Where is Wellswood - and why is the by-election there so important?

The balance of Torbay Council is at stake

A winner-takes-all battle for control of Torbay Council will be fought out in the bay’s most prosperous streets on Thursday 6 June.

A by-election in Wellswood will decide who holds the balance of control of the powerful unitary authority, and who controls the purse strings with tens of millions of pounds of government money to spend.

Council by-elections rarely get pulses racing, but this one has already sparked acrimony and chaos, and the result will have wide-ranging repercussions.

Wellswood is as Conservative as a council ward can get. It is well over a quarter of a century since it last returned anything other than a Tory victory when election time comes around.

But there is more of an edge to the battle this time.

Looking at the map, Wellswood is the north-eastern corner of Torbay. It includes Meadfoot beach, the wealthy Warberries, the leafy Lincombes and Ilsham Marine Drive, where the average house price is around £1 million.

Kent’s Cavern is in Wellswood, Hope’s Nose is in Wellswood and so, theoretically, is Thatcher Rock, the uninhabited landmark named because it looks like a thatcher climbing on a roof, and not after the former Conservative prime minister.

The population of Wellswood at the 2021 census was 7,125, with just under 6,000 people eligible to vote. The average age in Wellswood is 60, compared to a Torbay-wide average of 49. Crime rates are below average, and there are fewer low-income families than in most of the bay’s other council wards.

In the May 2023 council elections there was a 38 per cent turnout, and both Wellswood seats were won by Conservatives. The same thing had happened the previous time in 2019, when the turnout was 44 per cent.

The two Conservatives who triumphed in the 2023 poll were former mayor and experienced councillor Nick Bye and Patrick Joyce, who was new to the council. They were part of a swing to the Tories across Torbay which saw the party buck a national trend and seize control of the Town Hall from a coalition of Liberal Democrat and Independent councillors.

It was a result which surprised both sides.

Immediately after the poll, the Conservatives held an overall majority, with 19 councillors to the coalition’s 17. But in October last year Cllr Joyce and fellow Tory Katya Maddison left the group to form Prosper Torbay, sitting with the opposition.

In one fell swoop the Tories had lost control of the council. They remained the largest single party, but were outnumbered 19-17 by the combined opposition groups.

Then in April Cllr Joyce died, creating the vacancy which will be filled in the by-election. At the time of writing, the opposition groups have 18 councillors and the Conservatives 17.

A Tory win on 6 June will tie the council 18-18. Anything else will restore the opposition’s 19-17 advantage.

If the authority is tied, the casting vote of the mayor in full council meetings becomes crucial.

This has already come to a head with the recent failure to agree on the appointment of mayor-elect Swithin Long (Lib Dem, Barton with Watcombe). In February the council had unanimously endorsed Cllr Long as the next mayor, with Conservative group leader David Thomas (Preston) speaking in support.

At what should have been a formality of a mayor-making meeting on 16 May, the Conservative group withdrew its support for Cllr Long and said Cllr Hannah Stevens (Con, Furzeham with Summercombe) should step up after a year as deputy mayor to take on the main role.

If this happens, and the Tories win in Wellswood, they will regain control of the council through the new mayor’s casting vote.

The Conservative group also vetoed the choosing of key council chairmanships and committee memberships until Thursday 20 June - after the Wellswood poll - meaning a number of important council meetings have had to be cancelled in the meantime.

It matters because the council has a war chest of tens of millions of pounds to spend. The government’s Future High Streets and Towns Fund projects have come up with significant sums, and there have been other handouts from various levelling up initiatives.

Delivery of regeneration projects across the bay has been a key promise from local politicians in the past year.

Six people have been nominated to contest the by-election.

They are: Jonathan Chant-Stevens (Labour); Peter Fenton (Liberal Democrat); Hazel Foster (Conservative); Jenny Giel (Green); Mike Lister (Reform) and Paul Moor, for whom no party affiliation is listed on the official statement of people nominated.