With the cold winter weather now set in, the result in a by-election in Wells Constituency in Somerset at least gave us some heart-warming news. Although we didn’t managed to win we achieved an impressive 15% swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat.

The Brent division of Somerset County Council is a collection of small villages in the Somerset Levels sandwiched between the resorts of Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea. Until 1988 it had a Liberal councillor, but since then it has become the safest Conservative seat in Somerset with them receiving nearly 70% of the vote in the last county council elections. The death of the previous Conservative councillor gave us a chance to win the seat back, and although we had a very active candidate and ran a strong campaign we couldn’t quite overturn their huge majority.

Our candidate Helen Groves was a town councillor from Burnham-on-Sea who was involved with a number of local community groups. As soon as we knew back in September that there was to be a by-election the campaign started with our candidate and her team knocking on loads of doors over the coming months. We also had lots of help from across the South West. Certainly this face-to-face contact and identifying local issues early made a big difference as it allowed us to run very local leaflets picking up on specific campaigns in each individual village.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives chose a local farmer and district councillor as their candidate. He already represented part of the division and so in that area at least he had good name recognition. However, he did also have a somewhat controversial reputation following an incident in 2007 when he threw a dead sheep at a crowd of school children.    The Conservatives had few people on the ground until right at the end and spent a lot of money on posting out huge volumes of professionally printed direct mail, leaflets and even a tabloid newspaper. Much of the direct mail was targeted at getting their voters out – a potentially good tactic when turnout is likely to be low – but it only had one uniform message across the whole division. We spent far less, however we had far better campaign messages that combined the very local and the countywide. During the campaign the Conservative county council spent £61,000 on losing a judicial review on library closures and had decided to turn off speed cameras – a big issue in a division that includes the M5 and the busy A38.

What this by-election showed though was that even in big very rural county divisions, it’s still possible to run very intensive election campaigns that make an impact. We didn’t win, (although we think it was the biggest swing from the Conservatives to us in the constituency in 30 years), but if we can get a 15% swing against the Conservatives in other places in the next county council elections we will do very well indeed.

The other by-election on the day was:
Rochford DC, Rayleigh Central

Although the latest by-election results saw the sad loss of a Liberal Democrat seat in Purbeck District Council in Dorset, the results in two other wards were quite encouraging.

The by-election in Lytchett Matravers was in Annette Brooke’s Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency, and was gained from the Conservatives for the first time last year. The by-election was caused by the sudden resignation of that same councillor for health reasons, and this (along with the national situation) conspired to help us lose the seat. However, a hard fought campaign with a good candidate and much regional support kept the swing down to just 5%. Sadly, this now means that the Conservatives move to be the largest party on a council where we have minority control.

In Derbyshire, we had an impressive 11% increase in our vote in a vacancy caused by the death of a local Independent. Sawley is a large village on the Nottinghamshire border and was once good territory for the party. This is the first time the local party has managed to run a campaign on this scale which included regular Focuses, surveys, postal vote letters and plenty of canvassing. As in Dorset, it was achieved thanks to lots of help from the surrounding area (a tip for other by-elections contests is to make sure people from outside of your area come and help). Although we didn’t win, the local party are pleased that their hardwork paid off and they got a result well beyond their highest expectations.

Finally, in Peckham in Southwark we ran another intensive campaign capitalising on the compelling life story of our candidate. Peckham born and bred, Jennifer Blake is a former gang member who has now turned her life around and runs a charity helping local young people get out of lives dominated by guns and gangs. Whilst this was a great campaigning opportunity and her personal story was a major part of the campaign, (much more so than the party she represented), our choice of candidate showed that our campaign was genuinely about the community and trying to improve the area. We were rewarded with the highest increase in the Lib Dem vote in a Labour held ward since July last year (the last being in Darlington).

