Low turn out to vote

Conservative Nicky Dykes has won the Bromley Town by-election for a seat on Bromley council.

The by-election followed the resignation of fellow Conservative Diana MacMull who is moving from the area.

Poor weather saw a low turn out of 42.76 per cent.

Ms Dykes won 2,484 votes, with the Lib Dem candidate Sam Dunning Webber in second place with 1,137 votes. Labour’s Angela Stack secured 1,051 votes and the Green candidate Ann Christine Garrett had 404 votes.

Owen Brolly for the UK Independence Party won 397 votes.

Bromley and Chislehurst Conservative MP Bob Neill said: “Nicky has done fantastically well to win this hard-fought by-election and I have every confidence that she will repay the electorate of Bromley Town with years of dedicated hard work and public service.”

Bromley Council leader Steven Carr said: “It’s a pretty significant result, people are pleased with how the Conservatives have been running Bromley Council.

“Our vote is way up from 2006 and 2010 while everyone else’s is down.”

The turnout could give an indication of the number of voters in the ward who also cast their ballot in the Mayoral and London Assembly elections yesterday.

Bromley had been identified as one of the four key London boroughs which could swing the mayoral election.

The Conservative vote in the ward was down 0.1 per cent from the 2008 assembly list, with Labour up 5 per cent, the Lib Dems bucking the national trend by being up 7 per cent.

The Green vote was up 2 per cent, with the UKIP vote up 4 per cent.

Less parties were on the by-election ballot than the 2008 assembly list.

The Bexley and Bromley constituency has been held by the Conservative candidate James Celeverly.