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Local democracy takes another hit: no contest for Marlborough Town Council seats – but election goes ahead for the area’s four Wiltshire Council seats

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There will be no election for councillors to sit on the Marlborough Town Council that starts work in May.  Each of the town’s two wards has eight seats.  The East Ward has the full eight people nominated – the West Ward has one vacant place.

Five Councillors who will represent the East Ward on the new council have served on the present town council: Peggy Dow, Lisa Farrell (who is due to be Town Mayor in 2018-2019), Alexander Kirk Wilson, Mervyn Hall (who becomes Town Mayor in May), and Andy Ross.  The new faces will be: Harry Forbes (ind), Edward Northeast (Ind) and Andy Wilson.

The West Ward will be represented by four councillors who are on the present council: Noel Barrett-Morton (the current Town Mayor who will be the only declared Conservative on the new town council), Bryan Castle, Nick Fogg and Guy Loosmore.  The new faces are Peter Cairns (Ind), Mark Cooper (LibDem) and Susie Price (Ind). 

Present councillors who will be missing from the new town council are Stewart Dobson, Marian Hannaford-Dobson, Richard Allen, Alec Light, Billy Lam, Margaret Rose and Justin Cook.  So there is one place left for someone else to be co-opted onto the Town Council.

None of the parish councils in the Marlborough Community Area will have contested elections.  This is not the case throughout the county – for instance Heytesbury Parish Council has ten vacant seats with eighteen people nominated for the election.

There will be a vote on May 4 for the four Marlborough area seats for Wiltshire Council.   The candidates are as follows (* indicates the current councillor) :

Marlbourgh East:  Katherine Grace Davis (Lab),  *Stewart Raymond Dobson (Cons),  John Alexander Kirk Wilson (LibDem).

Marlborough West: Sylvia Christine Card (Lab),  *Nick Fogg (Ind),  Tamara Louise Reay (Cons.)

Aldbourne & Ramsbury:  Fran Bishop (LibDem),  Jason Steven Haythornthwaite (Lab),  *James Henry Sheppard (Cons),  Brian Roy Utton (Green.)  

West Selkley: Jane Frances Davis (Cons),  Matthew James Bowman Lee (Lab),  Sara Elizabeth Spratt (LibDem.)

Across the county the are 322 nominations for the 98 seats on Wiltshire Council.  The nominated candidates are:  98 Conservatives, 3 Devizes Guardians, 25 Green Party, 26 Independent, 72 Labour, 89 Liberal Democrats, one ‘Together We Can Reform’, and 8 UKIP.