There were five principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 29th September. We held two seats, the Tories held one, Plaid one and Plaid gained one off Llais Gwynedd (Voice of Gwynedd). There was one parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC – a Tory hold. Bishops Castle is a geographically large rural division on the Welsh border of Shropshire Unitary authority. Newton and Welshpool in Montgomeryshire are closer than either Shrewsbury or Ludlow. We won it 20 years ago after the hard graft of Peter Philips whose resignation caused the by-election. Peter suffered a pulmonary embolism on election day so a resignation for health reasons was always likely. He put it off to complete some major political projects dear to his heart, the local BioMass project and saving his local school. Once they were achieved he stood down. Bishops Castle was lucky that we had such a good candidate to replace Peter. Charlotte Barnes is a businesswomen, local campaigner, a local Parish Councillor and a parent governor at Bishop’s Castle Primary School.
Sometimes by-elections struggle to get help in, not this one. Help came from Herefordshire, Montgomeryshire as well as from across the county. Even Tim Farron and Vince Cable found time to help. The glorious weather on polling day may have helped.
We delivered four leaflets in the three months before the election was called and then out shone all the other parties in quality, variety, content and volume of literature. Every house was canvassed by the candidate and or the outgoing councillor twice and in some cases three times. We relentlessly squeezed Labour (standing their first candidate since 1985 -“ what do you do with the numbers?” she asked our tellers!) and the Greens. Despite the massive turn out for by-election 51%, we got the green vote down from 186 to 74. Key again in this was posters – and not just window bills but stake-boards and even super-boards. In the current climate it’s even more important to give voters the clear message from posters that we can win.In 2006 we won a notable by-election in the Watford Tory stronghold of Nascot. We held it in 2007 and then lost it by 3 votes in 2008 following Tory scaremongering. Our candidate again great local credentials, she lived in the ward, she was a local school governor and she was married to the local GP! Without a full slate in the ward we had been building her up for the vacancy in 2012 anyway, but here she got an earlier opportunity. Labour supporters who had voted in May to “give us a kicking” switched back noting our strong local record and following a heavy squeeze campaign. We cut the Labour vote in half.
Other results
Gwynedd UA, Diffwys and MaenofferenGwynedd UA, Penrhyndeudraeth