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 six principal council elections held on the 18th February. Labour held one seat and the Tories two. We lost two seats to Labour but gained one from the Tories There were four Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC. A Tory hold, two Lib Dem holds and a Lib Dem gain from Plaid.

In the Pendre Ward of Bridgend Council in Wales we managed to lose to Labour by just seven votes having won the seat by seven votes just two years ago. We ran a good literature and doorstep campaign but we needed to use the phone before and on polling day. In retrospect the campaign must be kicking themselves for only starting to knock up at 3pm. When we won by seven in 2008 it was a straight fight between us and Labour. This time, as is usual in by-elections, a wider range of parties stood. With four non-Labour candidates to choose from, first past the post allowed the anti-Labour vote to be split.

Leeds City Council is run by a joint Con/Lib Dem administration. In the Hyde Park and Woodhouse Ward we ran a very intensive campaign with plenty of help but we were defeated by a uniformly negative Labour campaign attacking the administration. We weren’t helped by an existing councillor in the ward who had been elected as a Lib Dem defecting to Labour in the final week of the campaign.  Though the turnout was low it was not untypical of the ward, which is part student part social housing.  The bin strike and the closure of a local school did not help.
 
In the Ivybridge Filham by-election for South Hams District Council in Devon we took a seat from the Tories. It may have been complacency from the Tories – or perhaps their activity was largely covert using direct mail and phoning – but our people reckon the Tories only did one leaflet and hardly any door knocking. We did an A4, an A3, blue letter, eve of poll, good morning leaflets. We phoned every house in the ward and knocked on every door in the ward and on polling day we knocked up every D and P at least three times.

Sadly I have to report another seat we were defending where we failed to stand a candidate! Birstall Watermead Ward of Charnwood Borough Council in Leicestershire.

There were nine principal council elections held on the 23rd October. The Lib Dems lost one seat to Labour and one to the Tories. The Tories held six seats and Labour one. There were no Parish Council election results reported to ALDC.

In Merthyr Tydfil where we won our first six seats in living memory in May we lost a councillor in Town Ward to Labour following an unexpected resignation. Labour maintained their vote from May but ours failed to turn out. We ran a sustained campaign but Labour “upped the anti” with ministers, MP’s and AM’s all visiting the ward. The unwelcome intervention of three independents sucked 31% of the votes away from the main candidates. It probably did not help that polling day coincided with the birth of their first child to two of our councillors and key campaigners in the ward Amy Kitcher and Kevin O’Connor. Happy birthday baby Gwenllian Mabel Kristina!

In the Billington and Old Langho ward in Ribble Valley we had more time to prepare but despite delivering more literature and target mail than the Tories we failed to get our shuttleworth out to vote on a wild and wet Lancashire evening. Turnout normally tops 40%. It dropped to 24% with the differential turnout favouring the Tories. It was an accident waiting to happen in a split two-member ward where we only had a majority of 13 over the third place candidate.

In the next two years we face some tough joint elections; it’s not too late to register for the Party’s main training event for the local elections. The “Kickstart” weekend takes place over the weekend of 28-30 November 2008, at the Junction 7 Holiday Inn near Birmingham. The weekend kickstart is ideal for groups to develop their campaign plans - either for June 2009, or even better over the longer term for May 2010. You will work with one of the Party’s top campaigners as a “mentor” over the weekend. Kickstart is also packed full of training courses that are aimed at either new members of your team, or refreshing and adding to the skills of more experienced campaigners.

“Kickstart is an excellent opportunity for local groups,” said Party Director of Campaigns Hilary Stephenson - “you can follow the success of groups who attend through the results the following year”.

Register online TODAY - call us for more information on 01422 843 785.