Emsworth resident 'shell shocked' after winning Havant Borough Council seat for the Green Party

Following the local election count last Thursday (May 4) Green Party candidate Grainne Rason was elected to represent Emsworth ward with a 629 vote majority. The result produced an audible gasp by counting hall attendants as the village has historically been a safe Conservative stronghold.

Speaking on the result, Cllr Rason said: ‘I was somewhat shellshocked at the time because I started to convince myself it was going to be close.

‘I did know there were a lot of people that didn’t want more Conservatives but I didn’t know they were going to vote for me.

‘Where I began to feel it was going to be a win was in the last ten days or so when more and more people said “Yes I will” and people started waving at me in the streets.

‘That was when I got the sense that there was momentum building.’

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On her priorities, Cllr Rason pointed towards pollution in the Solent and ‘inappropriate’ housing developments which have ‘really impacted’ on green spaces in Emsworth.

‘In the local plan nearly all green spaces will be lost to development,’ she added.

‘The ability to make planning decisions is out of the council’s hands in many ways and in the hands of developers.’

She described her ward, which she’s lived in for 20 years, as ‘a gem in Havant borough’s crown’.

‘Emsworth is very fortunate because it still has maintained real village shops, local people that have been there for a very long time.

‘There’s no comparison between Emsworth and Waterlooville for example, which is a ghost town.

‘People go to Emsworth because it’s an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.’

Cllr Rason expressed she would be interested in joining the council’s overview and scrutiny committee and planning committee.

ALSO READ: Sewage in the sea takes its toll at the polls on Havant Borough Council's Conservatives