There were six principal council by-elections on July 8th and a single Town Council contest reported to ALDC.  Of the six, our best result came in the Cockerton West ward of Darlington, where candidate Brian Jefferson gained a near 20% upswing in the Lib Dem voteshare to leap into second.  The urgency with which Labour’s council Leader and new M.P. pounded the streets testified to our candidate’s well-established reputation as hard working local teacher and community campaigner, who had previously served on the council for the Conservatives.  Our campaign team won the literature war, putting out three election addresses in a variety of sizes (all on recycled paper, for additional environmental currency), blue letters timed to coincide with the arrival of postal votes, and a targeted Good Morning, well in excess of the output from the opposing parties.  The BNP were active in the council estate areas, finishing with a typical flourish by illegally fly-posting election propaganda onto council properties on polling day, before having them all ripped down and storming into last place (shedding nearly 10% of their vote).  With a former UKIP candidate running for the Tories and polling a mere 10% himself, our candidate was the only competition for a complacent Labour and came within forty votes of a notable victory. 

Of the remainder, only one principal council seat saw a change of hands with Labour wresting the Blackwood ward on Caerphilly from an Independent in an election with no Liberal Democrat candidate.  In a similar vein was Blaenau Gwent, in whose Tredegar Central and West ward we successfully took one fifth of the vote last time around, but no-one to build on it two years later.  The Greens held on in Brighton, at the back end of a long shuffle prompted by Caroline Lucas’ elevation to the Commons in May.  The remaining principal council results were all Labour Holds, and their increasing voteshare features as today’s common denominator.  In the Towns, the St Ives Independents Held and Gained one apiece on St Ives T.C., the gain being at the expense of the Greens.  

With a princely nine by-elections coming on the 15th, there will be plenty to look out for.  In the meantime, a quick reminder that ALDC are accepting nominations for a variety of prizes in our Campaigner Awards 2010.  Details on our website are accessible via http://tinyurl.com/34dhlqe.  The best of luck to all our campaign teams across the country.

ALDC By-Elections Team

There have been two election days since the last update, Tuesday 25th for the delayed elections in Camden’s Haverstock ward, and Thursday 27th for Ryde South on the Isle of Wight and a variety of deferred- and by-elections for Town Councils across the country.  

In the first serious electoral test since the formation of the coalition, the Liberal Democrat team in Camden successfully defended three seats in the deferred elections in the Haverstock ward.  A quick note on classifications; we are reporting this result as two hold and one gain despite there being three Lib Dem councillors on both the 5th and 7th of May.  In 2006, the voters of Camden returned two Labour and one Liberal Democrat in Haverstock.  One of the Labour councillors was replaced by a Lib Dem in a by-election in July 2007, whilst the second change was the result of defection.  When treating elections, the ALDC policy is to use the will of the voters as expressed at the ballot box as the basis for its results classifications, therefore the seat that saw a defection has still technically been gained from Labour - the party that received the winning number of votes the last time that seat was contested.  With a small increase in the Lib Dem tallies, albeit on a turnout only half that of the other borough elections on May 6th, our Haverstock holds kept the group total at thirteen councillors and capped Camden’s net losses at seven.  

Bad news from the Isle of Wight, whose Ryde South ward was gained by the Conservatives with a 10% increase on 2009.  The sitting councillor had been elected Liberal Democrat before becoming independent and so, in line with the principle outlined above, the Ryde South ward by-election goes into our losses column.  A near 20% upswing saw Labour into second place and our candidate Tony Zeid came in third.  

In the non-principle council elections, the Conservatives notched up five Town Council gains, one of which – on Rugeley Town Council in Cannock Chase – was taken from the Liberal Democrats by the wafer-thin margin of four votes.  Out in the High Peak, it appears that the Green Party have finally found their own winning formula – taking a previously Lib Dem seat on New Mills Town Council by running completely unopposed.  The good news from the Towns is threefold; firstly, Tom Stubbs and the Truro Liberal Democrat team are celebrating his election to Truro City Council, taking the Trehaverne ward seat from an Independent.  Secondly, in the deferred elections for Stratford-on-Avon T.C., the Lib Dem majority was extended by three to fifteen out of a possible twenty councillors.  Finally, a resounding success on Kendal Town Council – a full, clean sweep of all 28 seats.  Congratulations and best wishes to all of our campaigners and councillors in Truro, Stratford, and Kendal.

