U.K Local By-Elections Thread

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Sorry for the late update on this (I've been trying to check the raw numbers for one result, without sucess actually)...

The Tories gained a seat in Fleetwood (just north of Blackpool) off Labour; suprising enough perhaps, but the raw numbers I've seen look very strange. Basically at least one hundred Tory voters can't have voted in the 2003 local elections (seriously). Wyre DC don't have the results up on their (pisspoor) website yet.
I don't know Fleetwood well, but that part of the town has a certain civil service presence.

Other than that, not much of interest. A less dire than earlier this year result in a Scottish by-election for Labour though (SNP hold I think).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Some odd results last week... starting very close to home, Labour easily held Woodside in a Madeley Parish Council by-election (with about 50% of the vote on a low turnout)... but the BNP finished a strong second with about 30%. There was no Tory candidate. Most families in Woodside were originally from the Black Country and as such there's always been a sizeable Tory minority vote in the estate; which seems to have defaulted towards the BNP (just like it has in most of the inner Black Country). A few years ago the BNP were badly beaten in Madeley proper (not suprising as Madeley is very different to Woodside; it's an old mining town). They did poll suprisingly well in a Shrewsbury ward earlier this month (about a third of said ward is an estate very similer in certain ways to Woodside).

In Lincolnshire, Labour came third in a ward just outside Lincoln that had been held entirely due to the previous incumbent's personal vote (the Tory and the Labour candidates were both unopposed in 2003; it's a two member ward, largely made up of commuter villages). An Indie polled strongly. Interestingly enough, the previous incumbent was almost certainly a relative of mine.

I don't remember any other interesting results.

[minionofmidas]

Who won?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Who won?

Labour won Woodside, the Tories won the Lincolnshire ward (with, surreally bearing in mind the unopposed split in 2003*, just under 50% of the vote).

*Not the only ward in Lincolnshire where this happend; also happend in a rural ward in South Holland IIRC.

[minionofmidas]

Who won?

the Tories won the Lincolnshire ward

Yeah, that's the one I was asking about.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Not much of interest from a Labour perspective; almost all wards up last night were close to being straight Con/LibDem fights. And in general it was a complete disaster for the LibDems (with the exception of a narrow gain off an Indie in Bristol commuterland) with some rather nasty drops in their vote shares. As such the Tories had a good night.

[Democratic Hawk]

Result of the Framwellgate Moor by-election (Durham County Council) [last year result in paranthesis]

Labour 1187 (2339) 43.4% (48.9%)
Lib Dem 1037 (1982) 37.9% (40.8%)
Independent 267 9.8%
Conservative 246 (9.0%) 496 (10.4%)

Lab maj. 150 (387) 5.5% (8.1%)

Turnout: 37.12% Swing 1.3% Lab to LD

BTW, it is estimated that on ballot verification sampling that "Lib Dem" Witton Gilbert voted Labour ; "Labour" Bearpark voted Lib Dem ; "mixed" Framwellgate Moor voted Labour , "mixed" Pity Me voted Labour , and "mixed" Brasside (not sure, hardly any one voted)

Witton Gilbert has 9 Lib Dem Parish Councillors; Bearpark has 6 Labour (one of whom is the Hawk), 3 Independent, 1 Resident (incidentally the Tory by-election candidate) and Framwellgate Moor (11 Independents and 1 Labour)

Bearpark and Witton Gilbert has 3 Lib Dem city councillors including the Leader; Framwellgate Moor (1 Labour - the city councillor and the rest Independent)

And by jove, I have blisters on my feet but it has been worth it . All politics is local but John Prescott didn't help. Still Labour retained the seat of the late Deputy Leader of Durham County Council

Sorry for not updating you earlier but I've been on the pish

Dave

[minionofmidas]

Pity Me is a cool placename.
What was the independent candidate like - who would he have been supposed to take most votes from?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Result of the Framwellgate Moor by-election (Durham County Council) [last year result in paranthesis]

Labour 1187 (2339) 43.4% (48.9%)
Lib Dem 1037 (1982) 37.9% (40.8%)
Independent 267 9.8%
Conservative 246 (9.0%) 496 (10.4%)

Lab maj. 150 (387) 5.5% (8.1%)

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The LibDem is from Bearpark isn't he? Parochialism at it's finest
Witton Gilbert is a suprise though...

[Democratic Hawk]

Pity Me is a cool placename.
What was the independent candidate like - who would he have been supposed to take most votes from?

