Tories Retain By-Election Seat The Conservative Party has retained a key Burton seat during a council by-election. Following the incumbent's resignation, a by-election had been called for Valentine's Day, with the Conservatives putting forwards local businessman Len Milner for the Stretton ward seat. The Party was out in force to ensure Len cruised to victory, with Andrew Griffiths (PPC for Burton & Uttoxeter) and Matthew Lewis, the incoming Staffs CF Area Chairman, both present. Len Milner easily topped Thursday's poll with 661 votes, with Labour runner-up John McKiernan mustering 366 votes. Councillor Milner said "I'm a bit tired but I'm delighted with the result. I was up at quarter past four in the morning and the count didn't finish until just before midnight. It's a good result - we had quite a big majority over the others. I can now concentrate on working for the people of Stretton, as well as the borough." Matt Lewis, due to take over as Staffordshire Area CF Chairman next month added "This is a fantastic result, and Len fully deserves his success. We had a great team out today working extremely hard to get the vote out on a day [Valentine's Day] when people could be forgiven for having better things to do! It was tremendously useful for myself to see the strength of Tory support in the area ahead of my taking over the Area Chairmanship, and I believe Burton is more than due a CF revival. That's something that will be a key part of the next twelve months, as I look to get branches going right across the county. The full election results were as follows: Len MILNER - Conservative – 661 John McKiernan - Labour - 366 Clive Jones - BNP - 327 Brian Buxton - Popular Alliance - 233 Bryan Ambrose - Liberal Democrat - 205 Turnout - 28% 15.02.08