All in all, a mixed bag of results as we move into June but our sure-footed defence in Camden, the most significant of this week’s elections in terms of voter numbers and councillors returned, bodes well for our campaigns teams as we move into the summer.  

ALDC By-Elections Team

There were five principal council by-elections held on 8th October. The Tories held three seats. The Lib Dems took one seat off Independents but lost one to an Independent Liberal. There was one Parish and Town council election reported to ALDC  which was won by the Tories. 

According to the agent in the Penrith West Ward by-election for Eden District Council in Cumbria we ran a “classic ALDC campaign”, “by the book”. I could write a whole column - in fact a book  - about that but what was clear was that it was considerably better than the campaigns run by the other parties. Blue letters and “Good mornings” were a novelty without competition. With only 1500 doors a full foot canvass was accomplished.  The town has an incomplete supermarket, where the developer has gone bust. The council is run by Independents and Tories (often elected in uncontested elections) and has been taking decisions about the sites future behind closed doors. An easy campaigning target.

In the Pickering East Ward of Ryedale Council, North Yorkshire we’ve had a chequered recent history. The two-member ward elected an Independent and a Liberal Democrat in 2003. In 2007 it elected a Lib Dem and (after a by-election) an Independent Liberal. The one Liberal Democrat councillor moved away from the area causing the by-election. The independent Liberal candidate won giving them both seats in the ward. There was obvious confusion between the Liberal and Liberal Democrat Candidates, particularly as the Liberal was above us on the ballot paper. This might have been a case for using the party description “Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats”.

In the Grange Hill ward of Epping Forest we nearly regained a seat lost to the Tories in 2004. Gavin Chambers has been building for success, starting with his impressive election to the Buckhurst Hill Parish council at the end of August with 62% of the vote. To come within 42 votes of winning with a 31% increase in our vote is frustrating but we need to stick with it, and we’ll win in the end.

John Bridges
John.bridges@aldc.org

Although the Norwich North by-election hogged the political headlines, it was the council by-elections that produced the more interesting, and less predictable, set of political news.

This week’s by-election results got off to an early start, thanks to the holiday plans of Kensington & Chelsea’s Chief Executive creating that rare event – a Wednesday by-election. And what a result to start with! Our victory in Colville Ward, a formerly safe Labour seat which includes the famous Portobello Road, is the culmination of four years of hard work by Carol Caruana and her team. The campaign, ably led by Robin Meltzer, saw monthly Focus leaflets and addressed mailings which concentrated hard on the issues that residents of the area really cared about. This result not only gives us our first ever elected councillor in the borough, but it also upset both Labour and the Conservatives in the process, who both assumed they would win.

There were two principal council elections held on the 2nd July. The Lib Dems gained one seat from the Tories and the Tories held the other. No Town and Parish Council results were reported to ALDC.

Thursday was another good night for the Lib Dems. We now have made eleven net gains since the beginning of the year in council by-elections.

Nonsuch ward, part of the London Borough of Sutton has been a Lib Dem ward but the Tories took a seat in 2006 all out London elections. We wanted it back! So in a held parliamentary seat we pulled out all the stops and utilised help from across London with action days every weekend. How often will the two Lib Dem MPs’ turn up to help deliver the good morning leaflet at 6am only to find there were none left to deliver!
Labour and the BNP ran two leaflet campaigns but the Tories produced six full colour leaflets.  The final Tory leaflet went negative against our candidate but the tactic backfired badly. We not only have two local MPs, we also run the council and fighting by-elections when in control is often difficult. In these circumstances getting a swing to the Lib Dems from the Tories and over 50% of the vote in a high turnout election is particularly encouraging.

Unfortunately despite this success we are still failing to stand candidates even in wards where we polled 22% last time. Standing no candidate in the Ferndown Central ward of East Dorset District Council is even more inexplicable as it is in the Christchurch constituency.

For those who had county or Unitary elections in June the deadlines for the receipt of return of election expenses are: Thursday 9th July if your result was declared before midnight on 4th June. Friday 10th July if your result was declared after midnight i.e. 5th June.