There were seven principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 17th November. We held three seats and lost one to the Tories. The SNP held one seat, the Tories gained one from Independent and Labour gained one from Plaid. There was one parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC, a Lib Dem hold. In Warrington we were on our third by-election in 7 months in Poulton North. Avid readers of this column will remember our first success in a Labour facing ward in July. Unfortunately our excellent popular councillor died shortly after the by-election and triggered a third election in the Ward. A tribute leaflet was the first to hit the doormat but the campaign revolved around issues of trust. In July Labour claimed that the Lib Dems had colluded with developers in an unpopular planning decision in the area. They were forced to retract the story and were fined by the courts. In this by-election Labour continued with their innuendo. We could simply state that they had been found guilty of lying.
Having canvassed the ward heavily earlier in the year we focussed our doorstep work on talking to our existing, identified support. A good, well deserved hold.
Elsewhere in the North West things did not go as well. In Ribble Valley’s two councillor Salthill ward we lost by four votes. The Tories normally top the poll in the ward with us picking up the second seat, but with just one vacancy we didn’t hold on. Our activists reported that the Tories were using their mobile phones as part of the knocking up process and using celebrity phone knocking, in this case Baroness Warsi on the relatively small Asian vote. 
In Redcar and Cleveland we took both seats in Zetland ward in last years locals, one off the Tories and one off Labour. Our existing and excellent councillors then had to resign following a qualification issue (more about this in a later column) . One, Ron Harrison was eligible to restand in the by-election and was joined by 23 year old, now Cllr Josh Mason. Both Labour and the Tories fought hard. The Tories only used the name of one of their candidates on the posters and seemed to accept that we would retain at least our existing councillor – targeting the second seat. Labour stood candidates that didn’t live in the ward. We focussed on canvassing -knocking on every door in the ward. The double victory is a tribute both to our council team and excellent MP.
Other Elections
Glasgow City Council UA, HillheadIsle of Wight UA, West Wight
Wrexham UA, Ruabon