Two new people have been elected to join Garff Commissioners after a by-election was held on Thursday.

James Hewison and Richard Taylor, who received 214 and 170 votes respectively, said they were ‘very happy’ and ‘grateful’ for the support from Lonan voters, while James Curtis came in third with 161 votes.

A total of 335 valid ballots were cast across two polling stations, with only three spoilt papers, which gave a turnout of 26.5%.

Of those, 160 ballots were cast at Baldrine Methodist Church Hall (Lonan South) and 178 at the Laxey Working Men’s Institute (Lonan North), while there were no postal or proxy votes.

Mr Hewison, who topped the poll, says he’s on ‘cloud nine’ after being declared as one of the winners.

‘I'm very happy to be elected, and I'd really like to thank everyone that's helped me out and given me support,’ he said. ‘I also look forward to working with Mr Taylor.

‘Currently, I would like to see if the sewage farm proposal can actually be reconsidered. That's definitely going to be on the agenda for me at the first meeting.’

Meanwhile, Mr Taylor says he is ‘looking forward’ to working with the current board of commissioners.

‘I've been to a few of the meetings already, and I'm just looking forward to getting involved in some of the initiatives that the commissioners have already got going on.

‘We know the wind farm is going to be a massive issue, not just locally but elsewhere. There’s also other initiatives such as children safe areas and those sort of things.

‘I'm very pleased [to have been elected]. I'm just about to retire, so this will fill some of my time while being able to give something back, as I've said all the way through.’