Elections bring new faces to fore and produce surprise losses

There are plenty of new faces on city and parish councils following elections on Thursday.

In a shock result a former mayor and the councillor hotly tipped to be mayor for the next 12 months were voted off Wells City Council.

Christina Borastero and John Parkes failed to get enough votes to secure further terms of office. Mrs Borastero missed out on re-election by just ten votes. Mr Parkes, who was deputy mayor in 2008, was tipped to be mayor this year after the decision by deputy mayor Sally Robertson to stand down, also narrowly missed re-election.

Mr Parkes was one of six candidates in the six seat St Cuthbert Out ward standing for the Conservatives, of whom only two were elected.

With two sitting councillors defeated and three councillors standing down, the new councillors are Green Chris Briton, Conservatives Andy Denison and Sarah Gibson, Independent John Mitchell and Liberal Democrat Gordon Hance.

The city council now has to select a mayoral candidate at the annual meeting on May 19, with a date for the official mayor making ceremony to be fixed.

In North Wootton Tania Ambrosini-Major failed to get a seat on the parish council.

Originally 12 candidates stood in the village, but this was down to six by the day of the election.

And in St Cuthbert Out West, the hotly-contested parish council ward saw two sitting councillors voted off, Keith Grimshaw and Jane Pruden.

Council chairman Sandra Ford secured her seat by 13 votes from Mrs Pruden.

New councillors Margaret Mitchell and Jennifer Henderson were also elected to St Cuthbert Out in the first election in the ward for 35 years.

Veteran Liberal Democrat district councillor Roy McKenzie was voted off the district council, losing to 24-year-old Conservative candidate Andy Denison by just five votes.

Other new faces on the district council will be Conservative candidate Julie Baker, who had a close call, beating Westbury-sub-Mendip parish council chairman Ros Wyke by 25 votes in the battle to replace Roy Wills.

Conservative candidate Nigel Taylor had an easier time in Wookey and St Cuthbert Out, beating Stephen Harrison by 84 votes to take over from Alistair Glanvile.

John North comfortably took Wells Central for the Conservatives with a 101 vote majority, a seat formerly held by Maureen Brandon.

See our election pull-out section for full results from the district councils.