Milton Keynes elections 2021: Six knife-edge wards where candidates are battling for supremacy

The slender six each had margins of less than 120 votes between the winners and runners up – ranging from a just SEVEN in Shenley Brook End to 110 in Stantonbury.

Shenley Brook End and Campbell Park and Old Woughton (majority 12) have previously been battlegrounds between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems.

Sitting Lib Dem Peter Cannon will be hoping that the voters don’t fire him this time round.

Bletchley Park saw a 16 vote win for the Tories in 2019 but Labour’s Elaine Wales, who won four years ago, will be hoping to hold on.

In Loughton & Shenley, Labour’s Zoe Nolan, who triumphed four years ago, is in a ward where the Tories beat the red party by 36 votes in 2019 and are looking to complete the set of three.

The Conservatives will need to take those seats to be on track to overtake Labour as the largest party.

Stony Stratford is next on the list of seats with the smallest majorities.

Labour currently holds all three seats there and in 2019 they had a 101 vote advantage over their deadly rivals.

In Stantonbury Tory leader Alex Walker surprised the pundits by holding on to his seat by 110 votes in 2019 against an onslaught from Labour who currently hold the two other seats in the ward.

A similar victory on May 6 would put the blues on the crest of a wave.

In many of the other wards, the results from 2019 suggest that an electoral earthquake is needed to unseat the sitting parties.

Perhaps apart from Broughton where the Lib Dems will be hoping to take the ward’s third seat, especially after long standing Conservative Cllr John Bint decided not to stand.

Unlike neighbouring Buckinghamshire, Bedford Borough and Central Beds councils, which put all their seats on the electoral table at the same time, Milton Keynes Council elects one third (19) of its 57 seats at elections.

Two councillor resignations during the year, technically needing by-elections, mean that a total of 21 borough seats will be up for grabs on May 6.

The candidates fighting for the slender six seats are;

> Shenley Brook End: Peter Paul Cannon (Lib Dem, sitting councillor); David Cockfield (Labour); David Anthony Lewis (Green); Chris Taylor (Cons).

> Campbell Park & Old Woughton: Carol Barac (Green); Stephen Brown (Lab); Charlotte Amanda Hall (Cons); Nana Ama Vivat Oguntola (Lib Dem).

> Bletchley Park: Jane Anne Duckworth (Heritage Party); Mo Imran (Cons); Michael John Sheppard (Green); Elaine June Wales (Lab – sitting councillor).

> Loughton & Shenley: Garrath Jonathan Green (Lib Dem); Zoe Nolan (Lab – sitting councillor); Vanessa Skelton (Green); Ethan Ronan Wilkinson (Cons).

> Stony Stratford: Richard Greenwood (Lib Dem); Joseph Hearnshaw (Cons); Gary Nicholas Lloyd (Green); Akash Dipak Nayee (Lab and Co-op).

> Stantonbury: Chantelle Marie De Villiers (Cons); Peter Edwards (Green); Alan Mallyon (Lib Dem); Martin Ronald Petchey (Lab – sitting councillor).

And Broughton: Uroy Dale Clarke (Lib Dem); John Howard Hearnshaw (Cons); James Holland (Lab).