On Thursday 28th June, activists from all over the country and beyond helped secure two vital by-election wins in Chelmsford. Stephen Robinson was elected to the Chelmsford North division of Essex County Council, and Paul Bentham for the Patching Hall ward on Chelmsford City Council. In both elections, the Conservatives were well beaten into second place.

Stephen said:

I am extremely grateful to everyone who helped us make this victory possible. Having so many activists available helped us secure the legacy of long-serving Lib Dem incumbent Cllr. Tom Smith-Hughes, who sadly died earlier in the year.

Saffron Walden Constituency Chairman Nick Edwards, who joined the campaign to help Chelmsford introduce Connect, the party’s new voter identification software said:

One of the reasons we did so well in Chelmsford was the extra capacity the Connect system gave us. The fact that data from phone campaigning and the MiniVAN smartphone app automatically gets entered into the database also freed up a significant amount of time that activists would ordinarily spend entering data.

The virtual phone bank was a particularly powerful and effective tool. By the time polling day came around, we were able to call on more than 60 activists from all over the East Anglia, London, Devon, Oxfordshire, and even Brussels to canvass and knock up voters by phone, in addition to the local activists on the ground. We even had activists who are not the biggest fans of computers commenting on how easy to use the phone bank is, and their stirling efforts using Connect helped us to hold Chelmsford.