Liberal Democrats are celebrating after they won all 28 seats in Today’s deferred Kendal Town Council Elections – gaining three seats from Labour, re-gaining one from the Greens and one from an Independent.
Liberal Democrats gained Strickland, Fell and Romney from Labour and won in Underley from the Independents. The Lib Dems also re-gained Far Cross ward from the Green Party.
Tim Farron, Lib Dem MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale said:
Four years ago we didn’t even have a majority on Kendal Town Council, now we have a clean sweep.
Paul Trollope, our agent, and the whole team deserve huge credit. No victory is ever an accident, but the design, wit and energy behind this success have been immense.
Full ward-by-ward breakdown of results available here.
These elections were delayed because parish level elections cannot be held on the first Thursday in May if there are General and local elections on the same day, as Mark blogged previously.
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8 Comments
Wow, looking at the results, the other parties barely bothered to do anything. Let’s hope the victory doesn’t go their heads! Never get complacent after all.
Actually 14 wards x 2 councillors = 28 seats … even better news!
More evidence of the Farron factor.
I’m never quite sure about whether trying to achieve this sort of a result is an unmitigated benefit to us. Democracy demands that opposing views should be represented in its forums, and where one party has all the seats then dissent has to find expression within the ranks of that party. There are parishes where we are strong where we only put up enough candidates to ensure that we have a majority. Of course, if we had STV….
That is an interesting point, but we are in it to win it and this sends a clear message to the other parties that we intend to keep working and keep winning in Kendal.
its a credit to everyone’s hard work and the people of kendal. I am sure no one will get complacent and will keep plugging away!
I think at one stage Lib Dems ended up not contesting every seat in yeovil to avoid this happening.
As long as they are good and hardworking Councillors, it’s not too much of a problem, but really, some opposition is neccessary and there is always a danger the group will create it’s own.
I realise I’m preaching to the converted in the case of Tim Farron but it’s vitally important that the council maintains absolute transparency in it’s operations and allows as much active dissent as possible. I grew up in a town (Glasgow) where one party had almost total control, conducted all business behind closed doors (often not even bothering with full meetings) and kept tight control over its councilors; it is not a model which inspires confidence in either the party concerned or politics in general. Transparency and the check of real discussion are required for the health of any council.