There were four principal council elections held on the 4th February. The Tories held one seat. The Lib Dems held one seat but also lost two seats to Labour. There were three Parish council elections reported to ALDC.

Rarely, thankfully, do we have to report on an utter disaster, but that was the case in the Holmewood and Heath by-election in North East Derbyshire. In 2007 two Labour councillors were elected for the ward un-opposed. In fact they had been unopposed for the last 20 years and only Labour had ever been elected in this coal mining and largely council housing renting area. In April 2008 there was a by-election that we won with 42% and a 26 vote majority.  Our sitting councillor resigned after 14 months non-attendance due to ill health and we failed to stand a candidate to defend the seat. The problem may have come from the ward switching from the  North East Derbyshire constituency to Bolsover in the boundary changes but whatever the reason conceding without a fight borders on the politically criminal.

Further bad news came in the form of a loss to Labour in the Queens Park Ward of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.  The Lib Dem’s in Blackburn form part of a joint administration. The seat was vacant beacuse the councillor resigned - he had been expelled from the Group for non-attendance and he subsequently resigned from the Council The council's weekly bin collections and Housing Market Renewal scheme were popular, its gritting and ensuing bin collection problems were not - particularly when polling day itself involved snow related traffic problems.

The line was finally drawn at the Whyteleafe Ward of Tandridge District Council in Surrey, where recently appointed PPC David Lee led the party to a successful defence.   A general ‘anti’ vote drove the UKIP vote share well beyond the likely return on their limited campaign, and a half-hearted Tory effort failed to register dramatically.  The Labour party failed to field a candidate.  Creating a legacy of new canvass data, in addition to returning a Liberal Democrat Councillor to Tandridge DC, makes the Lee campaign a bright spot in an otherwise dreary February week. 

The only other principal election this week was an unremarkable Conservative Hold in the Newchapel Ward of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council.  The Tories held off UKIP by only 60 votes, an early indication, perhaps, of the electoral dangers currently facing the Conservatives in 2010’s new political climate.
 

There were three principal council by-elections held on the 12th November. The Tories gained two seats, one from an Independent and one from the Lib Dems. In the only Parish and Town council election result reported to ALDC the Lib Dems held the seat.

In the Totnes Bridgetown Ward by-election for South Hams District Council in Devon we held a seat in a split ward.  Our candidate was well known as the local community bus driver, and this time there was no Independent.  We concentrated on canvassing and then getting our supporters to turn out.  In contrast the Tories just didn't work as hard and knocked-up every single house regardless of voting intention.

In the Shepway council seat of New Romney Coast in 2007 we narrowly won both seats by 20 votes over the Tories. But by September one of our councillors had defected to the Tories, one of a number of defections from the group in recent years. It was this “defected” councillor's resignation that caused the by-election.  Technically a loss to the Tories but it felt like a Tory hold.

Most active campaigners will be preparing their Christmas focuses and perhaps Christmas cards and calendars as well. This is a really good time to include some direct mail. You could perhaps a personal “blue” letter into the envelope with your Christmas cards. Why not deliver to your “pool” along with your calendars with a New Year , new politics message?

Calendars are particularly useful as they emphasis how we can help and be genuinely, really useful.  Many people keep them and pin them to notice boards at home or work, which gives them a permanent reminder of the local Liberal Democrat team.

Key features
·    Full calendar for 2010
·    Dates of advice surgeries highlighted on the calendar - if you don't have surgeries you could use this space to tell people what to do if they need help from their local Liberal Democrat team (you could also colour in the term dates on the calendar as well if you wished)
·    A place to put in the contact details for local councillors, MP, PPC or MEP
·    Contact numbers for key local services - this is often one of the main reasons keep our calendar over any others they might get.
Templates are available on the ALDC website for members.
 

There was one principal council by-election held on the 5th November. The Tories held the seat. There were no Parish and Town council election results reported to ALDC.

The Lower Sheering Ward of Epping Forest District council in Essex is a one member rural ward that has a polling station in Hertfordshire and lies in the highly marginal Harlow parliamentary constituency. Despite this Labour failed to nominate a candidate and the Tories increased their vote by less than 1%. We ran a paperless campaign yet got more than four times the vote we received in a by-election in the ward in June 2005.

