Maidenhead Riverside by-election: Meet the candidates

Five candidates are set to contest the by-election for the vacant Maidenhead Riverside seat on the Royal Borough council. Taking place on Thursday, March 10, it will see a successor chosen for Conservative councillor Andrew Jenner, who resigned from his post earlier this month.

The Royal Borough has set aside a £10,000 budget to pay for presiding officers, poll clerks, ballot papers, postal votes, poll cards, verification, counting and hiring polling stations. A spokeswoman said the council anticipates the cost will be below £10,000.

Polling stations will be open between 7am and 10pm at Riverside Primary School in Cookham Road,  Mill House Family Centre in Ray Mill Road East and the Thames Hotel in Ray Mead Road.

The count will take place at Riverside Primary School immediately after polls close.

Here are the five candidates for the vacant seat:

Saghir Ahmed, Liberal Democrats

The secretary of Maidenhead Mosque will stand as the Liberal Democrat candidate.

Saghir Ahmed, who lives in Riverside and stood for the ward seat in 2011 and 2015, was selected by the Lib Dems to stand for the vacant position as a Royal Borough councillor.

“I’m delighted to have been selected as the Lib Dem candidate and have been contacting residents to sign our petition to save Maidenhead Post Office,” said Mr Ahmed, who was born in the ward.

“We were very surprised that Cllr Jenner chose to move to Australia causing this by-election only nine months after he was elected.

“I will be campaigning to stop the proposed development on Deerswood Meadow and the proposed reduction in funding for local schools.”

“Saghir is well known as a community campaigner in Riverside,” said Cllr Simon Werner, the sole Lib Dem councillor on the Royal Borough.

“Another Liberal Democrat councillor would provide an alternative voice and help to prevent public opinion being ignored.”

George Chamberlaine, UKIP

A former printer who has lived in Maidenhead for 30 years, George Chamberlaine believes the Tory stranglehold on the Royal Borough council needs to be weakened.

Mr Chamberlaine, himself a former councillor for Furze Platt between 1979 and 1991, said: “What we want to do is give honest representation for the people. At the moment we have a situation in Maidenhead where Conservatives have an obscene majority and really that’s got to be tempered.”

The 81-year-old, who says experience is one his strengths, believes Royal Borough leader Cllr David Burbage (Con, Bray) and his allies are at the mercy of the wider Conservative party and do what central government wants them to.

Opposition councillors are needed, Mr Chamberlaine says, to ‘voice other opinions and alternatives’.

Mr Chamberlaine joined UKIP in 2000.

The Gwendale householder said: “What we try to do is give honest representation to the people.”

Judith Diment, Conservative

Judith Diment, who has lived in Riverside since 1982, was selected from five possible Tory candidates to stand for the vacant position as Royal Borough councillor.

“I’m delighted to have been selected as the Conservative candidate and keen to get on with meeting residents,” said Mrs Diment. “I am very concerned about Maidenhead’s post office and will be campaigning against any possible closure or reduction in services.”

Cllrs David Burbage and Simon Dudley petitioned for a by-election, to be held on Thursday, March 10.

Cllr Dudley, chairman of Maidenhead Riverside Branch Conservatives, said: “Judith is an experienced community campaigner. She knows this area well and will bring a wealth of experience to the role.”

Jeff Lloyd, Independent

Laggan Road resident Jeff Lloyd is ‘no fan’ of national politics and believes the borough is suffering through its one-party dominance.

Mr Lloyd, a financial advisor who has been involved in the creation of Maidenhead’s night market, has chosen to stand as an independent candidate.

Just three of the Royal Borough’s 57 councillors sit in opposition to the Tories.

Mr Lloyd, 48, who has lived in Maidenhead since 2004, said: “I think there needs to be more challenge. I think democracy is very thin at the moment in Maidenhead.

“It doesn’t matter what that split is, it makes no difference, if there were 57 Labour and three Conservatives, it would be the same problem.”

Mr Lloyd says he is passionate about improving Maidenhead and will listen to what people want and do his best for the town.

“I’m no fan of keyboard warriors who bleat on about how grim Maidenhead is,” he said. “Maidenhead is Maidenhead, we need to make the best of what we have and make it better.”

Nigel Smith, Labour

Chartered surveyor Nigel Smith says the Conservatives’ ‘total monopoly’ of power has led to a lack of democracy and accountability.

He said: “I am proud to have been selected as the Labour candidate for the by-election in the Maidenhead Riverside Ward. Living in the borough I have seen the effects of total monopoly of power that the current Conservative council has had on the local communities.

“This by-election is an opportunity for the local electors to vote for a change that will give them an independent voice on the council. They need a change from the stranglehold of the current Conservative administration.”

Mr Smith criticised the council for spending £200,000 on researching opening a satellite grammar school in Maidenhead, and for cutting its staff and failing to meet its own targets while councillors voted to give themselves an allowance raise.

Mr Smith is a former London Borough of Ealing Borough councillor who has lived in Maidenhead for more than 25 years.