It’s difficult these days to say “where you work you win,” as many councillors found out in May that working hard certainly doesn’t guarantee you victory anymore. However one thing that’s clear from this week’s by-elections is that running an intensive campaign that genuinely engages voters with issues they care about, (and with a candidate who they can relate to), certainly helps get you nearer to winning.

There were three principal council by-elections this week, and one reported contest out in the towns.  Labour held both of the seats they were defending; putting 17% on their previous tally in the Kentish Town ward in Camden, and a marginal increase in East Kilbride West in South Lanarkshire.  In both seats, the Liberal Democrat vote held up better than current polling would indicate and we continue to track around 5% above our national opinion poll average when it comes to real elections.  

Our featured story this week is the successful defence of the Springbank ward on Cheltenham Borough Council, where nearly seven out of ten voters backed Cheltenham Lib Dems’ Chris Coleman.  With a history of regular Focus and street letters, Chris’ previous experience as a borough councillor, and a large store of public goodwill based on the association of the party with the popular Springbank Community Resource Centre, Springbank had all the makings of a successful campaign.  This was delivered, with help from across the town and as far afield as Gloucestershire and Bath, and phone canvassing from the Western Counties phone bank.  The campaign saw three Focus leaflets, including an excellent colour A3 folded down to A4 with a ward-map detailing Lib Dem achievements as the centre page.  This worked particularly well as a counter to the Labour charge that the party had done nothing for the ward, which, in a feat of strategic brilliance, they decided to put out after our Focus had already landed!  An M.P.’s endorsement, cream letter, and hand-addressed postal vote knock-up rounded out the pre-polling day literature.  The Focus team used local knowledge and previous canvass experience to stagger their election day knock-ups according to who they knew would be in at different times of the day.  Combined with telephone knock-up and full telling cover, the polling day operation was well-run and bore fruit.  When asked what lessons had been learned from the day, Councillor Chris Coleman commented ‘that traditional ALDC-style campaigning still works, and the other parties still don’t have an answer’.  A sentiment with which this unbiased observer couldn’t agree more!

Out in the towns, Labour held on to their seat on Great Aycliffe Town Council.  There will a total of seven principal by-election contests to report on next week, including on South Lakeland and Manchester MBC.  The very best of luck to our candidates and campaigners across the country.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

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

On July 29th there were three principal council by-elections and six contests out in the towns.  There was good news at all levels, on the former we gained a seat in Bath and North East Somerset, and in the latter we romped home with four gains out of the six!  

Our gain in the Radstock ward of Bath and North East Somerset District Council has taken us to within four seats of the Conservatives, who currently enjoy minority control with thirty-one seats overall.  That said, the Tories were no threat in this particular ward and their attacks on the ‘Bath-centric Liberal Democrats’ while running a candidate from Bath themselves, indicated how seriously they were taking the contest.  The only real contenders were an Independent and the Labour Party.  Labour polled second with a largely positive campaign centred on their candidate.  Our candidate Simon Allen was a new face in local politics and the campaign made a lot of a ‘Fresh Start for Radstock’.  The long experience of Bath and N.E.S. helping neighbouring constituencies at election time paid karmic dividends, when they received help from no fewer than twelve constituency parties across the region.  Weekly print-runs across a variety of colours and formats, a street letter linked a community action day on a local estate, and a well-timed postal vote campaign sealed the victory.  A legacy of fresh canvass data and a new deliverers network were the icing on the cake of our newest Liberal Democrat in local government.  Congratulations to Simon and the whole Bath and North East Somerset team.

Elsewhere, we came a close second in the Haywards Heath Franklands ward of Mid Sussex D.C., with a 27% increase in our vote-share, we were just eighty-one votes shy of picking up a second by-election seat on Mid-Sussex since May 6th.  In the towns, we took two seats off the Tories, in Crewekerne near Yeovil and Haywards Heath Town Council.  A gain from the Independents in Redruth and one off Labour on Keynsham Town Council near Bristol rounded off a good day at the office for our campaign teams across the country.  

 

ALDC By-Elections Team