It has been a good week for defences, with seven of nine principal council by-elections resulting in a hold for the incumbent party.  The Tories held two of their four defences; a head-to-head with Labour for the Tithebarn ward on Wyre Borough Council where they sauntered in with 73% of the vote; and in the Maidenblower division of West Sussex County Council with a less impressive 64%.  The only seats to change hands on the 7th both went from Tory to Labour.  In the Irwell ward on Rossendale Borough Council the Conservatives dropped almost 14% of their previous vote, mainly to the Rossendale Lib Dems who took 24% on their first attempt, and Labour crept over the line with a marginal increase.  The Tilgate ward of Crawley saw the absence of both the Liberal Democrats and BNP from last time around give Labour the 15% boost that carried them to victory.  In addition to this gain, Labour successfully defended the Healey and Whitworth seat on Rossendale, where they put on 20%. Down by the seaside, the Morecambe Bay Independents held in the Harbour ward of Lancaster City Council, where Labour’s absence from the ballot generated a rising tide that lifted most other boats by a couple of points.  Over the border in Wales, Llais Gwynedd was back in full voice after last week’s defeat, seeing off Plaid with a full majority in the battle for the Seiont ward on Gwynedd Unitary Authority.  

In the first of our two defences this week, Ben Charpelard and the Tunbridge Wells Lib Dems saw off the Conservatives and the Green Party with a handsome 64% of the vote in St. James' ward.  Congratulations to Ben and the team.  Our featured election this week is the successful defence of the Saxondale ward on Blaby District Council, which saw a real commitment of time and resources from both of the other major parties.  In a suburban ward on the outskirts of Leicester, candidate Christine Merrill’s campaign emphasised the importance of the local Lib Dem team and their all-year-round work for the people of Saxondale.  The local Focus has a strong reputation, built over 25 years of consistent delivery, and played a key role in defusing a number of misleading claims put out by the increasingly desperate Conservatives, who crashed to their lowest percentage vote share in the ward’s history.  Labour popped up, on what is historically unfamiliar territory, with a national focus and some telephone canvassing, and grabbed a handful of votes that had previously broken our way in their absence.  The real lesson of the Saxondale result is that a consistent, and consistently delivered, Focus can quickly become a valuable part of the community, a trusted source of local news, and a vital tool in any Liberal Democrat armoury.  In the words of the Saxondale team “Treasure Your Focus!”.  Congratulations to all, and the best of luck to all our teams out in the field.

ALDC By-elections Team

Whilst the good people of São Tomé and Princípe were busy celebrating their annual ‘Agricultural Reform Day’, an altogether less exciting spectacle was developing across the Atlantic.  Of the six principal council by-elections that took place on the 30th, Liberal Democrats only ran in four, and came second in all of them!  

Admittedly, grabbing second place wasn’t the greatest of challenges in the Alderley ward of Cheshire East, an election that featured only two candidates.  Elsewhere, our strong showing in the South West continued with the Sedgemoor Lib Dems pushing the defending Labour party into third place, taking over 30% of the vote in Woolavington.  The Battle Hill ward of North Tyneside council saw the Lib Dems hold at a comfortable 35% of the vote, dropping marginally on May’s result but not by much.  The more distant finish was second place in Brandon ward of Durham County Council, where Labour’s 64% vote-share saw them through to an easy hold – the Durham Lib Dems still out-polled the third-place Tories by around four to one.  Tameside remains a bit of a desert, with no Lib Dem candidate in the Longendale by-election, and the presence of three fringe party candidates failed to stop Labour and the Conservatives taking 90% of the vote between them – in the end, Labour held with a 5% swing and majority around 200.  Finally, the defending Llais Gwynedd (‘Voice of Gwynedd’ for the Anglophones amongst us) were silenced by Plaid Cymru in Gwynedd’s Bowydd and Rhiw by-election, where Plaid appeared to be the main beneficiary of the absence of the Green Party from the ballot.

With no reported elections out in the towns, we have space to mention ALDC’s Kickstart residential training programme for the 2011 elections.  The ‘Early Bird’ discount runs out on the 8th of October, but some concessions for participants willing to share accommodation and campaigners from ‘starting off’ areas around the country remain.  More information and registration details, as ever, can be found on the ALDC website.  There will be nine principal council by-elections, two of which are Lib Dem defences, next week.  The very best of luck to our candidates and campaigners across the country.  

ALDC By-elections Team

With last week’s victory in Fylde putting a spring in our step, by-election watchers have been waiting to see whether this week’s crop of nine principal by-elections could turn it into a full-blown Indian summer just two days shy of Federal Conference.  The Conservatives held three seats, in Carlisle, Hackney, and the first of their two defences in Kensington and Chelsea.  Labour held the Park ward in Knowsley, and also took two seats in Worksop from the Tories; the Worksop South ward on Bassetlaw District Council and the Worksop West division on Nottinghamshire County Council.  Much better at fending off Labour’s attacks were this week’s Liberal Democrat teams, we saw off the reds at County level in the Cambridge East Chesterton division and, importantly, in the north of England with a win for John Potter in the Cadley ward of Preston City Council.

Our featured story today is a magnificent Liberal Democrat victory in the capital, where Linda Wade and the Kensington and Chelsea Lib Dem team increased their vote by a staggering 24% to take the Earl’s Court ward from a shell-shocked Tory party.  Such was the level of presumption at the count, that the officers initially suggested tallying up only the non-Conservative votes and merely subtracting them from the total to work out the inevitable Tory majority!  Unfortunately for them, a two-month election campaign and a candidate already widely respected for her role chairing a large local residents’ association proved potent enough to pop Kensington and Chelsea’s blue bubble.  Leading from the front on problems with social housing, air quality, and the legacy of the soon-to-be-demolished Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre, Linda’s personal following was augmented by an innovative approach to ‘zone one’ campaigning, which involved reconstructing walk-maps by building-type rather than location, cream letter postal vote literature differentiated from their later bi-lingual blue letter campaign, and an Eve of Poll mailmerged to include polling numbers, so that voters without polling cards would still be able to fully exercise their vote.  With Labour busy targeting the other K&C ward having an election, and with a Tory campaign that never recovered from its initial complacence, Linda’s 44.8% victory is a testament to Liberal Democrat community politics and a shot in the arm for the party as it prepares to head to Liverpool.

