Liberal Democrat Dave Hodgson has been elected as the Mayor of Bedford Borough

11.26.27pm BST (GMT +0100) Sat 24th Oct 2009

Dave Hodgson

After a well run campaign, Dave Hodgson, was elected as the new Mayor of Bedford Borough in an election using proportional representation. After the first count Dave had 323 more first preference votes than the nearest other candidate, Conservative Parvez Akhtar.

Labour were 5th with 10% of the first preference votes. The Green Party trailed a bad last in the 6-horse field with only 3%.

After allocation of the second preference votes the final result was:

David Hodgson, Liberal Democrat, 13,555. Majority 2,012.

Parvez Akhtar, Conservative, 11,543

As Group Leader, Dave had led the Liberal Democrats at last June's elections to become the largest group on Bedford Borough Council . He was subsequently appointed Cabinet member for Partnerships and IT by Frank Branston, whose sudden death caused the vacancy. The by-election for Mayor was held on 15th October.

Nick and Rosemarie Hollinghurst from South West Herts, who had worked on Dave's campaign said, "We're delighted with this well-deserved victory. Dave was an excellent candidate with a proven track record of success, the literature was very good and the campaign well organised. Brilliant teamwork!"