There was one principal local council by-election held on Thursday 1st September. We took a seat off an Independent. In the only parish or town council by-election result reported to ALDC we held a seat.
Elections in Allerdale Borough council in Cumbria can at times be strange. In the Keswick Ward, for example, they had, without contest, elected one conservative, one Labour and one Lib Dem councillor in 2007 in a three councillor ward, all out election. In 2011 the same individuals were elected, again without contest but the Lib Dem from 2007 stood without party label. His lack of party label reflecting that at the same time he stood against our selected candidate for the county seat in a by-election, split the vote and allowed the conservatives to take the seat off us. He then resigned from the Borough due to ill health to cause the by-election!!
We stood the former Town Mayor who had been our unsuccessful candidate in May for the Cumbria County Division by-election, this time he had more success. After some years of uncontested elections Keswick felt the full brunt of a Lib Dem By-election campaign. We took it seriously, fought it seriously and won. We did three leaflets, postal vote letter with instruction leaflet and a good polling day operation. The candidate was made to canvass and canvass again rather than deliver – always a good decision from the agent. With Martin’s election we now have a foot back in the door after we lost all representation on Allerdale council in May. Allerdale remains exactly half Labour (28 of 56) and they failed to take overall control.
Elsewhere in Cumbria we had a good result in the Kendal Town Council, Mintsfeet Ward. As part of the Westmorland and Lonsdale parliamentary constituency we take all parish council elections extremely seriously. Here we looked at our early canvas returns and changed what we did in response to what we were being told on the doorstep. The first 50 contacts will give a you snap shot of what’s happening in a campaign, use it – don’t ignore what it’s telling you
For analysis of byelections for the year to date see our new by election analysis page
Below are PDF copies of the literature used in the by-election