This week saw six council by-elections in Carlisle, Cumbria, two in Newark and Sherwood, Newham and Vale of White Horse. All the incumbent parties held their seats.
In the Vale of White Horse, former Abingdon Town Councillor Margaret Crick retained the Liberal Democrat seat in Abingdon Dunmore with 52.4% of the vote. The Conservative candidate took 35.1% (-6.2%) in the Tory/Lib Dem marginal seat. UKIP came third with 6.3% and Labour came last with 6.1%. The Local Liberal Democrats ran strong campaign to protect the Green Belt from an inappropriate housing development (which is supported by the Conservative Council) and against road changes which have been dangerous for cyclists and caused traffic jams. Cllr Crick and her team began their campaign with a ‘knock and drop’ survey to gauge local reactions. As feelings ran very high they launched petitions on the key issues and went door to door with them, getting a great response.
The Liberal Democrat by-election campaign consisted of regular ward Focus leaflets, updating residents about the key campaigns plus a lot of targeted literature, including report back mailings and emails to people who had signed each petition. As the local team had solid Voter ID from years of canvassing they concentrated door-knocking on the waverers and postal voters. A significant number of Labour voters were prepared to vote tactically to beat the unpopular local Tory administration. The Conservatives put great effort into winning the seat and came out against things their council had decided. The Abingdon Lib Dems campaigned hard to rebut these messages and even printed council minutes to show Tory deceptions. The Liberal Democrat campaign closely linked Cllr Crick with Layla Moran (the Oxford West and Abingdon PPC). Layla Moran led many of the campaign sessions and successfully got large teams out in the final week.
ALDC Regional Development Officer, Neil Fawcett said: “Ultimately it was a combination of getting the message spot on, talking to the right people about the right issues at the right time, and a lot of one to one contact with the voters that would decide the result. The result is another sign that we can win back both the Vale of White Horse Council and the Oxford West & Abingdon constituency in May – as long as we keep building our campaigning and keep highlighting local Tory failures.”
In Carlisle, the Castle wards of the City and County Council were contested following the death of the sitting Labour councillor. The results were similar in both elections with Labour coming first with 38% of the vote, the Conservatives second, UKIP third, Mark Jennings (Liberal Democrat) came fourth in the City Council election with 12.8% and 10.9% in the County election, the Green party came last in both contests.
There was no Liberal Democrat candidate in either Newark and Sherwood election. Labour comfortably held on in Ollerton with 58.1% of the vote. In Collingham and Meering the Conservatives’ vote dropped by 24% but they still held the seat with 41.2%. Sadly the Liberal Democrats did not contest the election despite gaining 34.6% in the 2011 district election.
Labour won 51% of the vote in Beckton ward (Newham LBC). David Thorpe took 2.2% for the Liberal Democrats in this safe Labour seat.
For all the detailed results see the ALDC elections page: https://www.aldc.org/category/by-election-results/