Following last week's local elections, Chairman of Maldon District Council, Independent Councillor Mark Heard, is back with his regular column. Here he talks about the election results and what happens next, both at the council and in the community as we continue on the path out of pandemic restrictions.

"My last column on 18 March 2021 explained why I felt I should pause writing because of legal restrictions during the pre-election period but I am back with you now it's all over!

"The Council staff did a fantastic job organising the election and the count and following the results last Thursday we have two new members making a full complement of 31 Maldon district councillors - Emma Stephens (Independent gain) was duly elected as a district councillor for Tollesbury, and Bruce Heubner (Conservative hold) was duly elected as a district councillor for Heybridge East; both candidates did extremely well, polling a large majority of votes from the turnout which was up in both wards from 2019.

"I offer my congratulations to them both and warmly welcome them to the district. So, the current make-up of the council is 16 Independent councillors (one who is non-aligned) 11 Conservative councillors (one who is non-aligned) and four Democratic Alliance Councillors, which leaves the Independent led administration unchanged for the municipal year.

"We will soon be holding face-to-face meetings, but we will continue to live stream the council meetings which seem to have been very popular.

"I should add that three of our current district councillors stood for, and won, Essex County Council seats, too – Burnham Councillor Wendy Stamp (Independent gain), Purleigh Councillor Jane Flemming (Conservative hold) and Wickham Bishops and Woodham Councillor Mark Durham (Conservative hold) all with considerable high support - again I offer my congratulations to them all.

"As the brilliant vaccine programme continues at the Princes Road council offices in Maldon, last Saturday I laid a wreath and raised a flag there commemorating VE Day and remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

"This turned my mind to those we have also lost through the pandemic and my thoughts are with those families who have lost loved ones. We ARE now beginning to see a route out of COVID, indeed the alert level has been downgraded from level 4 to level 3, so it is something we must learn to live with and with society beginning to open up, we can once again give our support to local shops and businesses.

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"I was delighted to see that in the week commencing 6 May 2021, more than 14,000 of our Maldon residents had received BOTH jabs and there were no new cases of COVID-19 reported from anywhere in the entire district during that week.

"This is fantastic news! But … we must still be cautious and remember that some people will still be quite nervous about integrating back into 'normal' society (whatever that will be). So PLEASE be patient, be polite and remember to be respectful."

Councillor Mark S. Heard