THE Liberal Democrats produced a shock by-election result last night as candidate Jamie Capp won Amesbury East by just five votes.

The 20-year-old former Stonehenge School deputy head boy swept to victory in a seat not even contested by the party three years ago.

He secured just over a quarter of the votes (25.7 per cent), beating Conservative town councillor Robert Yuill into second place.

The election was called following the resignation of Conservative John Noeken, who had narrowly beaten UKIP candidate Jim Pitt by 24 votes in 2013.

The Liberal Democrats did not field a candidate in either Amesbury East or Amesbury West three years ago.

But now they hold Amesbury for the first time since John Edgley won in 1993 on the now defunct Wiltshire County Council.

Cllr Capp is a former representative on the UK Youth Parliament, where he campaigned on public transport, education and the environment.

He said the result was completely unexpected but felt his campaign had resonated with voters who felt disillusioned with the current Conservative administration.

"It was a surprise for all of us, we were thinking we were doing well but obviously it is a seat we had not won for a long time," he said. "I thought we might put up a strong second, but I thought 'we were not going to win this thing' — but we did.

"I think everyone was very shocked, nobody expected the result to go the way it did."

Cllr Capp has lived in Amesbury for 15 years and although he is currently a student at LSE he feels is more than capable of juggling his studies and duties as a councillor.

"Because I'm relatively young one of the big things [I'm fighting for] is the youth services in Amesbury and across Wiltshire," he added.

"Our council has pursued a terrible scorched earth policy where it is cutting services for the most vulnerable people in our community.

"It is all very well that some communities can step in and provide a good youth service but some can't and in these situations the council should be providing a service.

"In Amesbury, when they closed the local youth club for a time crime rates rose dramatically and when the LYN (Local Youth Network) was able to step in and actually do something they fell again. It demonstrates the importance of services like this."

Full Result:
Jamie Capp (Lib Dem): 361 (25.7%)
Robert Yuill (Con): 356 (25.4%)
Andy Derry (Ind): 292 (20%)
Les Webster (UKIP): 217 (15.5%)
Steve McAuliffe (Lab): 133 (9.5%)
Joshua Baker (Green): 60 (4.2%)
Turnout: 31%