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

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

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

March 18th saw two notable anniversaries in the annals of democracy.  Firstly, the world celebrated eighteen years since the watershed referendum that voted to end the system of apartheid across South Africa.  In a longer lens, it was also the anniversary of the declaration of the Paris Commune in 1871, an event that gave the Western world a working model of delegative democracy, and a parliamentary recall function similar to our own proposals for errant M.P.’s – let us hope 1980s synth-pop band The Communards (‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’) cease to remain its most recognised cultural echo!

Back in modern-day Britain, there were only two principal by-election results to report on, the Taverham North ward of Broadland District Council and Gravesham Borough Council’s Meopham South and Vigo ward.  Whilst the Tories held the latter quite handily, it is our pleasure to report a Lib Dem gain at Tory expense in Taverham.  There were no Town or Parish Council by-elections reported to ALDC this week.

Currently a part of the Norwich North constituency, the Taverham North ward of Broadland D.C. will be part of the new Broadland parliamentary constituency from 2010.  Former Councillor, grassroots activist and renowned political blogger Nich Starling successfully took the seat from a local Tory party whose candidates and councillors were reportedly rarely seen in the wards.  Using touchstone local issues such as bad road conditions in the ward, scepticism toward some aspects of the under-development ‘eco-town’ at Rackheath, and the Northern Distributor Road being built in the teeth of widespread opposition, the Liberal Democrat campaign in Taversham chimed with the values of voters on the doorstep and reaped the rewards at the polls.  Nich’s excellent blog is located at www.norfolkblogger.blogspot.com.    

In Meopham South and Vigo, the Conservatives retained their council seat with close to 60% of the vote, with second place coming almost 400 votes behind.  An insurgent UKIP took 14% of the vote, making it to second place on their first attempt.  Both the Liberal Democrat candidate Ann O’Brien and the Labour candidate were eight votes shy of the UKIP total, the Lib Dem share of the vote was 13% on a seat that went uncontested by us last time around.  

Make sure that you don’t leave it to the last minute to get your nomination papers in.  If you leave it too late then there won’t be time to fix any mistakes and you won’t be able to stand.  Comprehensive guidance for ALDC members can be found here.