FOUR of Frome’s six Somerset County Council seats have been won by the Green Party.
But it’s the Liberal Democrats who have taken overall control of the council, winning 61 of the 110 seats up for election. The Conservative Party – who previously had control of the council – won 36 seats; Green Party 5; Labour 5; and 3 seats were won by independent candidates.
In Frome, Martin Dimery and Michael Dunk won seats for the Greens in the Frome West division; William Collins and Helen Kay won both seats in the Frome East division for the Greens; while in the Frome North division, seats went to Liberal Democrat Adam Boyden and Conservative Dawn Denton.
Speaking to Frome Times, cllr Martin Dimery from the Green Party, said, “We are absolutely delighted with the Frome West result, with myself and Michael Dunk getting in by a considerable margin, which was unexpected – we thought it would be tighter than it was.
“And we’re really thrilled that Frome East was won by Shane Collins and Helen Kay. And we improved our performance in Frome North as well, which was great.
“We’ve worked incredibly hard during this campaign, in terms of canvassing, leafleting – and the team we had behind us was enormous. I think if you’re Green you have to work harder than all the other parties to convince people to vote for us – and we did that. This is a tribute to all those that got involved – Frome now has predominantly Green representation.”
About how he feels to be part of what will be the new single unitary council, ‘Somerset Council’, which comes into effect next year in April, cllr Dimery said, “It was wonderful five years ago to make history (with John Clarke) and be the first Green Party representatives on Somerset County Council and it’s equally marvellous to be amongst the first few to take seats on the Somerset Council – it’s historic, and very gratifying to be amongst that group.”
More than 430,000 people were eligible to vote for the 337 candidates standing for the 110 seats. The turnout at the election by district was Mendip – 39.3%; Sedgemoor – 30%; Somerset West and Taunton – 38.73%; South Somerset – 38.15.
This year’s election was different as 110 councillors were elected – two in each of the 55 divisions – as Somerset prepares for the biggest change in local government in decades.
For their first year, the councillors will take responsibility for all current county council services and oversee the local government reorganisation to establish the single unitary ‘Somerset Council’ on 1st April 2023. District councils will remain until 31st March 2023 and the councillors serving on them will continue in their roles until that date.
From 1st April 2023, the 110 members of the unitary council will be responsible for services that are currently delivered by the county and four district councils, ranging from adults’ and children’s social care to highways and housing, and from libraries to planning and licensing.
The current councillors will officially stand down from their roles and hand over to the newly-elected councillors at midnight on 9th May.
Results for the Frome West division were: Martin Dimery (Green Party) 1,604 (elected); Michael Dunk (Green Party) 1,306 (elected); Richard Pinnock (Liberal Democrat) 1,139; Damon Hooton (Liberal Democrat) 1,098; Mike Rideout (Conservative) 441; Hilary Thomas (Conservative) 419; Byron Taylor (Labour) 225.
Results for the Frome East division were: William Shane Collins (Green Party) 1,171 (elected); Helen Kay (Green Party) 1,103 (elected); Janine Nash (Liberal Democrat) 975; Scott Ward (Independents for Frome) 975; Alex Lawrence-Berkeley (Liberal Democrat) 837; Eve Berry (Conservative) 587; Dan Wood (Conservative) 472.
Results for the Frome North division were: Adam Boyden (Liberal Democrat) 1,437 (elected); Dawn Denton (Conservative) 1,004 (elected); Christine Cockroft (Liberal Democrat) 955; John Clarke (Green Party) 794; Dale Spree (Conservative) 769; Lollie Melton (Green Party) 637; Steve Tanner (Independents for Frome) 625.
