SHIPSTON Town Council has welcomed a new member to its ranks following a by-election.

Self-employed IT manager, Dan Scobie, of Hanson Avenue, Shipston, was elected with 478 votes yesterday (Thursday) beating Gwen Kiely with 395 votes.

The 41-year-old, who is one of the founders of the Shipston Food Festival and beer festival, said he was really pleased with the result after narrowly missing out at the las by-election by two votes.

"I'm very pleased," he said. "I've said for a long time particularly in Shipston has been dominated for too long by debates over planning and the supermarket.

"I think there's more to the town then just debates over planning so I've been doing what we've been doing before, organising the food festival and beer festival. I'm trying to make Shipston a better place for people to live."

The father-of-one also attributed his success at the polls to his vigorous social media campaign over the last few weeks.

"I think social media helped with a proportion of people," he said. "But Shipston does have a higher age range as well so we did a good leaflet campaign as well."

Turnout for yesterday's election was 21.1 per cent compared with turnout for the last contested Town Council election May 4, 2000 was 42.98 per cent and 19.9 per cent turnout for the by-election last December.

The by-election was called following the resignation of long-serving councillor of 10 years, Alan Noyce.