Liberal Democrat councillor Geoff Seeff has been elected to serve on Cambridgeshire County Council representing the St Neots Eatons Division seat which had formerly been held by the late Derek Giles. 

Mr Seeff polled 1,042 votes in the by-election which took place on Thursday, February 16.

The other candidates were: Andrew Jennings (Conservative) 746; Colin Maslen (Independent) 360 and Walter Purdon (Labour) 250.

The turn out for the election was 24.4 per cent. There were two void votes and six votes were rejected as people had voted for more than one person. 

The total electorate for the ward is 9,451 and 2,407 ballot papers were issued on the day.

Cllr Seeff told The Hunts Post: "Our surveys and canvassing during the election campaign identified three key issues on the minds of residents of the Eatons - the state of the roads and road safety, difficulties in accessing primary healthcare and the lack of progress of the town centre regeneration.

"On the roads, my colleagues on the county council have already re-allocated budgets towards dealing with potholes and people will already see that repair work is underway  - although there is still much to do.

"My job will be to ensure that the Eatons receives its fair share of funding and is given priority where it is needed most (heavy lorries along certain roads exacerbate both problems)."

He added: "After the LibDems took control of the administration of HDC last May, in conjunction with St Neots Town Council, plans are now advanced on regeneration and residents will see work commencing very shortly."

Derek Giles served on all three tiers of local government and as mayor of St Neots for two terms. He was elected to Huntingdonshire District Council in 1991 and served for a total of 27 years. He served as deputy mayor of St Neots from 1994 - 1996 and then mayor from 1996 - 1998 and again from 2016 - 2018.

Derek served for nine years on Cambridgeshire County Council, retiring from the position of chair of the council in November 2021 due to ill health. He retired from SNTC and HDC in May 2022.