Fareham remains true blue (From Daily Echo)
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Fareham remains true blue
2:21am Friday 2nd May 2008 in News
By Lucy Clark
FAREHAM remained true blue in a night of local election stalemate.
Not one ward changed hands leaving the Conservatives with an advantage of 13.
The Tories stay on 22 seats with the Liberal Democrats on nine.
Despite the lack of change in Fareham, there were some nail-biting moments as the ballot papers were counted in front of hundreds of spectators at Ferneham Hall.
The most hotly contested wards were Fareham East and Stubbington.
The first seat to be confirmed was Sarisbury, where Cllr David Swanbrow retained his position.
The Tory stole a huge 82 per cent of the votes in the Sarisbury ward - the biggest majority for any seat.
Lib Dem Katrina Trott, who is also the current Mayor of Fareham until her term finishes next week, managed to hold her nerve as the votes in Fareham East had to undergo a recount. She won by just 80 votes.
It was also a comparatively close call in Stubbingon where Tory Cllr Kay Mandry held on to her seat by 374 votes.
Neighbouring Gosport remains a hung council with no one party having an overall majority.
