THE Conservatives have won the two vacant ward seats following yesterday's by-elections.

The Tory candidates for both Edgware and Totteridge won by significant margins to ensure the administration maintain their majority of 11 seats on the council.

Alison Cornelius received 2,837 votes in Totteridge, beating Liberal Democrat candidate Jonty Stern, with 792 votes, into second place, and Labour candidate Tim Roberts into third with 699 votes.

Mrs Cornelius will join her husband, Richard Cornelius, and current mayor of Barnet Brian Coleman as councillors for the ward.

In Edgware, Darrel Yawitch will join councillors Helena Hart and Joan Scannell in ward after winning the vacant seat by almost 2,000 votes.

Mr Yawitch received 2,953 votes compared to second placed Labour candidate Alon Or-Bach, who received 1,036, and Jonathan Davies, who came third for the Liberal Democrats with 688 votes.

In total, across all the polling stations in both wards, there were a total of 66 spoilt ballots, two of which were for voting for more than one candidate, one for writing a mark that could identify the voter, and the rest for being marked incorrectly or there was uncertainty around the voter's intention.

The elections were held after two conservative councillors resigned from the authority earlier this year.