LABOUR Party membership in Brentwood and Ongar has rocketed by 41 per cent since the last General Election.
The constituency party now has 263 members – up from 187 when the country last went to the polls in the spring of 2010.
Over the same period, membership of the Brentwood and Ongar Liberal Democrats (BOLD) dropped slightly from 103 to 101, a fall of 2 per cent.
Brentwood and Ongar Conservatives (BOCA) could not tell the Gazette how many members it had prior to election day on May 6, 2010, citing the introduction of new polling software, Merlin.
BOCA was, however, able to confirm that it had 332 members at the end of December 2010 and 315 at the end of December 2011 – a fall of 5 per cent in one year.
But it's not all doom and gloom for the Tories locally, because according to treasurer and chairman John Kerslake, membership is expected to rise to 350 by the end of 2012 – a 5 per cent increase in two years.
The figures emerged following the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham last week.
Despite the significant increase in Labour membership, the party still has just two councillors on Brentwood Borough Council, Mike-Le-Surf and Julie Morrissey representing Brentwood South.
This is in stark contrast to the Liberal Democrats who, despite a slight fall in membership, still have seven representatives on the council.
Mr Le-Surf, who leads the council's minority Labour group, believes the unpopularity of the Lib Dem-Tory Government is responsible for the rise in his party's membership.
"I'm delighted to see this sharp increase in Labour Party membership," he told the Gazette.
"As the second largest political party in the borough we have a very strong team of hard-working members who care a great deal about the Brentwood community.
"The Lib Dems are in coalition nationally and locally with the Tories, so it's not surprising that more residents are turning towards Labour as the real opposition in the borough."
Ross Carter, chairman of BOLD and a borough councillor for Brentwood North, said: "Membership in Brentwood and Ongar has held up in spite of the tough legacy from the Labour Party, which has meant each child in Britain is born owing £22,500 thanks to their debt crisis.
"We continue to fight to put Brentwood first and challenge the Tories on issues such as weak leadership, loss of services to the county council, the William Hunter Way development and unbelievable salary increases at the top while service suffers."
Mr Kerslake, a Tory borough councillor for Hutton Central, said: "I am pleased that our membership numbers are showing an increase and we want to build on this upward momentum.
"With the Conservatives being in Government and it being mid-term, the drop in opinion polls always comes around, but I haven't seen a negative reaction in terms of membership.
"People come and go but there is not a groundswell of negative opinion towards us here."
