Solicitor Ben Shepherd became the newest Conservative town councillor in Wellington on Thursday evening (26th October 2017) winning a by-election in the South ward.
Ben’s victory gave the Conservatives their second gain from Labour this year, after Lynda Russell-Cairns also won a by-election in the Rockwell Green ward in February.
Polling 165 votes, Ben was comfortably ahead of the Liberal Democrat candidate’s 127 votes, while Labour took just 17 votes on a turnout just shy of 32 per cent.
It was a first-time victory for Ben, who had never previously stood for election, although he helped with MP Rebecca Pow’s General Election campaign and also worked alongside Wellington division candidate Robin Dickinson in May’s County Council elections.
His success also helped to demonstrate the growing strength of the Conservative team in Wellington, who have been boosting membership and recruiting active new campaigners in recent months.
Ben said: “I am really looking forward to being a new voice for Wellington on the town council.
“I feel extremely proud that residents have put their trust in me to represent them and I will do my very best to help people with any issues and to make Wellington an even nicer community in which to live.
“The campaign we ran as Conservatives was built around our achievements for the community and the issues that matter most to local people, and I was delighted that voters responded so positively to our messages.
“We now have an even stronger Conservative team on the town council and we will continue to work closely with our Conservative colleagues who run both the Deane and county councils.”
Ben and his wife Jenny, who is also a solicitor and works in Wellington, have a one-year-old son, Ezra, and two dogs Herbie and Meg.
He specialises in litigation and has worked extensively with the NHS, protecting hospital trusts from being sued by private contractors.