COUNCILLORS Edward Heron and Michael Thierry who represent Fordingbridge and Ringwood have retained their seats on Hampshire County Council.

Cllr Heron (Conservatives) remains the representative for the Lyndhurst and Fordingbridge division after receiving 3,027 votes.

Hilary Brand (Liberal Democrats) came second with 1,063 votes followed by Janet Richards (Green) with 928 and James Swyer (Labour) with 443.

Read more: Elections 2021: All the results from around Hampshire

In a Facebook post, Cllr Heron, who is also the leader of New Forest District Council and represents the Downlands and Forest ward, said: “Thank you to everyone who supported me to continue to serve as their representative for the Lyndhurst and Fordingbridge Division at Hampshire County Council.”

There is also no change for the Ringwood division as Councillor Thierry (Conservatives) held on to his seat with 2,439 votes.

Peter Kelleher (Labour) received 772 votes, while Nicola Jolly (Green Party) had 645 and Alexander Brunsdon (Liberal Democrats) had 410.

Cllr Thierry said he was "delighted" to be elected again and his key focus was "putting Ringwood first".

On being able to continue to represent the people of Ringwood, he added: "It is a unique honour to be able to do that."

Cllr Thierry received a significant number of votes. He said: "It was not a tight contest in many ways it was a landslide victory as the previous time was.

"That just demonstrates, I hope, the faith and trust that people have placed in me and I need to return that by the commitment I promise to give them."

The Conservative Party also retained overall control of the authority.

Conservative leader Councillor Keith Mans retained his Brockenhurst seat.

He said: “I had not expected such a good result. We polled more than 50 per cent of the vote and returned exactly the same number of councillors than we did in 2017 thanks to the hard work by all our candidates and our supporters.

“This gives us a very good working majority to take forward our policies in the future. Our main aim now is to assist in any way we can to help Hampshire’s economy recover from the pandemic.”

The turnout for the 2021 County Council elections was 38 per cent of the electorate.

Hampshire County Council consists of 76 electoral divisions with 78 councillors, two of these (Leesland & Town, Gosport and Fareham Town) are two Member wards.

The leader of the county council along with the chairman and vice chairman will be appointed at the authority’s annual general meeting on May 27. The newly elected leader will also confirm appointments to the Cabinet.

During Thursday’s elections a by-election was also held for the Ringwood North ward on Ringwood Town Council. Derek Scott (Conservatives) was elected with 788 votes.

Paul Iggulden (Labour) received 427 votes while Luke Andrew Thomas Dadford (Lib Dems) received 349.

Get more Forest Journal news 

You can also like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date.

Email newsdesk@salisburyjournal.co.uk with your comments, pictures, letters and news stories.