I WANT to send sincere congratulations to Jane Hutt for winning the Vale of Glamorgan Assembly seat for the fifth time.
She is held in great affection across the Vale and has helped innumerable local people so far as an AM.
Although I am disappointed not to have won, I am very proud of the Conservative volunteers so ably led and organised by George Carroll and Dr Lee Gonzalez. We polled the highest number and proportion of votes ever achieved by our party here at an Assembly level and I am hugely grateful to everybody who participated in the campaign and made it possible.
My main disappointment is that I will not be able, as an AM, to prevent the council merge, stop excessive development and implement my plan to secure a better future for Barry and the Vale. I will however, continue to campaign on local issues and hopefully make a difference from outside Cardiff Bay.
Thank you to everyone who gave me their support – I stood on a platform of protecting and improving this special part of Wales and I am sorry to all who care about the local issues I raised that I did not pull off the win we hoped for.
Ross England
Welsh Conservative candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan 2016
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