The first week of January was another very quiet week for council by-elections, with only one principal election in the Windsor & Maidenhead unitary authority.
Park Ward is in Windsor itself, with the park after which it is named being Windsor Great Park. The ward’s other notable landmark being Legoland. This was a disappointing result in a largely suburban residential ward that we held until four years ago. This ward had been consistently Lib Dem for many years before but our vote is down nearly 40% in the eight years since we last won there.
Since the coalition was formed we have been performing consistently well in by-elections where we are fighting the Conservatives, even though the last few weeks haven’t been as promising. However if there is one common theme running through the good results it has been the willingness by the local Lib Dems to take on the Conservatives and keep squeezing Labour. Just because we’re in coalition with the Conservatives nationally, it doesn’t mean we are locally and so don’t pull any punches. Make sure you highlight in your leaflets what we would do differently locally and that the only option in who runs the council is the Lib Dems or the Conservatives.
