The Ashfield Independents have secured another landslide majority on the district council despite difficulties including one of their councillors being convicted since the last election. The counting of votes at the new Kirkby Leisure Centre, which began at 10pm on Thursday (May 4), initially saw some difficult results for the Ashfield Independents as the Conservative and Labour party each made a gain.
But the party then began to make successive gains and hold current seats, with the victory of Tom Hollis being the one which took them to the key number of 18 councillors needed to form an overall majority. The re-election of Councillor Hollis comes despite his conviction in court last year for careless driving and harassment offences.
But speaking about whether such issues came up during the campaign, Ashfield Independents leader Jason Zadrozny said: "We've had all sorts come up because obviously everybody tried to use things against us and social media has become a bit of a nasty place to be, but I think people have seen through that. This was a council election and it's about council issues.
Read more: Live Nottinghamshire local elections updates as counts continue
"We have had some tough challenges and this is a chance for us to rebuild trust in residents that have switched away from us this time and prove over the next four years that we do what we say on the tin." It was a difficult night for opposition parties, with the Conservatives ending up with two councillors and Labour just one.
One of the remaining Conservative councillors is Phil Rostance, who won in Hucknall West. He said: "After losing my seat in the county, we feared the worst, so to be re-elected in 2023 is really humbling but at the same time it's really sad. This is the first time I've been elected without my dad to the district council. It's mixed emotions and there's only one of me, but I will be a big voice for Hucknall West.
"The Ashfield Independents are a campaign machine. They get out to the electorate with so many leaflets that we just can't compete with." The final number of 32 Ashfield Independent councillors means they are in fact better positioned than they were following the 2019 local elections, when they won 30 seats.
Turnout in some wards was relatively high, though in others it was as low as 25% amid concern about the potential impact of new voter ID rules. Whether Jason Zadrozny continues as Ashfield Independents leader will be decided at a party meeting later this month.
In terms of priorities for the next four years, Jason Zadrozny added: "We've started a job, particularly on the Towns Fund, that's a massive job to finish. We've started a massive process of regeneration and we want to finish that."
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