There were no principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 4th October. There were two parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC a Tory hold and a Lib Dem gain from Independent.
Baildon is a parish that roughly coincides with the Bradford City Council ward of the same name. In 2004 in the all-out elections we held two of the three seats. We gradually lost those seats but have recently been staging a comeback. In May this year Ian Lyons came within 212 votes of retaking the seat, and his constant local campaigning paid off when the by-election came along.
Baildon is a parish where councillors are normally returned unopposed, but local residents decided to ensure that this time they were able to democratically choose their representative rather than having someone appointed by the existing councillors. When we stood in the subsequent by-election the opposition tried to argue that by standing we were bringing politics in to the parish and that holding a by-election was costing local taxpayers thousands of pounds, although this was slightly undermined by one of the Independents having stood for Labour in the city council elections in May. In the end our record of hard work and a positive campaign struck a chord and we gained the seat with 54% of the vote.