New Spalding Monks House district and Spalding West county councillors announced after by-elections

New county and district councillors have been announced following a pair of by-elections for part of Spalding.

Conservatives were delighted to buck the national trend and pick up a district council seat previously held by Independent Angela Newton by a big margin.

The Monks House ward race was narrowly won by Stephen Timewell - the man behind the Spalding Flower Parade revival - who edged out Sam Chauhan by just 12 votes.

South Holland Independents held onto Angela's county council seat, however, with Manzur Hasan beating Conservative contender Paul Redgate to win the chance to represent Spalding West at County Hall.

Even this represented a swing to the Tories - with the 2021 election having seen Angela picking up 80.7% of the vote.

On a freezing cold day, turnout was low for both seats - with 17.8% for the district ward and 13.8% for the county contest.

The results were announced at the Bromley Memorial Hall in Pode Hole.

The full results were:

*Spalding Monks House district council seat

Sam Chauhan (Ind): 363 votes

Stephen Timewell (Con): 375 votes

Turnout 17.8% (740 voters from an electorate of 4150)

*Spalding West county council seat

Manzur Hasan (Ind): 676 votes

Paul Redgate (Con): 393 votes

Turnout 13.8% (1075 voters from an electorate of (7808)

The by-election had been called due to the death of Angela Newton. Her fellow Independent councillor Anthony Cronin still holds the second district council seat in the Spalding Monks House ward.