ANDREW Long has spoken of his delight after retaining his Cornwall Council seat for Callington and St Dominic in last week’s local elections.

Unlike many other areas across South East Cornwall, the long-serving councillor held off the threat of Reform UK rival, Mark Johns, to ensure he will once again represent his division into a 17th year.

Cllr Long, who will be one of three Mebyon Kernow representatives on the new council, polled 844 votes, 153 more than Mr Johns who was second. Billy Doidge of the Liberal Democrats totalled 226, Mark Jerman (Conservative) 158 and George Muirhead (Labour) 84.

Speaking after his election, Cllr Long said: “It’s been a very long day, but I’m very relieved to have retain my seat. It looked a little dodgy at the start, but in the end my vote held up well.

“What we’ve seen is a lot of Tory voters switch to Reform and there was a bigger Liberal Democrat vote then expected but, as I said, I’m very pleased to win.”

A stalwart of local politics in and around Callington and St Dominic for many years, Cllr Long acknowledged the changing tide in mood amongst voters, adding: “These are very strange times. There is a big protest going on at the moment about how people feel they are being treated by central government.

“It’s disappointing that they have used that as a hammer blow to hit some very hard-working councillors across Cornwall, but I’m pleased that myself and a couple of others have stayed the course and that we’ve won our seats – and that we will again be able to bring strong representation to Truro.”

With a total of 28 new Reform councillors in office, Cllr Long knows it will be a much changing chamber he will be heading back in to.

“Yes, there’s a worry over the amount of new faces, but in 2009 when the unitary came in, it was exactly the same then. We just have to get on with it!”

In the nearby division of Lynher, there will be a new face with Reform’s Jim Gale taking over the seat from Sharon Daw (Conservatives), who held the post since 2017.

He was one of eight new Reform councillors elected within South East Cornwall, defeating Adam Sturtridge of the Liberal Democrats by 80 votes. Next best was Andrew Budd (Conservatives) 424, Martin Conway (Green Party) 146 and Annette Lee (Labour) 104.

There was also change in Calstock, where another Reform candidate, Angus Black, was duly elected.

Despite a close battle with Labour’s Lara Kramer (661), Cllr Black totalled 720 votes to take the seat for the first time. Third spot went to Andrew Brown (Liberal Democrats) 478, Jim Flashman (Conservatives) 409 and Natasha Ransom (Green Party) 162.

In his acceptance speech, Cllr Black thanks his family, friends, party and voters for their support throughout his campaign. He said: “I want to promise you all that this party will pull the country back from the precipice, one community at a time.”