Cambridgeshire Conservative County Councillor defects to UKIP

A Conservative county councillor in Cambridge has defected to UKIP.

Cllr Adrian Dent, who represents Bassingbourn division on the county council, said that the Conservative Party is not the democratic party he joined years ago and that he was forced to accept things that were bad for his ward and the people he was elected to represent because of the party whip.

Did you know?

UKIP doesn't operate a whip which means that its councillors are able to vote in the way that they consider to be in the best interests of the people they were elected to represent rather than how they are instructed to vote by the party whips.

The UKIP group on Cambridgeshire County Council now has 13 councillors, one short of the Lib Dems who form the second largest group. The Conservatives have a minority administration with 29 of the 69 councillors on the county council.

UKIP hold Chatteris division on Cambridgeshire County Council

UKIP have held the Chatteris division on Cambridgeshire County Council in a by-election yesterday.

The seat became vacant after the incumbent Cllr Sandra Rylance sadly passed away from a brain tumour in August. Cllr Rylance was described by her colleagues as a tremendous lady, loyal, honest and trustworthy who will be sorely missed.

Richard Mandley has managed to hold on to the seat for UKIP with a slim majority but a 6.2% increase in votes.

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Richard Mandley	UKIP	600	40.98
Alan Melton	Conservatives	590	40.30
John Freeman	Lib Dems	274	18.72

UKIP councillor Sandra Rylance has passed away

UKIP Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Sandra Rylance, has passed away from a brain tumour.

She has been described by her colleagues as a tremendous lady, loyal, honest and trustworthy who will be sorely missed.

Cllr Rylance's funeral will be held on the 24th in Ramsey and donations can be made to the Arthur Rank Hospice and East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Conservative former leader of Cambridgeshire County Council defects to UKIP

Former leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, Nick Clarke, has defected back from the Tories to UKIP.

Clarke was a UKIP parliamentary candidate many years ago who defected to the Conservatives and went on to become leader of the council. He lost his seat in the 2013 local elections when UKIP routed both the Conservatives and Lib Dems, taking 12 seats on the council.

UKIP has the clarity of vision and drive to sustain the Britexit argument over the longer term, not just for one election, or one referendum but for much longer if necessary.

This is absolutely necessary if we are to protect our way of life for our children and our grandchildren.

In my lifetime the UK population has been in the 40 millions. Today according to  the ONS figures it is 64m and rising. In 2012 we had 498,000 long term migrants resulting in net migration of 158,000. Where does it end.

UKIP celebrate migration. Attracting the very best people from around the world is a great thing.
But unrestricted migration from the EU is a bad thing, placing sever demands on our public services and needing ever more houses to be built.

We need a points system like Australia. To  get this we need to leave the EU. This is not about race, creed, sex, politics but about numbers. Our small island is filling up.

Cambridge would benefit from a points based system allowing the very best to study here, from around the world, and then go on to stay and run successful companies.

But it is not just about Europe.

I'm Frustrated with the Conservative party – A feeling that the political classes based in London are increasingly out of touch with real people.

You can read the rest of his very eloquently put reasons for joining UKIP on his blog.

UKIP councillors put on free bus for shoppers

UKIP councillors in Cambridgeshire have put on a free mini bus to ferry shoppers between Chatteris and Ramsey after the local Co-op supermarket closed and Tesco shelved plans to open a new supermarket in the town.

Ramsay was your first council in the country controlled by UKIP.

UKIP aims to abolish undemocratic cabinet system in Cambridgeshire

The leader of the UKIP group on Cambridgeshire County Council, Cllr Peter Reeve, has told the Ely Standard that he has enough pledges of support from Labour, Lib Dem and independent county councillors to prevent the Conservatives controlling the council.

Cllr Reeve wants to do away with the undemocratic cabinet system and replace it with all-party committees so no one party can dominate.

The UKIP plan is to create a rainbow cabinet for the next 12 months while the necessary changes are made to allow the cabinet system to be abolished.

Cllr Reeve is a Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Huntingdonshire District Councillors and Ramsey Town Councillor.

Huntingdon North By-election

The Lib Dims managed to cling on to the Huntingdon North seat in Cambridgeshire in a by-election yesterday.

The Tories took a vacant seat in the same district last year but the Lib Dims managed to replace the outgoing Lib Dim councillor with another one last night. UKIP doubled their vote share from the by-election last year to come third behind the Tories and in front of Liebour.

The results are as follows (last year's results in brackets):

Lib Dim: 243 (300) ( up +2.7%)
Conswervative: 213 (473)( down – 18.7%)
UKIP: 167 (83) = 22.3% ( up +14.1%)
Liebour: 123 (147) = 16.4% (up +1.8%)