Woking Lib Dems win

Local Liberal Democrats cemented their strong position on Woking Council at Thursday's elections. The Liberal Democrats held all of their seats and made a gain to deprive Conservatives of control of the Council.

The Liberal Democrat group is now 10 strong, including Rob Leach who gained a Conservative seat in St John's, and former Conservative Graham Chrystie who joined in April.

With 3 Labour and 3 Independent councillors Woking Council is now firmly in NOC (No Overall Control).

"Thank you to the residents of Woking for all your support" said Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Ann-Marie Barker. "Liberal Democrat candidates saw their majorities increase with a huge vote of confidence for our returning councillors Ian Johnson and Louise Morales. Plus a major success over last year for James Sanderson who turned a 10 votes loss in 2018 to a 277 vote majority in 2019".

"Despite everything Woking Conservatives threw at us, including campaign visits by the Police and Crime Commissioner, Tory Party Chairman, Prime Minister's Chief of Staff and the Prime Minister herself, we held our seats and gained a seat" said Cllr Barker.

"The new, larger Liberal Democrat Group will continue its work to bring greater transparency to Council business, propose a freeze on parking charges and better information on where parking spaces are available in Woking town centre, work to get safer cycle parking and explore bus improvements, seek to put a 15 storey limit on future town centre buildings, prioritise affordable homes and push the Council to make recycling easier whilst bringing heavy penalties on fly tippers".

Across Surrey, Conservatives lost control of 6 councils and Liberal Democrat's gained 54 seats.

Nationally the Liberal Democrats have over 700 new councillors whilst the Conservatives have lost over 1,300.