It has been a quiet week for principal council by-elections with just two taking place. However there were positive results in both – including a great hold in Suffolk – and we also had a great town council gain too.
We held Woodbridge division on Suffolk County Council – winning over 50% of the vote. Congratulations to Councillor Ruth Leach and Suffolk Lib Dems on holding the seat in a more crowded election than when it was last fought with over half the vote.
Suffolk CC, Woodbridge
Liberal Democrats (Ruth Leach): 990 (51.2%, -12.3%)
Conservative: 642 (33.2%, -3.3%)
Labour: 301 (15.6%, new)
The other principal election this week was in Cheltenham Borough Council in Prestbury ward. Lib Dem candidate Ben Ingram moved the Lib Dem vote share forward by over 5% and jumped from 4th to 3rd place. A really good result. Thanks to Ben for standing. The ward was held by the People Against Bureaucracy Group.
Cheltenham BC, Prestbury
People Against Bureaucracy: 644 (32.7%, -8.5%)
Green Party: 484 (27.9%, +9.7%)
Liberal Democrats (Ben Ingram): 346 (20%, +5.4%)
Conservative: 258 (14.9%, -6.5%)
Finally we had a great gain reported to us on Great Aycliffe Parish Council in Shafto St Mary’s ward. Congratulations to Councillor Ben McAnaney and the team in Great Aycliffe for a great gain from Independent.
Great Aycliffe TC, Shafto St Mary’s
Liberal Democrats (Brian McAnaney): 260 (63.3%)
Independent: 151 (36.7%)
Please report any Town, Parish or Community Council by-elections you have that you are fighting to win (and the results) to ALDC on [email protected].
A full summary of all by-election results can be found on the ALDC by-elections page here.
* Charles Quinn is Campaigns Organiser for ALDC and a local councillor in Hull.
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8 Comments
Cheltenham being a target seat I thought we might have done better. Yes,we have a small rise in our vote but the greens attracted more switchers. So much for a conference boost.
While this is a ward in Cheltenham Borough Council, it falls into Tewkesbury parliamentary constituency, not Cheltenham.
And it appears the Prestbury ward will remain in Tewkesbury constituency after the forthcoming boundary changes
We won in a constituency we’re not targeting. Why does Tim Rogers see that as bad? Weird.
We did well in a constituency we’re not targeting. Why does Tim Rogers find that bad? Weord
Tim Hill – Lib Dems should be targeting Tewkesbury. If not to win, then to be positioned for a proper bid in the following election. It’s definitely a top 100 target.
Tim Hill. The Green party won more vote switchers than we did. Yes, we did improve and it’s good to see the conservative vote drop. But we need to ask ourselves why most switchers preferred the green party to the LibDems.
The Tewkesbury by-election reported here has what appears to be a local group (People Against Bureaucracy) winning the seat, and no Labour candidate. Both of those factors are going to skew how people vote. I’d therefore be very surprised if – without any specific local knowledge – we can deduce anything from that result relevant to national politics. And that’s without even considering that local council by-elections are small enough that the swings and vote share changes can be totally dominated by unique local issues anyway.