What a fantastic couple of days for the Green Party! Although we may not have gained many seats this time round, either in Parliament or locally, we have achieved such an incredible amount that we really have something worth celebrating!
Here are some of our amazing local successes:
In the General Election:
We saved our deposits in:
•Bournemouth West – 3,107 votes (7.4%).
•Bournemouth East – 3,263 votes (7.3%).
•Dorset North – 3,038 votes (5.7%).
•Dorset West – 3,242 votes (5.7%).
Unfortunately we missed the 5% threshold (but how close we were!) in:
•Dorset South – 2,275 votes (4.6%), 155 votes short (we would have needed 2,430).
•Poole – 2,198 votes (4.6%), 172 votes short (we would have needed 2,370).
•Christchurch – 2,149 votes (4.3%), 337 votes short (we would have needed 2,486).
•Mid Dorset & North Poole – 1,321 votes (2.8%), 1,004 votes short (we would have needed 2,325)
In the Local Elections:
Our candidate for Winton East (Bournemouth), Simon Bull, was declared a councillor, but the Conservatives have requested a recount, which will take place on Monday morning – watch this space!
Mike Hawkes has been appointed councillor in the parish of West Moors and Holt.
We have fielded 106 candidates and, where the results have been declared, it is evident that we have achieved very respectable voting numbers.
Results for Christchurch, East Dorset and Purbeck have not yet been posted – perhaps there will be more good news to follow!
Thank you to all our candidates, both Parliamentary and Local, for doing such a great job of representing the Green Party.
And more generally:
•We have learnt so much, and we have a very solid foundation to build on for the next election
•Members and supporters have given a massive amount of help, especially in the last few weeks, with design, printing, co-ordinating and delivering leaflets
•Local meetings, public events, door-to-door canvassing, trialing of sophisticated new software
•Lots of activity at Hustings, some local but mainly Parliamentary, including one televised debate
•A great deal of Social Media activity
•Student involvement
•Well-attended and highly visible street stalls in many town centres across our area
•Many visits to Bournemouth University, including some all-day campaigns
•Thousands of email enquiries fielded from members of the public, students, 38 Degree members and other campaign groups
•Help with student assignments
•Building up of borough, ward, and local community groups and a network of local organisers
•Front of house and behind the scenes work
A huge thank you to all of you who have given so much time, energy, effort, and money. And to those of you who feel you may not have contributed in any active way, your support has been an inspiration to all of us. Our membership and supporter numbers have grown beyond all expectation.
As our Election Co-ordinator remarked at our last meeting, this election is a rehearsal for the next one. We will be starting making plans for that as soon as we have got our breath back.
Our post-election party will be later this month.
Helen Woodall
UPDATE: SIMON BULL IS ELECTED TO REPRESENT THE WINTON WARD IN BOURNEMOTH 🙂
