John Clatworthy (Cons) 2,407

Martin Wrigley (Lib Dem) 1,479

Christina Doyle (Lab) 453

David Gunn (UKIP) 300

DAWLISH saw the return of long-serving Conservative councillor John Clatworthy who was nearly 1,000 votes ahead of his nearest rival.

Town councillor Lib Dem Martin Wrigley had battled to take over the seat but without success.

Cllr Clatworthy, who is deputy leader of the county council and in charge of the authority’s finances, said he was delighted to be relected.

He said: ‘I am delighted to be re-elected to represent Dawlish at county hall.

‘I will do my best to continue to work hard for our community.’

Fellow county councillor George Gribble was equally pleased for his Tory colleague.

He said: ‘We want him back at county hall to look after our finances, I am so pleased.’

Lib Dem and town councillor Wrigley said he was disappointed but said the Lib Dem share of the vote had increased ‘tremendously’.

During his campaigning, he had highlighted a number of issues which were important to the people of Dawlish including bus services, the lack of a new link road and the ‘mess’ of the cycle path.