Photo finish sees Lib Dems gain Amesbury East

Wiltshire 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.

"All we could do was go out there and make our case," said newly elected Cllr Jamie Capp who now ranks as one of the youngest councillors in the country, "we spent the last 6 weeks talking to residents and trying to show them how hard I would work."

"It is a huge honour to be elected to represent the community I have lived in for 15 years and hopefully I can represent it effectively on Wiltshire Council."

"I want to thank the returning staff, the count staff and all candidates and agents for a tough fight, now though it is time to get on with the real work."

Jamie's priorities including standing up for Amesbury against the scorched earth policy he and fellow Lib Dems feel is being pursued towards local services such as youth and bus services.

The results were as follows:

Jamie Capp (Lib Dem): 361 (25.7%)
Conservative: 356 (25.4%)
Independant: 292 (20%)
UKIP: 217 (15.5%)
Labour: 133 (9.5%)
Green: 60 (4.2%)