Less than 10 per cent of residents cast their vote as Labour claim parish seat

THE two candidates, who stood in the Winwick by-election on April 10, have blamed the parish council for failing to publicise the vote with more than 90 per cent of residents failing to take part.

Labour candidate Mike Matthews was victorious, beating UKIP candidate Andrew Fairfoull to the seat in the Houghton ward, with 118 to 66, respectively.

But less than 10 per cent of voters bothered to turn out for the vote with Clr Matthews describing it as ‘a very poor return’.

Clr Matthews, who has already raised concerns about the ability of the parish council following two compensation claims last year, said: “We have a parish council that calls the election at the wrong time, in the wrong ward and then gives it no publicity.

“The result being that more than 1,750 people did not vote. If I were a parish precept payer in Winwick I’d have to be asking is this a well run and efficient council or not?”

Mr Fairfoull said he was also ‘unimpressed’ by the whole process.

He said: “My team and I delivered election literature to every household in the ward, stressing how UKIP puts local people first.

“As the election approached, it was decided to knock on individual householders’ doors to find out what the local issues were.

“To my dismay, a large number of householders did not even know that there was an election since they had not received a polling card.”

Mr Fairfoull believes the parish council needs to make changes. He added: “Vacancies on parish councils frequently left standing for long periods in the past should be filled.”