Whilst the good people of São Tomé and Princípe were busy celebrating their annual ‘Agricultural Reform Day’, an altogether less exciting spectacle was developing across the Atlantic.  Of the six principal council by-elections that took place on the 30th, Liberal Democrats only ran in four, and came second in all of them!  

Admittedly, grabbing second place wasn’t the greatest of challenges in the Alderley ward of Cheshire East, an election that featured only two candidates.  Elsewhere, our strong showing in the South West continued with the Sedgemoor Lib Dems pushing the defending Labour party into third place, taking over 30% of the vote in Woolavington.  The Battle Hill ward of North Tyneside council saw the Lib Dems hold at a comfortable 35% of the vote, dropping marginally on May’s result but not by much.  The more distant finish was second place in Brandon ward of Durham County Council, where Labour’s 64% vote-share saw them through to an easy hold – the Durham Lib Dems still out-polled the third-place Tories by around four to one.  Tameside remains a bit of a desert, with no Lib Dem candidate in the Longendale by-election, and the presence of three fringe party candidates failed to stop Labour and the Conservatives taking 90% of the vote between them – in the end, Labour held with a 5% swing and majority around 200.  Finally, the defending Llais Gwynedd (‘Voice of Gwynedd’ for the Anglophones amongst us) were silenced by Plaid Cymru in Gwynedd’s Bowydd and Rhiw by-election, where Plaid appeared to be the main beneficiary of the absence of the Green Party from the ballot.

With no reported elections out in the towns, we have space to mention ALDC’s Kickstart residential training programme for the 2011 elections.  The ‘Early Bird’ discount runs out on the 8th of October, but some concessions for participants willing to share accommodation and campaigners from ‘starting off’ areas around the country remain.  More information and registration details, as ever, can be found on the ALDC website.  There will be nine principal council by-elections, two of which are Lib Dem defences, next week.  The very best of luck to our candidates and campaigners across the country.  

ALDC By-elections Team

Despite falling on the 344th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, this week’s crop of by-elections didn’t set the world on fire; we had no candidates in either of the two principal by-elections, and three of the four elections out in the towns were unremarkable Tory holds.  Both principals took place in West Lancashire, Labour held in Upholland on a 30% turnout and in Skelmersdale on 17%.  The Conservative holds at Town Council level were in the West Ward of Camborne T.C. in Cornwall, the Castle ward on Oswestry T.C. in Shropshire, and the Town ward of Sevenoaks T.C. in Kent.  

Bucking the trend were the Lib Dem campaign team in the Castle ward of Alnwick Town Council in Berwick-upon-Tweed, represented in parliament by the venerable Sir Alan Beith.  The Castle ward itself is now represented by Lib Dem Sarah Walton, herself an activist recruit during the 2010 General Election.  In Castle’s first competitive election, after a long history of uncontested co-options, the Lib Dem campaign team outmanoeuvred the complacent Conservative defence by keeping the focus firmly on local issues.  Sarah’s campaign to restore a recently-closed community play area was a key vote-winner and an excellent example of the traditional Lib Dem concern with community politics.  Congratulations to the entire Alnwick team.

Finally, a quick reminder that ALDC will be laying on a full training and fringe complement at Conference, details can be found at here.  Also, the ALDC website has two features under development; a ‘Big Picture’ of all council compositions across the country and our ‘Who’s Up in 2011’ page.  We would like readers to help us build these pages into a valuable resource for all of our campaigners by having a quick look and making sure our details for your area are fully up to date.  The best of luck to all of our campaign teams out in the field.

ALDC By-Elections Team

A warm welcome back to our by-election watchers after our short summer sojourn.  The smattering of by-elections that took place on the 12th and 19th yielded very little in the way of news, with no gains or losses to report on, so we shall recommence with events from the 26th.  August 26th celebrates the anniversaries of two seminal events.  Firstly, it was 221 years since the newly-created French National Assembly adopted the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen’, a foundational document of liberal democracy and of the concept that citizens can possess inalienable human rights.  It was also 90 years since the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution came into effect, giving women across the United States the right to vote for the very first time.  Looking to add to the great liberal heritage of the 26th were our by-election teams in Redcar, Sheffield, Cannock Chase, South Buckinghamshire, and Dacorum.  

