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.

There were four principal council elections held on the 29th January. Labour held one seat and lost two to the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems held one seat. Of three Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC the Lib Dems gained two from Independents and one from the Tories.

In Newcastle’s Fenham ward we were in third place before we won it in 2006. In 2007 we lost by 4. In 2008 we won by 303. Our victory last night by 24 votes, bringing our group in Newcastle to 50, the largest in the country was just as sweet seeing of both Labour and a strong BNP challenge. Newcastle’s elections are very different from many. 46% of the electorate across the city have postal votes. In this by-election 2963 postal votes were issued and 1979 returned – 64% of the votes cast in the by-election. Inevitably a lot of emphasis was put on work with this self-selecting group of the electorate.

In the Valentine Ward of the London Borough of Redbridge we made another stunning gain. The key to success was identifying and running with the strong local issues we identified; 1. The Tory closure of a local swimming pool 2. The distance kids were being forced to travel due to a lack of school places and 3. The council attempting to gag our candidate when he tried to raise the issue.

Didsbury West Ward is not inner-city Manchester and contains the multi-million pound mansions of several Labour MP’s – yes that affluent. It had been one of the Tories safest wards in the City prior to their demise in the 1980’s, with Tory party membership in the ward over a 1,000. In last Thursday’s by-election following the tragic death of North West Campaigns Officer Cllr Neil Trafford the Tory vote was squeezed to just 13% and the Lib Dem vote topped 50%. This is one of seven wards in John Leech’s Manchester Withington increasingly less marginal parliamentary constituency. The campaign, full of bells and whistles, produced a healthy swing to the Lib Dems that bodes well for the general election. Winning six out of the seven by-elections last Thursday is a great start to the new year!

There were eight principal council elections held on the 2^nd October. The Lib Dems made two gains, one from the Tories and one from Labour. The Tories held five seats and Independents made one gain from the Tories.  There was one Parish council election result reported to ALDC, a Tory hold. Our very impressive gain from Labour in the Kirkleatham Ward on Redcar and Cleveland Council demonstrated the importance of standing candidates for all available vacancies in multi member wards. Redcar and Cleveland have all out elections, the last being in May 2007. In the Kirkleatham ward, in that year, both the Lib Dems and Labour stood three candidates each for the three vacancies. The Tories only stood one candidate and came third. We achieved 31% the vote on a single leaflet campaign. However it is at least reasonable to suppose that some of the 438 people who voted for the Tory did not waste their remaining two votes and voted for Lib Dems, with at least enough of them doing so to account for the margin of 70 votes that separated the 3 Lib Dems and the Tory.  If they had stood 3 candidates the chances are we would not have got 2^nd place in 2007, the springboard to our success in this by-election.

Shropshire have wisely seen that by- elections will play a vital part in the build up to the County and Unitary elections next June. It can break new ground, build capacity, provide a training ground for new techniques, motivate the membership and provide local voters clear evidence of our ability to win  - vital in all elections. At the end of August we failed to make a gain by just 10 votes in the Shropshire District of Shrewsbury and Atcham so we were doubly determined that we would do better in the Castle Ward in Oswestry last week. A countywide campaign provided the capacity for the intensity required to win, despite the appalling weather on polling day.

Oh, and we had candidates in all principal by elections for the third week running!