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Updated
Results are in for Northumberland County Council elections.
In unprecedented scenes, two seats were declared a deadheat after their counts and had to be decided by ballot draws – in scenes similar to 2017, when the last seat to declare was tied and decided by drawing straws, which the Tories lost, leaving them one seat short of an overall majority.
The Conservatives had gone into this year’s election looking to gain the one seat needed for the 34 seats required for overall control of the authority – and got off to a great start making inroads in south-east Northumberland.
Among the big scalps to fall were Labour s Deirdre Campbell and Ian Swinthenbank, plus group leader Susan Dungworth who lost her Hartley seat to the Conservatives’ David Ferguson following the first ballot draw of the night after both secured 868 votes.
The Conservatives made significant gains and Labour performed poorly in the first 2021 local election results to emerge.
Far fewer councils have declared results than is the norm for the post-election Friday morning, with the complexities of organising election counts at a time of social distancing meaning a majority decided to delay the process until today or over the weekend.
Of the first few councils to declare, the Conservatives gained Dudley MBC, Northumberland CC and Nuneaton & Bedworth BC from no overall control, and Harlow BC direct from Labour.
At 10.45am, the Conservatives had gained 59 councillors and Labour lost 58 across the country.
Susan Dungworth. A NEW leader for the Northumberland Labour Group will need to be elected following a major blow in the 2021 county council elections. The group s leader Susan Dungworth lost her seat in Hartley in the most dramatic of fashion, with the outcome of the vote decided by a rare ballot box draw. The terms of the draw mean that, if two or more candidates receive the exact same number of votes, their names are put in the ballot box and the name pulled out of the box is declared the winner. The names Susan Dungworth and Tory candidate David Ferguson were put into the box after receiving 868 votes each, but it was Coun. Ferguson s name pulled out and he will now serve the ward for the next four years.
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