This week once again saw two principal council by-elections.
On Wednesday, the Conservatives held one of their two seats in Purley-on-Thames ward in West Berkshire (UA), with their candidate polling 68.1% to take victory with a comfortable majority of 764 votes. Liberal Democrat candidate Steve Brown finished fourth with 7.6% of the vote.
Two seats were available in yesterday’s by-election in the St Albans (DC) ward of Marshalwick South. The Conservatives held on to both seats with their two candidates collectively averaging 33.5% of the vote. Lib Dem candidates Mark Pedroz and Elizabeth Needham finishing third and fourth out of ten respectively, collectively polling 25% of the vote, an improvement of 5.8% from the party’s third place finish behind Labour in the ward’s previous election in May.
In total, six seats were contested in five by-elections in January (four Conservative holds, one Labour hold and one SNP hold). Lib Dem candidates were fielded in three of these principal council by-elections, polling an average of 14.9% in elections we contested.
* ALDC is the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners
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3 Comments
A good 2nd place for Sandy Walkington and his team in St Albans in a ward we won in 2008 & 2010 but had slipped to 3rd place behind Labour in May 2014.
Well done St Albans –
Conservative……1314…33.5%…(Down 5.1%)
Lib Democrats……983…25.0%…( Up 5.7%)
Labour……………..718…18.3%…(Down 4.4%)
Greens…………….616…15.7%…( Up 5.5%)
UKIP………………..295…..7.5%…(Down 1.7%)
Greens came fourth, but around half of their votes going to our candidates could have meant two gains for us.
Anyone from St Albans with any thoughts on this and wider implications ?
Needs to be put in perspective. In 2010 won the ward with 1706 votes. Indicative of how far we have fallen nationally.