Labour Take Former Conservative Seat In Rottingdean

Labour are celebrating victory after taking a seat from the Conservatives in Rottingdean Coastal ward for the first time after a hard-fought election.

The new Labour councillor Robert Mcintosh has an 88-vote majority after Independent candidate Stephen White ran a close race to take second place.

Former Conservative councillor Lynda Hyde finished third.

Dr Mcintosh takes over the seat vacated after the resignation of former Conservative councillor Joe Miller.

Carmen Appich, Robert Mcintosh And Lloyd Russell Moyle MP

After council chief executive Geoff Raw announced the result in the early hours of this morning (Friday 6 May), Dr Mcintosh said:

“They (Labour campaigners) thought it was going to be a landslide. It wasn’t. A majority of 88 is a fair number. I’m very pleased about that.

“We’ve got a number of attractive policies. The Labour Party policy of regulating developers so they can’t sell properties off plan to people who won’t live here or people using them as Airbnb was my lead one.

“Even when knocking on traditionally Conservative doors, people were saying, ‘that’s a good idea’ that combined with licensing of landlords to improve the standard of rental accommodation.”

Political power on Brighton and Hove City Council remains in no overall control with the Green Party as a minority administration, with 20 of the 54 seats.

Rottingdean Coastal ward’s once completely blue set of seats is now a red, white and blue as the other two representatives are Independent Bridget Fishleigh and Conservative Mary Mears.

The turnout was 44.01 per cent, with 4,896 ballots out of an electorate of 11,124.

There were 19 rejected ballots.

In the 2019 whole council election, 45.85 per cent of the electorate voted:

Libby Darling (Green) 504
Lynda Hyde (Conservative) 1,185
Robert Mcintosh (Labour) 1,443 elected
Stewart Stone (Liberal Democrat) 168
Stephen White (Independent) 1,355
Alison Wright (Independent) 222

The council’s political make up is now:

Green Party 20
Labour 16
Conservative 12
Independent 6

The full council is up for election in 2023.