Of course, we displayed our usual forensic like analysis and tipped a Tory hold (and then went on to Ockendon where we tipped a Lab gain……ho hum).

We looked at the effort, Tim Aker had put in over the last few years and just thought that UKIP might once again come up a little bit short.

But we were wrong and they had, all across the borough, a great night. Apart from Robert, they came second in Belhus, Chadwell St Mary, Grays Riverside and West Thurrock.

They also finished third in nine other wards.

It is interesting to note that Robert felt that the 55-65 year old vote held firm.

We interviewed Robert just after the declaration.

From a quiet interview in a corner of Aveley, Robert, one of nine UKIP candidates voted in, found himself in the media spotlight.

“I came away from the count, at the Civic Hall, with mixed emotions. On the one hand I was pleased that the Labour Party managed to take control of the Council on the other hand I was disappointed at the low turnout, along with little or no opposition, which enabled some Councillors with an already poor record and of questionable ability to retain their seats.

In view of the appallingly low turnout the candidates, with the possible exception of Labour Cllr Yash Gupta and Mr Robert Ray the UKIP candidate for Aveley and Uplands, have little cause to celebrate. None of them can claim they were given a resounding “personal” vote. Most voters probably voted for political Parties not for personalities.

My sympathies go to Martin Kerin, the Labour candidate for South Ockendon, who, despite the disgraceful conduct of Cllr Aaron Kiely and a Conservative candidate [Barry Johnson] with a proven good record as a Councillor, put up a good “fight” and only lost by a narrow margin. Congratulations Mr Johnson your return to the Council Chamber is well deserved.

As a resident of the Belhus Ward I cannot conclude without making mention of the candidate for Belhus, Cllr Sue Gray, who prefers to be known primarily as the Chair of the South Ockendon Residents Association [SORA] and secondly as a Councillor for South Ockendon rather than attending to her duties as a Councillor for the Belhus Ward.

Her victory was achieved, not by any effort on her part, but by lack of any effective opposition. She made little effort to make contact with the people of Belhus; either by leafleting or knocking on doors, as she arrogantly ignored them and took the Labour voters for granted. In view of her lack of effort it was particularly nauseating to witness her doing a victory jig and waving her arms in the air and then compound her unseemly conduct, when the result was formally announced, by contemptuously walking off without making a “thank you” speech to those who voted for her.

I fear for the next four years the sky over Belhus Ward is going to be “Gray” and cloudy with little prospect of fairer “weather” to come.

Well, John has got his wish and after gaining overall control, he now has a two year run at steering the council through the double dip recession and so much more.

It was hardly a stunning victory. More a 1-0 victory against a lacklustre opposition, prone to scoring own goals.

How Labour did not win Ockendon is a moot point. (another great prediction-Ed). They do like a local candidate up there. You just wonder how Labour managed to lose. In 2008, they gained 35% of the vote; 2010 36%. In 2011, 41% of the vote and this year, 39%. That was quite a spike last year for Labour wasn’t it?

All we know is that all they are left with in Ockendon is Aaron Kiely, who was seen campaigning along with Lord Lucan, Amelia Earhart, Richey Edwards and Jimmy Hoffa. On a serious note, many believe that, regardless of the slim majority, he is on a final warning.

His first task will be to form a cabinet. There may well be changes as he looks to divide up some portfolios and may well bring in fresh and vibrant talent. Reliable hands such as Martin Healy and Steve Liddiard may come in whilst he may be tempted to find a role for Victoria Holloway and even recently elected Richard Speight.

He may feel the need to divide up the culture, leisure, crime, kitchen sink portfolio

There is no doubt that the partnership between the leader of the council and the chief executive, Graham Farrant has been a fruitful one. It helps that John is a full time politician but with the power comes a lot of responsibility over the next two years.

There are concerns in some quarters that the world of consultants and special assistants have all slowly crawled back into the infrastructure of Thurrock Council. Many have an eye on the Chief Executive’s Delivery Unit and how much that it costs? The obvious rebuff is to also assess how much it will save.

Representatives from the private sector and voluntary sector continue to bemoan the “five people turning up to do one persons job” culture that appears to permeate the council.

When it was announced in mid-April that we had entered into a double-dip recession, the BBC interviewed a representative from the Institute of Directors. He simply stressed that there still needs to be cuts centred on bloated public sector. If he is right, then there is clearly more challenges for Mr Farrant and Mr Kent.

Having said all that, what messrs Farrant and Kent have delivered over the last two years is much more of a Thurrock roadmap. You get the sense that they are both deeply committed to delivering the big projects such as DP World, Purfleet Pride, Lakeside to name but a few.

Both Graham Farrant and John Kent appear committed and proud of what has been and can be achieved. John Kent is also robust in his scrutiny of issues such as the Dartford Tolls, Junction 30, Lower Dartford Airport and Boris Island.

You get the feeling that the business meetings, the Let’s Talk series, the increasing interest from the BBC all add up to the promotion of brand Thurrock.

It will be interesting to see how the Morrison contract comes along. The end game for the “Shape up or ship out” should be the “terminates by mutual consent” but we will see.

With education, we will see how “partnership working” comes along. Many of the head-teachers of academies, raise an eye brow at that phrase and also wonder what a lot of the local education authority staff do all day.

You get the feeling that although Terry Hipsey has taken the heat out of planning, there are a few mines in the fields of Thurrock.

So many challenges and so many opportunities. To the Thurrock resident, of whom the vast majority did not vote, they want to live a life of minimal intrusion. The aim of an effective council is to deliver that.

