“I am humbled the residents of Wootton have put their faith in me to represent them.”
The successful candidate in the Wootton Bridge by-election last week says she didn’t expect to win.
Speaking after securing a resounding result for the Liberal Democrats, Sarah Redrup will join her fellow Isle of Wight Council members at County Hall, in Newport, and has already set out priorities to help residents, promising to listen to them.
While out campaigning in the village, Sarah said residents showed her a lot of new things she hadn’t noticed, and opened her eyes to things that were different to her own experience in Wootton.
Top issues residents want her to address, Sarah said, were road safety, preserving Wootton’s green spaces and waters and being a voice for those affected by the cost of living and housing crisis.
She said:
“It is important to learn from the people I represent, hear residents’ perspectives and look at things from different angles to try and find a solution that works as not everyone agrees.”
The big issue, Sarah said, was the gravel extraction plans. She said she had come to the topic on a blank slate but had heard differing views about it.
Sarah is the daughter of another member of the Isle of Wight Council, Cllr Ray Redrup who sits on the opposite side of the chamber, representing the Conservatives.
Cllr Andrew Garratt, Liberal Democrat group leader on the Isle of Wight, said he was absolutely elated with the result and the group will now benefit from the diversity Sarah will bring, as a younger person and a woman.
He said she would also bring that perspective to County Hall and the council could do with fewer balding men in their late 50s.
Cllr Garratt said Sarah will be a superb councillor for the whole of Wootton Bridge and has the ability to connect with people in a natural way.
He said:
“We thought we had a chance of winning after the Brighstone by-election last year but we could not take anything for granted so we fought very hard until the very end.
“Getting just short of half of the vote means people of Wootton Bridge have placed their trust in someone quite emphatically and it will now be for Sarah to take up that mantle and do good work.”
The Liberal Democrats are now the joint third biggest group on the authority, with four members — Cllrs Garratt, Redrup, Michael Lilley and Nick Stuart.
It is the second by-election for the Isle of Wight Council the Liberal Democrats have won in the past nine months.
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