Liberal Democrats comfortably hold a County seat and a Chelmsford City seat in Essex Bye-Elections

Liberal Democrat Paul Bentham has just become the first person ever elected as a Chelmsford CITY Councillor, in Patching Hall ward, and Stephen Robinson has been elected in the Chelmsford North division of Essex County Council.

The results were:

CHELMSFORD NORTH (Essex County Council)
Lib Dem Stephen Robinson 1614 (42%)
Conservative 941 (24%)
Labour 711 (18%)
UKIP 435 (11%)
Green 128 (11%)

PATCHING HALL (Chelsford City)
Liberal Democrat Paul Bentham 842 (42%)
Conservative 488 (25%)
Labour 309 (16%)
UKIP 263 (13%)
Green 84 (4%)

Speaking after the count, Stephen Robinson spoke on behalf of himself and Paul Bentham. He thanked the excellent Liberal Democrat team who helped the campaign, and the people of Patching Hall and North Chelmsford for their votes. Stephen said that he was delighted to be elected but at the same time sad that there had to be an election to replace Tom Smith-Hughes, who died in April. Stephen said that he and Paul would do their best to live up to the fine example set by Tom.

The results show that the Liberal Democrat vote is holding up well with one result showing a 5% fall in support but the other a 4% increase in support. This shows popular support is roughly at 2009 levels - a good period for Liberal Democrats in the local elections. The Conservative vote was down by 7% in both contests. Labour showed mixed results with a 10% increase in the county division, but a 2% drop in the city ward. This shows that in real elections the Labour resurgence is actually weak or non-existent.