also lost a sitting councillor for the first time in Solihull - Jean Hamilton was unable to see off the Tory challenge in Elmdon.
It was the Liberal Democrats however who suffered the greatest punishment at the ballot box.
The party had not fielded a single candidate in North Solihull, instead putting all its efforts into the wards where it has previously had strong support.
This strategy was not enough to save the party from humiliating defeats in the former enclaves of Olton and Lyndon.
These losses have left the Lib Dems with just six councillors; only five years ago they had more than three times this number and with Labour support had actually managed to wrest control of the council from the Tories.

Bickenhill:
Gerry Blake (UKIP) - 1214
Michael Longfield (Lab) - 1061
Gary Macnaughton (Green) - 397
Bob Sleigh (Con) - 3185

Castle Bromwich:
Alan Jacques (Lab) - 1407
Glen Lawrence (UKIP) - 1233
Eleanor Perfect (Green) - 264
Gail Sleigh (Con) - 3286

Chelmsley Wood
Sally Bell (Con) - 548
Emma Chidler (Lab) - 806
Karl Macnaughton (Green) - 2904

Kingshurst & Fordbridge:
David Davies (Green) - 293
Rob Hall (UKIP) - 1548
Alan Nash (Lab) - 1332
Paul Thomas (Con) - 1176

Smith's Wood:
David Cole (Lab) - 1018
Graham Juniper (Con) - 613
Mark Wilson (Green) - 2576