There were ten principal council by-elections held on the 10th December. The Lib Dems gained two seats from the Tories but lost one to Labour and held one. Labour took two seats off the Tories, one off the Lib Dems, one from the BNP and held one.
The Tories held two seats. In the five Parish and Town council election result reported to ALDC the Tories held one seat but lost a seat to the Lib Dems and another to an Independent. There was one hold for Labour and another for Independents.
The first gain off the Tories was in the Tavistock South ward of West Devon BC with a 33.5% increase in vote share off a very complacent Tory party who only delivered two leaflets and not to all properties in the ward. The Lib Dem campaign consisted of several Focuses, targeted blue letters, lots of telephone and doorstep canvassing and a concerted effort with the postal voters, showing again where we work we win.
The second gain off the Tories was in (ward number 3) of East Dunbartonshire UA Bearsden South, where we won at the third stage count in this STV election with 1770 against the Tories 1499 votes.
Details:
Stage 1:
Ashay Ghai LD 1110
Rachel Higgins Con 1261
Fiona Grace McLeod SNP 783
Manjinder Shergill Lab 626
Stage 2 elimination of Shergill:
LD 1381
Con 1306
SNP 902
Stage 3 elimination of McLeod:
LD 1770
Con 1499
This ward is in the Parliamentary seat of Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson, who has worked the whole constituency hard. One of the good things to come from this by-election is that after losing control of the council in 2007 the local party have used this by-election to give new impetus to the campaign for the 2012 council elections.
In the Heron Ward of Rushmoor BC we lost a seat to Labour after one of our councillors was disqualified for none attendance. We ran a full campaign but had a reduction of 8.1%, which meant we lost the seat by 83 votes.
So as you can see when we put the work in we reap the rewards.