In three wards of the district the Conservatives were not opposed by any other candidates, so three Conservatives are automatically re-elected:
Ashingdon & Canewdon Con unopposed – Tracy Capon
Barling and Sutton Con unopposed (Mike Steptoe)
Foulness & Great Wakering Con unopposed – Colin Seagers (so hopefully we will still get some detailed comments
This seems to happen nationally in some hundreds of seats every year. There’s some national coverage of this (mentioning Rochford as an example) on the political betting website here.
“No doubt there many many more instances like these and several hundred candidates, mostly Tories, have been elected unopposed.
My guess is that the Lib Dems have, in many cases, pulled back from fielding candidates with the aim of putting available resources into defending the seats where they are incumbents.
On top of that I wonder whether being a councillor is simply not an attractive a proposition as it was – after all, for the foreseeable future their main role will be over-seeing cut-backs. “
Incidentally, the Lib Dems are still fighting the same number of seats in Rochford District as four years ago. And in 2007 four Conservatives were elected unopposed.