As the 10:10 campaign gathers momentum the next campaigning step for us all is working towards Copenhagen, the United Nations Climate change conference 7-18th December. The party will be producing a range of materials to help you campaign on this and there will be a number of marches and events to attend in London on December 5th. However it’s worth finding out what is happening in your area e.g. local demonstrations and getting involved. We will keep you updated week by week as the campaign develops.

The Political Parties and Elections Act became law in July 2009. One key element of the act is that in the next six months the spending of political parties will be governed by three different regimes! In the period 1/1/2010 to the start of your local election regulated period (earliest 29/3/2010)  materials and expenses can count towards:
·    the national parties limit where it promotes the national party
·    promoting the PPC counts towards the new “long” campaign limit and will need to be declared.
·    promoting anything else can be allocated to the local campaign, but needs no declaration before the start of the regulated period for the local campaign.
This is complicated and will require very careful attention to imprints, PPERA declarations, Long and Short Parliamentary campaign and local election campaign expense limits. As with the Euro campaign last year record-keeping is very important. There is a strong argument for the constituency general election agent being the agent for all the wards covered by the constituency in the local elections to keep the record keeping comprehensive and consistent.

In the one directly elected mayoral by-election held on 15th October we took the post from an Independent. There were twelve principal council by-elections, the Tories held eight seats, Labour one seat and the Liberal Democrats one seat. The Lib Dems took one seat off Labour but this was reversed with Labour taking one seat from the Lib Dems. There were two Parish and Town council election results reported to ALDC   an Independent hold and a Lib Dem gain from Independent. 

The mayoral campaign was gripping everyone in the ALDC as news seeped out of the count all Friday. We fancied our chances from the start. One of our best results in the country on June 4th was in Bedford where, on new boundaries, we became the largest party in the new unitary authority. Then the Tories decided to hold  an open selection for their candidate alienating many of their core voters and activists in the process. We ran a good campaign with big guns like Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes visiting. On the Tory side Eric Pickles and David Cameron were wheeled out. They must have been aghast to see our window posters, stakeboards and super boards dominating across urban Bedford. With Watford, East of England region now has two directly elected Lib Dem, t Mayors lets hope Henry Vann can take the parliamentary seat next May! 

The Cannock Chase Heath Hayes East and Wimblebury Ward in Staffordshire has been held by all three parties over the last 20 years.  Having held it before we won it back in 2004, but lost it in 2008 coming third.  As soon as this election was over we got wind that the Lab councillor was moving to Sardinia and so we started working it.  In the end it took him 18 months to go and even then it was just three days before he would be disqualified.  We also used the county council elections as a trial run for the by-election, just working that part of the division.
Since June we delivered seven leaflets, covered the whole ward in street letters on specific local issues, direct mail and phone canvassed.  In the postal vote we were neck and neck but we won on the day with a phone knock up.

In the Crawley Borough Council Northgate Ward By-election the Tories started their campaign with a leaflet implying that the reason for our councillors resignation was dubious. Coupled with a family bereavement for the candidate this put us on the back foot and we never really recovered dropping from first to third. The local agent suggests that we simply did not knock on enough doors.

For a second week in a row, no council seats changed hands in the by-elections being contested.

The best result for the party this week was in the Burrsville Ward of Tendring in Essex.  This ward makes up the northern suburbs of Clacton-on-Sea and saw a 16% increase in the Liberal Democrat vote.  This campaign was fought hard as Conservative overall control of the council rested on the result.  In the end, despite a good increase in our vote we didn't quite succeed in removing the Conservative's slim majority on the council.

Results in the other wards up for election showed no obvious trend, other than that all were in wards that have tended to be very weak for the Liberal Democrats and in some cases they were the first time we had contested the ward for some time.

The other by-elections this week were:
North Tyneside MBC, Preston
Hartlepool UA, Elwick
Broxtowe BC, Toton and Chilwell Meadows
Three Rivers DC, Hayling

If this week's by-elections aren't very exciting, then maybe next year's council elections will be.  ALDC's Kickstart is the leading training course for people aiming to do well in next year's local elections.  But places are going fast.  The benefits of Kickstart as opposed to other training courses include: an experienced mentor for your campaign team, training tailored for your own individual circumstances, a change of scenery from your own area to help you focus on what you need to do to win and a chance to swap ideas with Liberal Democrats from around the country.  There is a discounted early-bird rate, but this ends on 1st October, so make sure you book now.  More details from our Kickstart page.