FOUR years ago, by dint of a series of political circumstances, it appeared that the main four candidates, had Conservative connections. Due to that, the Labour candidate, Terry Hipsey, was able to slip home on the inside.
Cllr Hipsey has gone over to fight at Stanford East and Corringham Town.
This has always felt like a Conservative ward and that has been underpinned by having a Conservative councillor such as Shane Hebb, who has done a lot to maintain their credibility.
Cllr Hebb won in 2015 with 42% of the vote despite strong showing by a semi-detached UKIP candidate and an over-zealous Labour candidate.
The candidate is community stalwart, Terry Piccolo who, we feel, will make a really valuable contribution to the council. He would be an asset on a number of committees but we don’t think he would thank us for suggesting which ones..
Labour still think they could/can take this ward but you feel they really needed a candidate who was going to be embedded into the Stanford society and get themselves known in the community.
The fact that they have not begs a number of questions and if they do lose Thurrock Council may see them accused of surrendering large parts of Thurrock.
And if that happens, we would like to think a post mortem may have to kick some backsides.
YT prediction: Cons gain
Stanford-le-Hope West
David Hann – Labour
Lee Lloyd – UKIP
Terry Piccolo – Conservative
