A borough councillor who lost his campaign to become Epsom town’s county representative has congratulated his Conservative rival, but said she won by campaigning on issues out of the control of Surrey County Council (SCC).

Epsom borough councillor Neil Dallen, who represents town ward, lost out to Conservative candidate Tina Mountain in yesterday’s election to represent Epsom Town and Downs on SCC.

Despite winning 1,060 votes, this equated to only 28 per cent of the vote, while Mrs Mountain received 39 per cent of the vote with 1,448 ballot papers. 

She took control of the seat from the Residents’ Association of Epsom and Ewell - the first time this has happened in recent years.

Speaking to the Epsom Guardian this afternoon, Coun Dallen said he was "disappointed, but that’s life" and hopes Mrs Mountain, who stood on a mandate of saving Epsom Hospital, getting Epsom into Zone 6 and on a Save Epsom Town campaign, will tackle issues falling within her role as a county councillor.

He said: "The Conservatives ran a good campaign and got the votes they needed.  It was never going to be an easy battle, but that’s life.  I wish Tina well.

"My frustration and hesitation is that the issues she campaigned on are not county council issues.

"The NHS is a national issue.  Zone 6 is a transport issue involving a private company.  These are not to do with the county council. 

"I’m not sure what exactly has been achieved with the Save Epsom Town Campaign either."

Coun Dallen said that Mrs Mountain was standing outside polling stations yesterday with a bucket collecting signatures on petition leaflets to ‘Save Epsom Hospital’.  ‘Vote Tina Mountain’ was written on the other side of the leaflet.

He said: "It’s not illegal, but my feeling is that the issue isn’t anything really to do with a county council election."

Coun Dallen said his priorities to be a county councillor were highways, schools and bus routes.

He said: "Many people had said they would like a night bus route in Epsom as the current bus route ends in Sutton.

"People are very, very upset to have to go Ashtead to go to school when they live in Epsom and I think we need to do something about it.

"SCC is also not very good at saving money and spending it wisely. 

"I’m going to be chasing Tina Mountain so that she performs for the residents, not just on the issue of the hospital, but all the things she has been elected to do on the county council, such as schools and highways. 

"She has a lot of work to do, it’s going to be tough."

Mrs Mountain said she aims to work with borough councillors to serve the people of Epsom, but Coun Dallen said he did not understand what was meant by this.

He said: "She has no say on borough council issues.  She is a county councillor and is from the ruling party on SCC and this particularly means she has no excuses for not delivering.  I want her to be accountable."

Coun Dallen said public backlash over the Epsom station development may have contributed to people not voting for the Residents’ Association (RA).

He said: "It was a RA-controlled borough council which approved the Epsom station development, even though I personally think it was wrong, it was on my watch."

He said UKIP also did "very well" in the election, but that they, too, were standing on a national mandate: "The rise of UKIP is interesting.  In some ways it is a Conservative break-away vote. 

"But they are also standing on national issues.  So at this level it must be a protest vote and they have not got any policies on county things."