A big victory in Tory-dominated Havant Borough Council last night where LibDem Faith Ponsonby took the Battins council seat from the Conservatives with a three-figure majority. That takes the LibDem group back up to four; we are defending another vacant seat on the 30th. In Stratford upon Avon, however, the result was the other way round with the Kineton ward seat we were defending falling to the Tories in a straight fight with no Labour candidate.
Two seats were up for election in Warminster, for West Wiltshire District Council and Wiltshire County Council following the resignation of the independent councillor who held both. Again, there was no Labour candidate in either. The Conservatives took the District Council seat by over a hundred votes, but Liberal Democrat Paul Batchelor squeezed ahead in the County Council by-election, defeating the Tory by just five votes.
Elsewhere, a ward on Richmondshire District Council remained Independent and, in a by-election for LibDem-free Hyndburn Borough Council in Lancashire, Labour won a previously Tory seat. This takes the night’s net gains to +1 Labour, +1 LibDem, -2 Ind, with the Tories standing still.
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5 Comments
Two gains in Warminster would have been very nice, but it works out that we have to settle for one.
It is worth noting that we came third in the Warminster West County Division last year, and that day the Tories only missed winning it by four votes. Paul Batchelor’s win last night was on a 13.2% swing from Independent to Lib Dem. We now hold a clear majority of the Wiltshire County Council seats in West Wiltshire.
This district ward was a three-member ward when last fought in 2003. We claimed the third elected place that year, and the party came third on the average vote per candidate. Roger Coveney’s performance last night was an increase on average of 6.8% of the total vote share when compared with that result. The Lib Dems remain the largest party on West Wiltshire District Council.
These results in the West of the town follow the sensational win in Warminster East in April, when David Lovell took one of the Tories’ previously safest seats in the district with a 23.5% swing.
In 2003 the Lib Dems only won just 1 out of 6 district council seats in Warminster, this year we have won elections across the whole of the town, and are ready to present a real challenge to the Conservatives in Warminster next May.
For more background visit: http://www.wiltshirelibdems.org.uk
Sometimes I like to see a mixed bag of results. It shows local factors still have great sway …. and that’s what local elections should be about.
But well done Havant. If they can go from 3 to 4, maybe we can go from 4 to 5 in Rochford sometime…
Hyndburn is an old-fashioned 2-party Council which regularly switches from Labour to Tory and back. Local issues play an important part and there are quite high turnouts as in this case. The Tories control the council at present which may explain the rather unseasonable Labour gain.
East Lancashire is very odd. There is not a lot of difference between the areas covered by Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale and Hyndburn Councils. The first two are run by Liberal Democrats at the moment. The second two have no LD Councillors at all.
Tony Greaves
But if there is anyone out there who wants to help change the position in Hyndburn please contact me.
Even if you cannot get involved but would be willing to mentor again get in touch.
Bill Greene
The result in Hampshire is very good news for the Lib Dems. Battins was at one time solidly Labour, then went Tory, and is now Lib Dem. I have long believed that “Greater Portsmouth” is fertile territory – socially mixed, no smokestack industries, and two governing parties that have run down the region’s biggest employer – the Royal Navy!
Kineton is a very odd place. I walked into a shop there just over a year ago and a rather nervous looking newsagent asked me where I am from!
Warminster has a peculiar political history. There was a Meadowcroftite group there at one time. And there is a long tradition of independent councillors.
West Wiltshire should be favourable territory. A collection of small towns with some industry (including that high-rise chimney near Westbury), rather more ubran in fact than Somerton and Frome.