One week on: expanded North Herts Lib Dem Council group gets to work

A week ago, the North Hertfordshire district council elections took place. And the big winners on the day were the Liberal Democrats.

The party won five seats in a single election. This almost doubled the size of the local council group overnight - taking us from 6 to 11 councillors within our group - saw the party accrue the second highest vote share of all the main parties in the area and took the council out of Conservative control.

There were many notable wins on the day, including:

• Keith Hoskins MBE racking up 1600 votes in Hitchin Highbury, increasing our total votes in the ward by nearly 400 from Cllr Sam Collins' landmark result the previous year.
• Carol Stanier took over 50% of the vote in Royston Heath, locking the ward our alongside Cllr Ruth Brown.
• Tom Tyson became the first non Conservative to represent Arbury ward since 1987.
• Sam North swept to victory in Cadwell, taking the party from 4th to 1st in the course of a single election campaign.
• Sean Prendegast defeated the council leader on the drawing of lots in Letchworth South West.
• Steve Jarvis also retained the council seat of Weston and Sandon with nearly 80% of the votes.

Understandably, we're delighted at the results. But that has not meant that we've been resting on our laurels. Already, our newly expanded council group has met to discuss how we can use our increased presence on the council to drive forward a sustainable, green, pro business and pro resident agenda across the area.

We campaigned to deliver change across North Hertfordshire following decades of Conservative inactivity and complacency. And we aim to do just that in the coming weeks, months and years for the benefit of all.