One vote leads to labour’s first seat on West Berkshire Council

West Berkshire Council has its first red seat since its creation in 1998.

Labour’s Clive Taylor won a seat in the local elections last week by a majority of just one.

The Tilehurst Birch Copse councillor had been batting for a place on the district council (formerly Newbury District Council) for more than 20 years.

Mr Taylor was left feeling elated on Friday when he realised he had won a place over Lib Dem candidates Ceinwen Delia Lally and Andy Moore, as well as Conservative candidate Anthony Nicholas Linden by the one vote.

Mr Taylor now holds one of the two seats for his ward, alongside Conservative councillor Jo Stewart.

He said: “It has taken me a long time to get to this point to be elected. I am extremely happy to be elected in Birch Copse.

“It is a seat I have been standing in almost non-stop as it were, every four years since 1995.”

The parish councillor of eight years added: “I thought there was a chance I might win, but I thought it was an outside chance. So now I need to sit down as I have got a lot of issues that I want to deal with in Birch Copse; be it from potholes, dealing with inconsiderate parking, lots of concerns over housing and where it is built.

“I am already heavily involved in that.

“I have been involved in local politics in the Birch Copse environment but I need to look at the wider West Berkshire picture from here onwards.”