HISTORY was made in Haslemere last Friday when Independent candidate Nikki Barton triumphed against all the odds in the Surrey County Council elections.

Her victory over Conservative candidate town and borough councillor Stephen Mulliner was by the narrowest of margins – just 20 votes – and followed a nerve-wracking recount.

The win for the Independents, who now hold nine seats in Surrey together with the Residents' Associations, gives the non-political group a power base in Waverley for the first time.

It was doubly impressive given the Conservatives won eight of the nine electoral divisions across the borough despite the new challenge in each posed by UKIP candidates.