KATE Ewert has pledged to keep serving her community “as best I can” after securing re-election to Cornwall Council with an increased majority in last week’s local elections.

Representing the Rame Peninsula and St Germans division, Cllr Ewert is one of only a handful of Labour councillors on the new-look council, which will see a total of 28 new representatives from Reform UK out of the 87 seats,

Despite holding the most seats on the council, Reform are still short of the 44 needed to glean full control and claimed it would be ‘undemocratic’ if it was not part of the next administration - despite being the largest party on the authority.

However, Cllr Ewert, the Labour group leader, has rejected this suggestion, saying: “There are 59 other councillors represented by other parties this chamber. To me, that is the democratic will of Cornwall. More people voted to not have a Reform councillor in Cornwall than voted to have a Reform councillor. So I don't think that would be undemocratic.”

Having won her division in 2021 by 65 votes ahead of Robin Willoughby (Conservative), Cllr Ewert’s work in office was rewarded by voters as she edged out Reform’s Chris Wilton by 516 votes with Bob Davidson (Conservative) a distant third, 944 votes behind.

“I just want to continue doing the best I can for the people of the Rame Peninsula and St Germans,” she said. “In terms of the council, it’s not going to be a lot different for us as a Labour group. We are used to working in opposition, fighting our corner and punching above our weight, so that won’t change.

“For me, it’s just a continuation of the work we’ve been doing. I’m a huge believer in building community and the Rame Peninsula and St Germans have a fantastic community, so it’s working with the organisations that we have to make sure the people that are most vulnerable are protected.

“A lot of the work I’ve done in the last four years has been around housing, where I’ve managed to get a lot of vulnerable people housed or put into safe and secure homes.”

Cllr Ewert acknowledged, however, the election had served as a timely reminder to her party that change needs to happen.

“We have seen across the country that we are not seeing changes quickly enough and that is something we need to listen to,” she added. “There is change happening and improvements coming.

“No one could call this election and we didn’t expect the Conservatives to do well. The story of the day, however, is the decimation of their vote, it’s absolutely gone.”

And with so many new faces on Cornwall Council, Cllr Ewert expects some ‘interesting’ times ahead in the Truro chamber.

“We have devolution to talk about, a housing crisis to talk about, and we’ve got a government in the business of change to talk about. There’s an awful lot of stuff going on. It’s been a tough first year of this government, but we are going to start seeing changes.”