RESULTS: CLLR DUNCAN WOOD RETAINS PINHOE BY 400 VOTES
“Difficult times may be coming but you can use your vote to play a positive part in shaping the future. Council services affect every aspect of our lives – from collecting our rubbish to making decisions which affect the air we all breathe.
Voting is one of the most impactful things we can do as residents; it sends a clear message about our priorities and our values. Votes empower local councillors: each party counts every single one as part of their future strategies for Pinhoe, so we do need to speak up for our priorities.
All candidates are putting themselves on the line, ready to work hard for Pinhoe. Typically it’s a close call in Pinhoe between Labour and Conservatives. But in this year’s election, the Progressive group of Liberal Democrats and the Green Party are campaigning hard across the city, to challenge Exeter City Council on some of its decisions. It’s a welcome sign of healthy democratic process and underlines how much your vote counts.
Don’t ever be persuaded there’s no point – all parties are looking at Pinhoe to understand our priorities. You don’t need ID, polling stations are within walking distance and they’re open until 10pm. It’s time to have your say” 
#LovePinhoe
CANDIDATE LIST >
• CHRISTINE ANNE CAMPION – Liberal Democrats
The LibDem manifesto emphasises the importance of community-led priorities and the need to end the centralised ‘top-down’ approach of the current Labour-led city council. They note imbalanced investment in city centre ‘vanity projects’ and “share the belief that Councillors should be led by the residents they represent and our taxes should be spent wisely to enhance the areas where we live.”
• CARYL T. E. ROWLINSON – Green Party
“Exeter Greens are working hard in local areas to make Exeter a greener, fairer city and were the only party to gain councillors last year. Unlike Labour, Green councillors are free to act (and vote) in the interests of their local community.”
• CYNTHIA THOMPSON – Conservative and Unionist Party
Pinhoe Councillor 2008-12, 2015-16, 2016-19; Lord Mayor 2016-17 / “I am standing for election because over the past few years Pinhoe has seen development without the infrastructure needed to support the growing Community. What has Pinhoe got to show for our huge contribution?”
• DUNCAN WOOD – Labour and Cooperative Party
Pinhoe Councillor 2016-18, 2018-22 > Duncan is a Trustee of Pinhoe’s America Hall and the Community Hub charities. Working with fellow Labour councillors, “we have secured the resurfacing of the Playing Fields car park, completely rebuilt the Arena Skate Park, installed a new ChatShak, created the new play area and re-laid two pitches on the Station Road Playing Fields”
Exeter Observer‘s typically well-researched article:
“Were it not for the Conservative party’s current national public opinion nadir, the local party would have had higher hopes in Pinhoe, where Cynthia Thompson is standing. A former Lord Mayor, she represented the ward from 2008 to 2012 then again from 2015 to 2019.
There has been a close two-way race between Labour and the Conservatives in Pinhoe for over a decade. In 2010 Labour won the seat by just four votes. In 2016, when all three seats were elected at the same time, Labour took two and the Conservatives one, with less than a hundred votes separating all three winning candidates.
Having beaten Labour’s David Harvey by just six votes to win the seat in a by-election in 2015, Cynthia Thompson lost to the current Labour Lord Mayor, Trish Oliver, in 2019 by just fifteen votes, a margin of 0.6%.
This year Duncan Wood is defending the seat for Labour, following a council decision to approve £100,000 of funding for a project – in which he was directly involved – outside the community grants budget.
The decision got the council into hot water with its auditor and nearly landed it in court.
Cynthia Thompson’s assiduous pursuit of the issue prompted a full investigation by the external auditor which found that while the council might have broken the law, the cost of taking it to court to clarify the matter would not have been justified in the circumstances.
The council has nevertheless since formally floated the idea of giving the project another £1.3 million outside the community grants procedure despite its business plan still being incomplete more than five years after the council funded its development.”