Out for the count

As Labour reflect on a disastrous evening of local election results nationally, and a disappointing one locally, the inevitable question arises; what went wrong?

As the ballot boxes started to arrive at Elstree's Allum Lane Community Centre after the polls closed at 10pm, not many would have guessed that a few hours later the Conservatives would have become the dominant party in Borehamwood, pushing Labour into third place in the borough.

Given the previous week's bad headlines for the Labour government, local Conservatives started the evening in quietly confident mood.

Voters went to the polls across the country, with entire councils up for grabs, but in Hertsmere only 14 seats were contested and there was no chance that power could be wrested from the ruling Tory group.

It quickly became clear from Labour faces that this might not be their day. Previously solid Labour wards such as Kenilworth and Brookmeadow looked too close to call, and in traditional Tory wards in Aldenham East and Shenley officials weren't so much counting the Conservative votes as weighing them.

Results in Hertsmere have not always reflected national trends but if the Tories could make further inroads into Labour's vote in Borehamwood it could signal serious problems for the party elsewhere in the country. And so it proved.

The first shock of the night was in Brookmeadow ward where Conservative candidate Harvey Cohen turned a Labour majority of 249 into a Conservative majority of 103.

Interestingly, and against all predictions, turn out was fairly high, up 12 per cent on 2002 and particularly notable were the number of postal votes.

Defeated Labour candidate Ian Feeney said: "I thought I'd won when I saw the first returns but when the postal vote was added to the table it changed everything. They the Tories ran a smart campaign and got out their vote. I think we really missed a trick on the postal voting."

Mr Cohen said: "Undoubtedly my win was a mixture of two or three things, we fought a good campaign and on the back of what Labour are doing nationally, they shot themselves in the foot, but I do believe people are generally happy with the way the council is being run."

On a tense evening for everyone involved, nowhere was there more concern than on the faces of those gathered around the Kenilworth count. Early indications were that only a handful of votes separated Labour incumbent Ernie Butler from Conservative challenger Pat Strack.

After two or three recounts Mr Butler was left just 12 votes short of retaining his seat, to the dismay of Labour group leader Leon Reefe, family and friends and to the undisguised glee of Conservatives.

Mr Butler said: "It is obviously because of the Government, people didn't vote on local issues.

"I fought on local issues and my core vote came out, it was when the postal vote came in that we lost it. I am very disappointed, I want to help people in the community and I am worried for the people in Borehamwood that this Conservative administration will walk all over them."

Despite the closely fought, and at times bitter campaign, councillors from all sides paid tribute to the departing Mr Butler.

While results in the rest of the borough continued to go according to form it was in Borehamwood that the Conservatives had most to cheer about. In addition to picking up two seats in Brookmeadow and Kenilworth, Councillor Sandra Parnell increased her majority in the Hillside seat she first won four years ago by just 74 votes.

This time round she polled 1,245 votes and increased her majority to 504.

The one bright spot for Labour was in Cowley Hill, where Labour candidate Di Hoeksma edged out Conservative Darren Solomons by 86 votes.

In Elstree, Derrick Gunasekera increased his majority to 773 and the Liberal Democrat candidate Mark Silverman pushed Labour into third place, reflecting the new political landscape of the borough.

The Conservatives have increased their majority on the council from 13 to 17, the Liberal Democrats are the second largest group in Hertsmere with six seats (all in Bushey) and Labour have five (all in Borehamwood).

Council leader Neil Payne said: "Now the Conservatives hold more seats in Borehamwood than Labour, that's an incredible result. You wouldn't have believed it five years ago and we have held on to Hillside for the first time.

"We have a significant majority but the main thing was consolidating the Conservative position in Borehamwood, our majority has gone up and the other main difference is that the Lib Dems may want to be regarded as the official opposition party."

But was Thursday's vote a glowing endorsement of Hertsmere's ruling Conservatives or a damning indictment of Tony Blair's government?

Labour group leader Leon Reefe is in no doubt.

"The main reason we lost a couple of seats in Borehamwood is that Labour voters are still disenchanted with what's going on nationally and they are disinclined to come out and support good local candidates," he said.

"The Tories know that unless there is an unpopular Conservative government they will not lose control of the council and the majority of their councillors live outside Borehamwood.

"If they lost all of their councillors in Borehamwood it wouldn't affect them at all, they wouldn't care less."

Mr Payne said: "Obviously national events had a bearing but I still feel that locally we are providing good services."

Tory councillor Morris Bright added: "The reality is if we'd been doing badly as a local council we wouldn't have got re-elected.

"Yes, I think there is obviously an anti-government vote, but at the same time people are saying we've listened to what you've done and we like what you are doing."