Brighton By-Election: Greens Win Hollingdean And Stanmer

Green candidate Zoë John has taken former Labour councillor Tracey Hill’s seat on Brighton and Hove City Council.

The by-election victory in Hollingdean and Stanmer gives the Green Party 20 out of the 54 seats on the council, with Labour down to 17.

Turnout was down to 31.94 per cent, or 3,756 of the 11,758 people registered to vote in the ward.

The ward includes Coldean, Falmer and the western side of Lewes Road down to the Vogue Gyratory.

In the 2019 election, Councillor Hill polled the highest number of votes of the three councillors elected in the ward for the second election in a row.

The results were

• Emma Dawson-Bowling née Hogan (Conservative) 745
• Leila Erin-Jenkins (Labour) 1,262
• Nigel Furness (Independent) 24
• Alex Hargreaves (Liberal Democrat) 47
• Zoë John (Green) 1,542 elected
• Des Jones (UKIP) 35
• Rob Somerton-Jones (Trade Union and Socialist Coalition) 54

There were 47 rejected ballots.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives managed to hold on to Patcham. 

Anne Meadows held the seat for the Tories, 27 years after she was first elected to Brighton Borough Council.

Councillor Meadows switched from Labour to the Conservatives in February 2019, after experiencing 18 months of attacks related to anti-semitism.

In the 2019 local elections she tried to retain her Moulsecoomb and Bevendean seat, which stayed Labour.

She has a 278 vote majority, significantly down from Councillor Wares’s 1,236 majority at the 2019 local elections.

The result today followed a strong challenge from Green candidate Eliza Wyatt.

Turnout was down to 43.84 per cent of the 11,106 registered to vote in a ward that includes Hollingbury.

The results were:

• Bruno De Oliveira (Labour) 879
• Charles Goodhand (UK Independence Party) 50
• Madelaine Hunter-Taylor (Liberal Democrat) 174
• Anne Meadows (Conservative) 2,011
• Eliza Wyatt (Green) 1,733

There were 23 rejected ballots.