The 13th November saw Viki Sanders win a seat on Cambridge City council in Queen Edith’s ward, following a gain for the Liberal Democrats from Labour. Cambridgeshire County Councillor Amanda Taylor, who volunteered during the campaign, has written the following summary of the campaign victory.
The situation
On 30th September Cambridge City Council announced a casual vacancy arising from the resignation of Sue Birtles, the Labour councillor in Queen Edith’s.
Labour had won this seat from us in 2012 but thanks to a lot of very hard work throughout the year, we held our county seat in 2013 and another city council seat in 2014, with the Labour vote falling each time. Although active when first elected, Birtles moved out of the area at the beginning of this year, and has hardly been seen since. Labour leaflets have been infrequent.
Candidate
On hearing the news, we acted quickly to identify a candidate, and by the following week a former Queen Edith’s councillor, Viki Sanders had agreed to stand. Viki not only lives here but was born and brought up in Queen Edith’s and currently works as a Sister at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, also in the ward. On top of these good local credentials, she also brought the advantage of experience and name recognition.
The Green candidate also lives and works locally but apart from attending the hustings and putting up a poster, there was no campaign, not even a leaflet.
Labour’s candidate was a local woman but who had no record of action.
The Conservative candidate while not local, was a seasoned campaigner who has stood many times in other wards, with a little knowledge of local issues.
Campaign themes
Our campaign reinforced themes already covered, such as streetlight removals, policing of traffic outside schools and our campaign for changes to a dangerous roundabout. It also highlighted the strong and long-standing Lib Dem record of action in the ward.
The other parties did a lot of negative campaigning: criticism of the inclusion of local sites in the Local Plan, and personal attacks on our candidate and her attendance record.
Printed publicity
On top of three Focuses, there were target letters to postal voters, two student leaflets, endorsement letters, squeeze letters, canvassing leaflets, a Good Morning and knock-up leaflets. We had approximately 60 poster boards throughout the ward.
Voter contact
Canvassing was mainly to our own Defs & Probs but with one period devoted to Lib Dems with a low propensity to vote, and to switchers. We contacted 38% of the electorate before Polling Day, and a further 21% on the day in a very efficient GOTV operation, which started second knock-ups just after 2.00pm.
Press and PR
The Cambridge News did a good candidate summary, two articles on the Labour candidate meeting Ed Miliband and Harriet Harman, and one article on why the Labour councillor resigned (see below).
The campaign was covered by a local blog, www.queen-ediths.co.uk.
The Homerton College JCR put on a hustings meeting and invited all four candidates. This was attended by about 30 people, who did not appear to be politically aligned.
Events, dear boy, events
We had two big pieces of serendipity during the campaign which we made the most of:
- the resigning Labour councillor went public saying that the Labour Party had no interest in the south of the city
- two of our long-running campaigns (lighting the Guided Busway cycleway and improving a dangerous roundabout) were awarded funding during the campaign
People power
The result would not have been achieved without a lot of help from outside the ward and the local party. Honours go to Julian Huppert and the Cambridge City local party, which gave us fantastic support throughout the campaign, enabling us to run a campaign on a different scale to what we would have managed with our scanty supply of activists in our own local party. Special mention must also go to Ross Hendry from Taunton, and activists from Rugby and Clacton.
Results
Gaining, or rather regaining, this seat from Labour means we once again have four Lib Dem councillors in Queen Edith’s.
Looking beyond Queen Edith’s, it represents a weather vane, showing the form of the parties and strengthening the credibility of the Liberal Democrats both in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire constituencies.
Amanda Taylor
Cambridgeshire County Councilor and By-Election volunteer