Below is an interview with cllr Kent conducted just after the election results were returned.

“It has been a great delight to meet so many residents during the election campaign and listening to the concerns expressed by them. Along with my other Labour colleagues we will do our best to work with our residents to find solutions to these issues which are bothering them.

As well as thanking the colleagues, friends and other supporters I also would like to express my appreciation to the opposition candidates who helped to conduct this election campaign in a good spirit.

May I also thank the local press for their interest in this election.

Cllr Yash Gupta,

Grays Thurrock Ward.

But it started badly with a calamitous manifesto launch which put council officers and police officers noses out of joint after publishing their photos as part of the promotional publicity.

It didn’t get any better.

It ended with an expensive wrap around in the Thurrock Gazette which ended up winding up Stephen Metcalfe as he seemed to also be totally excluded from the publicity and gave the impression that Thurrock just had one MP.

They could have and should have won Aveley but the chickens came home to roost. Alienating former loyal Tory councillors such as Colin Churchman, John Cowell and Amanda Prevost did not help. Claiming the chair of the community forum and independent candidate, Alan Field was not a real reverend was a pretty low blow and must have led the Tory candidate, Colin Adams, to wonder what type he had fallen in with.

For many Tories, cllr Terry Hipsey is the devil incarnate. You would have thought that they would have moved heaven and earth to remove him from Stanford West. Instead, they conspired to end up with a situation where a local Conservative ends up standing as an independent candidate, polls 379 votes, letting Hipsey through on the rails.

Such poor decision-making will end up with questions being asked of Tory leader Phil Anderson, who cut a peripheral character throughout the campaign. The campaign was taken off him by the MP’s office and it undermined his authority. It looked exactly as it does in the council chamber when the same people are passing notes to each other, behind his back.

The example of good practice has to be Ockendon candidate Barry Johnson. He was a well respected councillor and portfolio holder who believed that campaigning is all about the local man on local issues and being judged on that. He lost last year but said: so be it. He did the same this year and won.

He may well now make a leadership bid as he was planning to do last year. Perhaps Barry is the man, along with new councillor Andrew Roast and voice of reason Simon Wootton, who can bring sense to this. At the moment, the Tory group seem to be controlled by people who had their bike stolen every day when they were at school and still bear the scars.

They also have to look at the long list of the Tory disaffected.

Anne Cheale, Ian Harrison, Terry Hipsey, Kay Hipsey, Terry Piccolo, John Cowell, Amanda Prevost, Gareth Davies, Colin Churchman, Tim Aker, Ed Woods, Stuart St-Clair Haslam, Amanda Redsell to name a few.

The Tory mantra seems to be” Failed Tories, not one of us.” How many does it take for you to change your view? Or have the Tories (as a group) crossed over and started behaving less like a party and more like a cult?

What the Tories may want to consider is whether they need to develop a political philosophy and shape policy around that. It looks like most of them wouldn’t know Robert Peel from orange peel and that is why some policies, such as the campaign against the “re-alignment” of libraries made no political sense.

Of course, the Tories will say that this is mid-term blues and the Tories took a pasting all across the country but we go back to the assertion that they could have won this election.

Worryingly, the voters of The Homesteads, Stanford East and Corringham Town and Stanford West stayed at home with the Tories polling over a 1092 fewer votes in those three wards in 2012 than they did last year.

They now have a two year run to the next election. Spend the time wisely, re-engage the business community, develop a coherent political raison d’etre, drain the swamp and their time will come again.

Eddie Hardiman (Cons): 427

Stuart St.Clair-Haslam (UKIP): 182

Terry Hipsey (Lab): 457

Terry Piccolo (Independent): 379

Maj: 30

Turnout: 31%

Alan Field (Independent): 350

Clifford John Holloway (Labour): 385

Colin Leslie Adams (Conservative): 448

Paul Blake Burton (Lib Dems) 29

Robert David Victor Ray (UKIP): 495

Maj: 47

Turnout: 26%

Natalie Butcher (Lib-Dems): 40

Richard Speight (Lab):895

Roy Robert Jones (UKIP): 515

Thomas McGinn (National Front): 71

Maj: 243

Turnout: 33%

Barry Johnson (Cons): 900

David Paul Shirley (Lib-Dems): 40

Maggie O’Keeffe-Ray (UKIP): 321

Martin Christopher Kerin (Lab): 809

Maj: 91

Turnout: 29%

Claire Jones (Lib-Dems): 280

Eileen O’Reilly (Lab): 308

Joycelyn Redsell (Cons): 580

Raj Mistry (UKIP): 264

Maj:272

Turnout: 31%

Ian Bruce Holloway (Cons): 76

Lynn Worrall (Lab): 592

Mick Griffin (National Front): 140

Maj: 452

Turnout: 19%

Gareth Davies (Ind): 180

Letrois Bernard (Cons): 212

Matthew Parker (Liberal Democrats): 47

Oliver Gerrish (Labour): 815

Peter Philip Smith (UK Independence Party): 321

Maj: 494

Turnout: 24%

Liam Benjamin Preston (Labour): 704

Peter Geoffrey Henry Prendergast (UKIP): 567

Sue MacPherson (Cons): 815

Maj: 111

Turnout: 32%

Ashley Snell (Lib-Dem): 41

Roisin Frances Hewitt (Lab):290

Steven Maurice Mason (UKIP): 258

Susan Ann Little (Cons): 976

Maj:686

Turnout: 32%