TORQUAY councillor Nick Bye is the new chairman of Torbay Conservative Association.

He defeated sitting chairman Churston councillor Richard Haddock at a packed annual meeting last night at the Preston Conservative Club.

It was a reversal of the vote the year before. Deputy chairman political is former association agent Andrew Barrand.

Cllr Bye said:"It was a very positive meeting. We had well over a hundred people.

"There was a lot of fire and speeches and good questions, but clearly the great majority of people in the association want to unite and work together and support Kevin Foster as MP and Gordon Oliver as Mayor.

"The membership of the association is now well over 300 and a lot of the people involved in the successful election in May last year have joined.

"Torbay is bucking the trend on membership.

"The key this year is that I have a better track record, I have been chairman of Wellswood for two years which is now one of the largest branches in the region.

"We have got to stay united, first priority is to fight the Tormohun by-election, then support Alison Hernandez as our candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner and campaign in the lead up to the Mayoral and EU referenda."

St Marys with Summercombe Cllr Richard Haddock said he had not expected to win.

"I have done my year and I am quite happy. Last year I beat Nick, this year it is vice versa. I am not going around with a begging bowl.

"I have achieved what I was asked to, we got Kevin Foster elected, Gordon Oliver elected and more Conservative councillors elected. I am very proud of what we have achieved. Nobody thought we would do that.

"We also raised a lot of money. I believed I have done what people asked me to do, let's see what the new team does."