THE Conservatives held on to Great Yarmouth Borough Council's Bradwell South and Hopton ward with the borough's In Bloom champion Sue Hacon taking the by-election seat.

THE Conservatives held on to Great Yarmouth Borough Council's Bradwell South and Hopton ward with the borough's In Bloom champion Sue Hacon taking the by-election seat. But it was a close fought race.

Mrs Hacon polled 457 votes just pipping Liberal Democrat Aleck Buchanan who had 397 votes.

In third place was the by-election's youngest candidate, Labour's Jo Vriesema, 28, who polled 254 votes.

The UKIP candidate, Colin Aldred, was in fourth place with 116 votes and Green Party man Ian Holman getting 29.

Turnout for the by-election was 25pc.

The vacancy was created following the resignation of Conservative councillor Brian Howard in October last year, who cited the planned local government shake-up for giving up his seat of nine years.