History made as voters elect Worthing’s first Green councillor

THE Green Party secured an historic victory in the town’s Central ward with James Doyle becoming Worthing’s first ever Green councillor.

Mr Doyle won the seat with nine votes more than Conservative Alex Harman.

He said: “I’m so pleased for everybody who worked incredibly hard on this campaign. The first step is convincing people the Green vote is going to count for something and we have shown that today. I’m really looking forward to working with the people of Central ward. We have had other strong results in Worthing today. This is hopefully a breakthrough and we would like to build on this.”

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Mr Doyle added that he did not plan on being in a group of one for long.

WH 230514  James Doyle, Worthing's first Green councillor, celebrates being electedWH 230514  James Doyle, Worthing's first Green councillor, celebrates being elected
WH 230514 James Doyle, Worthing's first Green councillor, celebrates being elected

Although Mr Harman was on the wrong end of a narrow defeat, council leader Paul Yallop was quick to praise him and other young candidates who achieved success in the elections.

Mr Yallop said he was particularly pleased about the election of some of the younger Conservative candidates, adding the party had a ‘really good group of mixed ages’.

Ed Crouch beat off competition from former Worthing mayor and UKIP councillor Charles James to be elected as councillor for Marine ward. Mr Crouch said: “I’m absolutely committed to making sure the votes I have got are put to good use and hopefully I will earn those votes going forward.” Mr Crouch added that he thought the Tories had gotten themselves into a muddle with UKIP and needed to make sure the party pulled together and did not get shaken up.

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Meanwhile, Luke Proudfoot and Callum Buxton were elected at the first time of asking in the Central and Selden wards respectively.

Mr Proudfoot said: “It was very close. I was quite nervous, I always knew it was going to be quite close between myself, UKIP and the Lib Dems.”