ALTON’S Liberal Democrats romped home on Thursday to take the town’s Amery by-election with 52 per cent of the votes.

Mum-of-two Amanda Durley polled 262 votes to take the seat on Alton Town Council vacated by Conservative councillor Mike Dicker. Tory Party candidate and district councillor Robert Saunders polled 147 votes (29 per cent) and Barbara Tansey (Labour) polled 98, representing 19 per cent of the votes.

It was a hard-fought election which saw all three political parties campaigning on the streets of the Greenfields estate, resulting in an overall turnout of 28 per cent, which exceeded expectations for a town council election.

After the result was declared, the winner said: “I am delighted that the main parties were all campaigning hard. It is good to see the interaction with voters. People have been waiting for a chance to express themselves at the ballot box.

“Today I am proud to have won more than half of the vote, and I look forward to representing all the people of Amery for the coming six months.”

According to Mrs Durley - a trainee teacher and an approved Parliamentary Candidate for the Lib Dems at her previous home in Kent - the election had been fought on a mix of mostly local and some national issues, but the overwhelming concern from voters was “the lack of affordable housing, together with a sense that too much greenfield development is taking place”.

Mrs Durley said: “I wish to be on the planning and transport committee so that I can press the case for more houses that people can actually afford to buy. I would also like to be on the community committee as I want to really get to know the community I have been elected to serve.”

Being a mum, she is interested too in the facilities available in the town which, although well served for younger children, such as her own, she fears are lacking for teenagers.

As a newly-elected councillor, Mrs Durley visited the town hall on Monday and was welcomed in by long-serving councillor and deputy mayor Allan Chick and the council’s Liberal Democrat group leader, Pam Jones (pictured).

The Convervative-run council now comprises five Lib Dems, one independent and seven Tories.