THE CONSERVATIVES have secured an overall majority on Worcester City Council on a day which saw Labour lose four wards. Big victories for the Conservatives in the city’s Gorse Hill, Nunnery and Warndon wards as well as a big win for the Green Party in the Arboretum ward meant Labour lost four seats leaving the Tories with an overall majority of one. Labour also lost veteran councillor Roger Berry in Gorse Hill, a ward he has represented for 25 years, as well as former parliamentary candidate and deputy leader Joy Squires on another dreadful day for the party. James Stanley, who won in Gorse Hill in the county council elections, claimed another victory for the Conservatives in the area which is now represented by two Tory councillors having been a Labour stronghold for years.
IN the first of our profiles ahead of next month’s local elections, today we are taking a closer look at the city’s Arboretum ward. Joy Squires has so far been re-elected twice in Arboretum for Labour after first securing a place in the two-councillor ward in 2008 and is hoping for a hat-trick on May 6 in the delayed local elections. In fact, the ward has traditionally been a strong heartland for Labour for many years and there will be a big hope that it will be remain so in the tightly contested battle for control of the Guildhall. Labour’s margin of victory has fluctuated over the last couple of elections having come up triumphant by 225 votes last time out in 2019 and 568 votes in 2016, 299 votes in 2015 and 478 votes in 2012 before that.