The best result of the day reaches us from Dacorum Borough Council, in Hertfordshire, where Rosemarie Hollinghurst took the very rural Aldbury & Wigginton ward from the Conservatives.  The local campaign team introduced Rosemarie as part of their post-General ‘thank-you- leaflet and followed up with an impressive array of literature.  Leaflets included an Election Special Focus (in three editions), a Candidate Introduction, and pre-election Focus.  Target letters went out on a local parking issue, environmental issues and local tip closure, a letter for new voters, and a soft-Tory squeeze letter – a section of the electorate becoming increasingly fertile ground for Liberal Democrat campaigns across the country.  Extensive canvassing coverage, with help from three neighbouring constituencies, a very popular blue-letter, and two mailshots out to postal voters helped confirm the ALDC adage that ‘where we work we win’.  Congratulations to Rosemarie, Nick, and all of our campaigners in Dacorum.  

No great surprises in South Bucks, where the Tories held on against a greatly increased UKIP challenge.  Labour remain within their comfort zone, holding in both Redcar & Cleveland and the Woodhouse ward in Sheffield, and picking off the Conservatives in Cannock Chase.  Out in the towns, our congratulations to the local Lib Dem team in Burgess Hill for taking the Victoria ward from the Tories.

There were six principal council by-elections on July 8th and a single Town Council contest reported to ALDC.  Of the six, our best result came in the Cockerton West ward of Darlington, where candidate Brian Jefferson gained a near 20% upswing in the Lib Dem voteshare to leap into second.  The urgency with which Labour’s council Leader and new M.P. pounded the streets testified to our candidate’s well-established reputation as hard working local teacher and community campaigner, who had previously served on the council for the Conservatives.  Our campaign team won the literature war, putting out three election addresses in a variety of sizes (all on recycled paper, for additional environmental currency), blue letters timed to coincide with the arrival of postal votes, and a targeted Good Morning, well in excess of the output from the opposing parties.  The BNP were active in the council estate areas, finishing with a typical flourish by illegally fly-posting election propaganda onto council properties on polling day, before having them all ripped down and storming into last place (shedding nearly 10% of their vote).  With a former UKIP candidate running for the Tories and polling a mere 10% himself, our candidate was the only competition for a complacent Labour and came within forty votes of a notable victory. 

Of the remainder, only one principal council seat saw a change of hands with Labour wresting the Blackwood ward on Caerphilly from an Independent in an election with no Liberal Democrat candidate.  In a similar vein was Blaenau Gwent, in whose Tredegar Central and West ward we successfully took one fifth of the vote last time around, but no-one to build on it two years later.  The Greens held on in Brighton, at the back end of a long shuffle prompted by Caroline Lucas’ elevation to the Commons in May.  The remaining principal council results were all Labour Holds, and their increasing voteshare features as today’s common denominator.  In the Towns, the St Ives Independents Held and Gained one apiece on St Ives T.C., the gain being at the expense of the Greens.  

With a princely nine by-elections coming on the 15th, there will be plenty to look out for.  In the meantime, a quick reminder that ALDC are accepting nominations for a variety of prizes in our Campaigner Awards 2010.  Details on our website are accessible via http://tinyurl.com/34dhlqe.  The best of luck to all our campaign teams across the country.

ALDC By-Elections Team

There were two principal council by-elections held on the 3rd December. The Lib Dems held one seat and Labour took a seat off the Tories. In the only Parish and Town council election result reported to ALDC the Tories took a seat from Labour.

In the Ormesby Ward of Redcar and Cleveland Unitary Authority we held the seat comfortably increasing our share of the vote in an already safe ward . The by-election was held due to the resignation of long serving Lib Dem Councillor Eric Empson and was the sixth in just over twelve months in Redcar constituency and our 4th win. The Lib Dems have taken three from Labour and held one. Labour have held two. It is important to out campaign your opposition however safe a ward may seem. In this case we did so by putting out five leaflets to Labour three and UKIP’s one and were the only party to target the postal vote.  It also helps to have a strong candidate; its often tempting to try to save your best candidates for the target  “gain” wards but local by-elections can be very intense and it is wise to select a strong candidate. Redcar and Cleveland did this by selecting well known bus campaigner  Ann Wilson.

The composition of the Council is now:
Labour - 25
Liberal Democrats - 16
Conservative - 11
Independents supporting Labour - 4
Independents – 3

In Redcar constituency Liberal Democrats now hold 16 seats, to Labour’s 16 and the Tories 3.

In the Dane Valley Ward of Thanet council in Kent, the Tories dropped from first to third in one by-election. A fine example of how not to do it.  Our campaign took us from not having a candidate to within 58 votes of winning our first councillor on Thanet District council.

We are now running at 17 net gains for the year to date in principal local by-elections.