Doorstep conversations helped us, says Torbay Tory leader

Voters rejected Lib Dems & Independents

Torbay Council’s incoming leader says the Tories’ surprise election victory came from “fantastic doorstep conversations” with residents.

David Thomas’ party capitalised from a drop in support for Independents at last week’s election, gaining four seats to reach the 19 needed to form a majority administration.

The Liberal Democrats, who previously ran the council with the Independents, could only gain two more seats to bring its tally up to 15, while there are now just two Independent councillors.

Speaking about the win, Cllr Thomas said: “I was asked the question many times before the election – ‘were we going to take control of Torbay?’ And my response at that time was we were having fantastic doorstep conversations all across the bay, and if those doorstep conversations translate into votes, I believe we could take control of the council.

“Clearly, what we saw at the count on Friday [5 May] was those doorstep conversations did materialise into votes and, as a result of that, we have actually got control of the council, which is obviously fantastic for the Conservative group.”

The party’s success came after it surveyed thousands of local residents last year about their priorities, something Cllr Thomas thought was “really significant.”

He added: “[From] talking to various residents in the summer of last year, people were saying to me that they felt that the residents had become a bit of a hindrance [to the council] … which just got me thinking, this is bizarre.

“At the end of the day the council is there to do one thing and one thing only; that’s to look after its residents.

“When I started to evaluate that a bit more I thought, let’s pull together a survey and let’s just see what people really think. Not by asking big, far-reaching questions, but let’s really concentrate on local issues.”

On his priorities for Torbay, Cllr Thomas said: “We have an extensive manifesto. There’s a lot of things on there. Some of those things we believe we can bring forward quite quickly, others will take time.

“One of the things that I think you’ll see really early on is line markings across Torbay – white line markings.”

He added: “We’re already starting to talk to officers about what are the things that we could actually do immediately, so residents can see that we want to make an early start.”

The council’s full community and corporate plan will be presented in the coming weeks.