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 were two principal council by-elections held on the 3rd December. The Lib Dems held one seat and Labour took a seat off the Tories. In the only Parish and Town council election result reported to ALDC the Tories took a seat from Labour.

In the Ormesby Ward of Redcar and Cleveland Unitary Authority we held the seat comfortably increasing our share of the vote in an already safe ward . The by-election was held due to the resignation of long serving Lib Dem Councillor Eric Empson and was the sixth in just over twelve months in Redcar constituency and our 4th win. The Lib Dems have taken three from Labour and held one. Labour have held two. It is important to out campaign your opposition however safe a ward may seem. In this case we did so by putting out five leaflets to Labour three and UKIP’s one and were the only party to target the postal vote.  It also helps to have a strong candidate; its often tempting to try to save your best candidates for the target  “gain” wards but local by-elections can be very intense and it is wise to select a strong candidate. Redcar and Cleveland did this by selecting well known bus campaigner  Ann Wilson.

The composition of the Council is now:
Labour - 25
Liberal Democrats - 16
Conservative - 11
Independents supporting Labour - 4
Independents – 3

In Redcar constituency Liberal Democrats now hold 16 seats, to Labour’s 16 and the Tories 3.

In the Dane Valley Ward of Thanet council in Kent, the Tories dropped from first to third in one by-election. A fine example of how not to do it.  Our campaign took us from not having a candidate to within 58 votes of winning our first councillor on Thanet District council.

We are now running at 17 net gains for the year to date in principal local by-elections.

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.

Knock until you drop!

There were seven principal council elections held on the 2nd April. The Tories held four seats and gained one from Labour. The Lib Dems gained one seat from Labour and held one seat. There were two Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC. One Lib Dem loss to Tory, and two Tory holds.
In the Redcar & Cleveland BC Dormanstown Ward, Ken Lucas achieved a 17.3% increase in vote share to take the seat from Labour. The campaign delivered was based around a mix of leaflets and target mail, with the emphasis on, getting on the doorstep. From having no data for this ward, the local team now have data from 55% of the ward. This shows again that you have to get on the doorstep.

In the Camden Ward of Belsize, Tom Simon achieved an increase of 5.4% against a concerted Conservative campaign, which consisted of lots of leaflets along with lots of negative campaigning being delivered on the doorstep and phone. The Lib Dem campaign was targeted with lots of doorstep voter contact and plenty of leaflets and targeted mailings to identified voters. Yet again showing that doorstep is best for connecting with our voters.
In the Leeds City Council Temple Newsam, Ward Ian Dowling and his team came from 5th in May 2008 with 521 to come only 283 behind the Tories with 1,468, which boads well for the next election in Temple Newsam ward.
In the Arun DC Ward of Felpham West Martin Lury’s team achieved an increase of 6.2%. In the Calderdale Ward of Skircoat the local team led by Pauline Nash came a good second and are in a good place for the next election to go on and win it. In the Huntingdonshire DC ward of Ramsey we came third behind the Tories, In South Holland we achieved 18.9% in a seat where we had not stood before, with more work this is a good start for future elections here.

Mark Alcock
mark.alcock@aldc.org
 

There were five principal council elections held on the 5th February. Labour held two seats and the Tories held three. There were no Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC.

In the Plaistow ward of Chichester District Council in West Sussex we came within 113 votes of taking the seat off the Tories. The by-election was called following the resignation of a Conservative Councillor who attended just one of the seventeen council meetings held since he was elected in May 2007. In the run up to polling day another Conservative Councillor resigned from the Tories and backed our candidate. The swing of 21% to us was huge but this was a ward in which the Tories got 78% of the vote in 2007.

There has been a worrying trend in recent months. Each week we have had at least one by-election which the BNP have clearly targeted – presumably nationally. This week it was Hyde Newton Ward in Tameside where the BNP got 29%, coming second to Labour. Last week it was Fenham Ward in Newcastle where the BNP got 836 votes, 27% only 213 behind the Lib Dems, but in third. On the 22nd January it was in the East Wickham Ward in Bexley, London where they got 790 (26.5%) only 8 votes from the Tory victors. As they did not win these seats it may not have received national news coverage. Full marks to our local parties for standing candidates and fighting all these seats. What is clear is that you can’t “carry on regardless” and hope the BNP will go away.

If your by-election has been targeted by the BNP, and your campaign is not just a flag waving exercise then you need to do more. One of your key campaign messages needs to be exposing the BNP as fascists. This may be an obvious concept to active Liberal Democrats but the public has lowered its tolerance threshold and we need to remind them of who and what the BNP are and what that means. As with all your key campaign messages this means including it in all your literature. For help and guidance please get a copy of “Tackling the BNP” from ALDC and contact us for advice and standard artwork when you are planning your campaign.