In one of those rare-ish Tuesday by-elections, the Lib Dems confortably held on to a Council seat in Brent yesterday.

Cllr Charlie Clinton and team absolutely smashed it. Here’s the result:

Charlie Clinton 1743

               Lab – 827

               Con – 740

               Reform – 286

Well done to the Brent Lib Dems.

The by-election was caused by the resignation of Cllr Anton Georgiou. He set out his reasons in a post for the Wembley Matters blog:

Being the Liberal Democrat Councillor for Alperton has truly been the honour of my life. I became a campaigner locally in 2013 when I was 18 years old and have spent over a decade doing what I can to better the borough I love so much. For the last 5 years I have had the privilege to represent residents in Alperton on the Council – initially as the only elected Liberal Democrat and for the past two and a half years as the Leader of our small, but effective opposition group.

It has been quite a ride, with many highs and some lows, but I look back at this time with one overriding feeling – gratitude, for having been given the opportunity to do the role.

It is with sadness and a heavy heart that I have decided to resign from Brent Council. This is a personal decision, that has not been easy and in part due to a very traumatic experience that I have previously spoken out about.

He talked about the failures of Brent’s Labour Council.

I have stood up to the Brent Council leadership time and time again, and have regularly faced attacks, some personal, that no one in public life should have to endure. The job of elected officials is to find the best solutions for residents and different views and opinions should be debated in an open and transparent way – there should be no place for these sorts of attacks, particularly from the leadership of the Council.

The Leader/ Cabinet model of Brent governance puts power in too few hands and stifles genuine open debate. This is leading to bad decision making in all areas.

But the opposition has not been for oppositions sake. I believe that mistakes continue to be made by the Labour Council that are having a detrimental impact on the lives of local people.

I have consistently opposed what seems to be never-ending development of monster tower blocks in Alperton and in the Wembley area. They are not delivering the type of housing local people desperately need and are causing misery for residents both newly moved into blocks and others in residential streets close by. Ongoing construction works cause traffic havoc in the area, parking chaos and persistent noise and othernuisance.

But above all, as I have said over and over – these new units are broadly not genuinely affordable to local people or in my view what Brent should be buildingwhich is – Council homes for Council tenants. Brent like every other local authority in London and across the UK is having to deal with record numbers of families on housing waiting lists and hundreds presenting at the Civic Centre every month as homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Our thanks to Anton for his brilliant service over the past five years.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings