Several district councillors gain seats at county level
Reform UK secured two of the 11 East Devon seats with the Lib Dems bagging five.
Several Lib Dem district councillors secured seats in County Hall, with district leader Paul Arnott winning Seaton & Colyton and Councillor Nick Hookway taking the Exmouth & Budleigh Salterton Coastal seat.
The district also returned two independents, with Jess Bailey holding on to her Otter Valley seat, and East Devon District Council’s deputy leader Paul Hayward winning in Axminster.
Elsewhere, Green Henry Gent held his Broadclyst seat, but is now joined by fellow councillor in the division, Reform UK’s Nat Vanstone.
Cllr Vanstone ran in a recent East Devon District Council byelection, but came third, albeit just two votes behind the second-placed Conservatives.
Conservative member Jeff Trail held onto his Exmouth seat, but the town, which previously had two Conservative councillors at county level, now has one Reform UK member, Helen Brown.
Cllr Arnott thanked the electorate in his division for turning out in “such high numbers”.
“Thanks also to all the competitor candidates, as it was a very clean campaign fought in very good spirits and that was really appreciated,” he said.
“I echo the words of Cllr Hayward (Axminster) in that when you are elected to the position of councillor, you are elected to serve the entire community whether people voted for you or not and I’m committed to that.”
Denise Bickley, who won the Sidmouth seat for the Lib Dems and ousted long-standing Conservative member Stuart Hughes in the process, expressed gratitude to the voters.
“We need to get a lot of things sorted out at Devon County Council and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in,” she said.
She acknowledged the more than 1,000 people who voted for the Reform UK candidate, Basil Thomas Herbert, adding that while the change they wanted “might be different to what I want, I am hearing them”.
Stuart Hughes first won the then Sidmouth Rural seat on Devon County Council as an independent in 1993, and then joined the Conservatives in 1997, maintaining hold of the Sidmouth seat until this year.
The full results for the East Devon seats in the County Council election can be found here: Division 2025 Archive – Democracy in Devon
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