Two results from the towns today, Lib Dem Malcolm Douglas held the Pinewood ward on Whitehill TC with 70% of the vote, and Liberal Democrat Helen Pighills held the Northcourt ward on Abingdon Town Council.  The Abingdon team’s victory in Northcourt keeps the complexion of the Town Council itself a very fetching 100% yellow!

Congratulations to all of our successful campaign teams, and the best of luck to all candidates and campaigners in the field.

ALDC By-Elections Team

It seems only fitting that the 182nd birthday of Leo Tolstoy would be an electoral epic.  When the new government decided to reverse Labour’s plans for Exeter and Norwich to become unitary councils with fresh elections next year, they also triggered deferred elections for the twenty-six seats that should have been contested in May.  Added to this haul are five principal council by-elections and a pair of non-principal contests in the towns, for a grand total of thirty-three elections to report on this week.

The big story, of course, were the deferred elections in Exeter and Norwich, both of which went to the polls to fill a full thirteen council places.  For the incurable electoral anoraks amongst you, it should be acknowledged that one of Exeter’s thirteen elections was a by-election proper – a casual vacancy caused by Conservative resignation, but for the sake of narrative coherence, we’ll treat them all together.  A total of three seats changed hands in Exeter on Sept 9th, Labour picked up two from the Tories, who mitigated their losses by taking the Heavitree ward from the local Liberal Party.  Labour’s two net gains may yet be enough for them to take control of the council (currently a Lib Dem minority administration), the issue of control will be decided at a meeting on 21st.  Two seats changed hands in Norwich, Labour picking up one from the Tories, and the formerly Lib Dem Thorpe Hamlet ward swinging dramatically to the Greens.  The minority Labour administration in Norwich looks set to continue on the strength of their single net gain, with the Greens as second largest party keeping pace at only two seats behind.  

Of the remaining five principal council by-elections, the Tories held the Aspatria and Wharrels division of Cumbria County Council, Labour held their seat in Ward 16 of Edinburgh City Council, and Jo Clements and the local Lib Dem team successfully held the Newtown seat on Poole.  Labour received their comeuppance in the Ayresome ward of Middlesbrough, where the electorate took the seat back to Independent after the previous Independent councillor defected to Labour before their resignation sparked the contest.  

The final result of the day was a much-needed victory for the Liberal Democrats in Northern England, as Karen Henshaw and the local Focus Team took the Kilnhouse ward on Fylde Borough Council from the Conservatives.  Known not only for her politics, but also as a committed member of Fylde’s civic society, choir member and friend of local parks, Karen’s knowledge of, and residence in, the Kilnhouse ward proved a solid base on which to build a campaign.  The local Lib Dem team kept the focus local, always the best practice, and successfully used a petition against a local tip closure as a basis for targeted mailings at election time.  Getting out on the doorstep paid dividends in terms of visibility and new canvass data, with further target letters to first-time voters and new residents building on Karen’s profile.  A well financed Tory campaign failed to deliver, and the absence of the candidate from the doorsteps was a common observation.  With a 21% upswing in support, the Fylde campaign demonstrates the old ALDC adage that ‘where we work we win’.  Our congratulations to Karen and the entire team in Fylde.  

A brief glance around the towns; we had two Town Council by-elections reported to ALDC, both for Spennymoor T.C. in Co Durham.  Labour held one, and lost the other to Lib Dem Benjamin Ord.  Well done to Benjamin and his team, and the best of luck to our candidates and campaigners fighting by-elections across the country.

ALDC By-Elections Team

Despite falling on the 344th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, this week’s crop of by-elections didn’t set the world on fire; we had no candidates in either of the two principal by-elections, and three of the four elections out in the towns were unremarkable Tory holds.  Both principals took place in West Lancashire, Labour held in Upholland on a 30% turnout and in Skelmersdale on 17%.  The Conservative holds at Town Council level were in the West Ward of Camborne T.C. in Cornwall, the Castle ward on Oswestry T.C. in Shropshire, and the Town ward of Sevenoaks T.C. in Kent.  

Bucking the trend were the Lib Dem campaign team in the Castle ward of Alnwick Town Council in Berwick-upon-Tweed, represented in parliament by the venerable Sir Alan Beith.  The Castle ward itself is now represented by Lib Dem Sarah Walton, herself an activist recruit during the 2010 General Election.  In Castle’s first competitive election, after a long history of uncontested co-options, the Lib Dem campaign team outmanoeuvred the complacent Conservative defence by keeping the focus firmly on local issues.  Sarah’s campaign to restore a recently-closed community play area was a key vote-winner and an excellent example of the traditional Lib Dem concern with community politics.  Congratulations to the entire Alnwick team.

Finally, a quick reminder that ALDC will be laying on a full training and fringe complement at Conference, details can be found at here.  Also, the ALDC website has two features under development; a ‘Big Picture’ of all council compositions across the country and our ‘Who’s Up in 2011’ page.  We would like readers to help us build these pages into a valuable resource for all of our campaigners by having a quick look and making sure our details for your area are fully up to date.  The best of luck to all of our campaign teams out in the field.

ALDC By-Elections Team