UKIP gain Basildon Laindon Park & Fryerns from Labour

UKIP candidate Frank Ferguson has taken the Basildon Laindon Park & Fryerns seat on Essex County Council from Labour in a by-election.

Cllr Ferguson beat the leader of the Labour group on Basildon Council to bring the tally of UKIP councillors on Essex County Council up to six and leaving Labour on seven.

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Frank Ferguson	UKIP	2034	42.59
Gavin Callaghan	Labour	1600	33.50
Gary Maylin	Conservatives	878	18.38
Philip Rackley	Greens	264	5.53

Essex Conservative resigns from cabinet over conflict of interests

An Essex Conservative councillor has resigned from his cabinet position after failing to register his interest in a company being awarded a contract by his council.

Cllr Derrick Louis was cabinet member for corporate services at Essex County Council which includes responsibility for procurement. He failed to update his register of interests to include his Chairmanship of Provide CIC which the council has awarded contracts to provide health and social care services.

Cllr Louis says that he has done "nothing dishonest" and is resigning to save embarrassment for the Conservatives Party.

Essex County Councillor joins UKIP

Independent Essex County Councillor for Canvey Island, Brian Wood, has joined UKIP.

Cllr Wood will be the first UKIP councillor on Essex County Council which is comfortably controlled by the Tories at the moment.

I have thought long and hard about this and I came to the conclusion that without the support of a credible political party, with realistic aims, policies and plans to achieve them, I can’t get the best results for my constituents. Having studied the wide ranging manifesto being offered by UKIP, I realised that they are the only Party offering a sensible alternative to the ‘spend us into trouble’ Labour Party and the disastrous and rapidly disintegrating Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition. Judging by UKIP’s steadily improving domestic election results, it is clear that the public has also noticed that they are the best hope for Britain.

Another second place for UKIP

UKIP had an excellent result in the election to fill expenses thief, Lord Hanningfield's vacant seat on Essex County Council.

The seat was, unsurprisingly, retained by the Tories as you would expect from a "true blue" seat with 1,820 votes but the UKIP candidate, Jesse Pryke, came second with 736.

Third place went to Labour with just 273 votes, fourth to the Lib Dems with 160 and the communist Green Party candidate received just 80 votes.

Obviously a win would have been a better result but second place in an election contested by all three of the LibLabCon is still an excellent result.