Labour’s only candidate in the district ended up just 22 votes short of being its first councillor in South Holland for over two decades.
Aidan Forman was fourth in a closely contested Spalding Wygate ward.
“It was my first time standing in an election and I really enjoyed it and found it a great learning experience.
“I have come away feeling proud and positive about what we achieved, even though we didn’t quite get the result we wanted.
“This area is traditionally a massive Conservative stronghold, and we haven’t had a Labour councillor on SHDC in 20 years.
“I came up 22 votes short of getting elected and this is the closest a Labour candidate has been within that period.
“For me, that gives us something to build on and hopefully momentum to encourage more members to join us on our journey.
“It would have been nice to have more candidates without a doubt.
“The one thing I heard most during the campaign from residents in other wards was they were disappointed they didn’t have a Labour candidate to vote for.
“However, with the commitment required to be a councillor we wanted to ensure any candidates we did put forward were serious of their intentions to improve their local community, and not just stand paper candidates for the sake of it.”
