There were a grand total of three by-elections reported to ALDC this week, two principal contests and one fight out in the towns.
In Stoke, the defending Labour party lost the Springfields and Trent Vale ward to a City Independent, who took just short of thirty-five per cent of the vote on his first outing. It was a packed slate, with eight parties on the ballot, and a disappointing result for the local Lib Dem team who dropped just shy of ten per cent on their 2011 total.
Elsewhere, the Tories held on to Breckland’s Harling and Heathlands ward, despite dropping almost twenty per cent of their previous vote, no doubt with UKIP as the major beneficiary. Credit where it is due, we did stand a candidate this time and 129 people were able to put their cross next to a Lib Dem on the ballot. Well done to the Breckland team, and we now know there are just over 100 people in Harling and Heathlands who might be inclined to deliver a leaflet, put up a poster, or generally help us build up the vote next time. We’re only sixty votes off second place, so we’d like to wish Breckland the best of luck in finding those Lib Dem voters in the ward and building their capacity.
The final contest was in the ornately titled Chequerbent ward of Westhoughton Town Council in Bolton. Our man Derek Gradwell and his local team fought hard, with a good range of literature highlighting the relative neglect of Westhoughton by the Bolton Labour administration. It was an awful result for Labour, crashing from incumbency to third-place with only eighty-two votes to their name. Derek missed the win by thirty votes, but the Westhoughton team’s work and persistent messaging will hopefully set them in good stead for the future.
Finally, a quick note about the party’s ‘G8’ grants scheme. The scheme makes available funds to help local campaigns and is now open to applications from wards or divisions fighting elections in 2013 and 2014. All of the details are available at http://bit.ly/MtmjdT – please have a look and get in touch if you’d like to apply.
That’s all the news from July 26th. It just remains for us to wish the very best of luck to all of our campaigners across the country.
Craig Whittallcraig.whittall@aldc.org