LABOUR have claimed the vacant seat on Bewdley Town Council following a by-election.

Rod Stanczyszyn beat his nearest rival Laurence Kearns, who was standing for the Conservatives, by 43 votes to take up the Bewdley East seat on the authority.

The seat became vacant following the death of Councillor Mary Fishwick in June.

Mr Stanczyszyn polled 252 votes, with Mr Kearns getting 209. UKIP’s David Field polled 41 and the overall turnout was 22.9 per cent.

Mr Stanczyszyn was chairman of the Bewdley Says No To Gladman Group which successfully campaigned against plans to build 195 homes of green fields in the town.

He said: “I am delighted to be elected to the town council and I will be looking to get on the planning committee. I feel I can use a lot of what I learned about planning policy as chair of the Gladman group for the benefit of Bewdley.”