The Independent candidate was a from Pity Me. He put a pretty good leaflet out. I actually expected him to do better given the Independent-leanings of Framwellgate Moor (they hold all seats on the parish council bar one, which is Labour)

I'd say his candidacy, on balance, helped Labour

As far as the Conservatives go, seemingly, some Conservatives voted Lib Dem in Bearpark and Labour in Witton Gilbert. Though we can't know for certain. Pat remarked her 246 votes were dreadful

Dave

[Democratic Hawk]

Witton Gilbert has 9 Lib Dem Parish Councillors; Bearpark has 6 Labour (one of whom is the Hawk), 3 Independent, 1 Resident (incidentally the Tory by-election candidate) and Framwellgate Moor (11 Independents and 1 Labour)

Forgot to mention Bearpark has one Lib Dem member on the parish council

Dave

[Democratic Hawk]

The LibDem is from Bearpark isn't he? Parochialism at it's finest
Witton Gilbert is a suprise though...

Yep. He ran Don close last year in Bearpark (it was 50-50 more or less in Bearpark and Witton Gilbert city ward), so it was to be expected even though my figures indicated Labour polling better. Quite a few who said they'd vote Labour evidently voted for Rev

A bit demoralising for me but Witton Gilbert made up for it

Dave

[Filuwaúrdjan]

As already noted, Labour held a certain marginal division in County Durham
Another good result in that part of the world came in Hartlepool, where Labour easily held a seat delayed from the May elections due to the death of a candidate.
The Tories easily held a safe Suffolk CC division (in the area covered by Forest Heath DC; an area dominated largely by two things... the military and horseracing) where UKIP polled well.
The Tories gained a seat somewhere in the Eden Valley from Indies and the LibDems won Holt in North Norfolk.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A mixed picture to be sure; Labour lost yet another Scottish by-election (this time in Dunbartonshire and to the SNP) although I'm not sure how dire the swing was; two different reports show different pictures. For once the result was close though; just four votes in it. The ward in question has been SNP in the recent-ish past. Meanwhile, Labour easily held another Durham seat, this time in Chester-le-Street, and increased their majority by a huge amount.
The Tories took Diss in Norfolk off the LibDems (despite Labour, who polled 11% there in 2003, not running a candidate). The Tories also held a safe ward in Suffolk and held a couple of Swanage seats as well.
The LibDems struck back in Watford, gaining Nascot (delayed from the May elections due to a dead candidate), a very affluent ward, off the Tories.
And finally, Plaid easily beat off an Indie assault on Tywyn.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The biggest news of the night is that Labour have regained their overall majority on Plymouth City Council with a victory in the Southway ward (mixed suburbs at the northern edge of the city). The Tories won another seat in that ward this May and had been expecting another gain.

More good news for Labour came in Workington, with a convincing hold in the St John's Cumbria County Council division (the ward is actually held by Tories at borough level; Cumberland Labour has had a good year so far hasn't it?) and an increased majority in the rock-solid Skerton West ward in Lancaster (the previous incumbent had held the ward since the late '50's).

Better news for the Tories tended to be related to bad news for the LibDems; the Tories gained a seat in Weymouth with the LibDems slipping from first to third (Labour were a very close second), and easily held Swaffham in Breckland DC (easy doesn't begin to describe it; they held their vote from 2003 while the LibDem voted collapsed; they actually finished behind Labour, who couldn't even find a candidate to run in that (three-member) ward in 2003).
The Tories also piled up some monster majorities in a couple of Herts. commuterland wards, while some better news for the LibDems came with an easy hold of a rural ward in Mid Devon.

[Rural Radical]

The biggest news of the night is that Labour have regained their overall majority on Plymouth City Council with a victory in the Southway ward (mixed suburbs at the northern edge of the city). The Tories won another seat in that ward this May and had been expecting another gain.

More good news for Labour came in Workington, with a convincing hold in the St John's Cumbria County Council division (the ward is actually held by Tories at borough level; Cumberland Labour has had a good year so far hasn't it?) and an increased majority in the rock-solid Skerton West ward in Lancaster (the previous incumbent had held the ward since the late '50's).

Yep. Cumberland has been good. The majorities in Copeland, Wokington and Carlisle will start to creep back up.

The former Labour councillor in Skerton must have been about 110 then.

Better news for the Tories tended to be related to bad news for the LibDems; the Tories gained a seat in Weymouth with the LibDems slipping from first to third (Labour were a very close second), and easily held Swaffham in Breckland DC (easy doesn't begin to describe it; they held their vote from 2003 while the LibDem voted collapsed; they actually finished behind Labour, who couldn't even find a candidate to run in that (three-member) ward in 2003).
The Tories also piled up some monster majorities in a couple of Herts. commuterland wards, while some better news for the LibDems came with an easy hold of a rural ward in Mid Devon.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

As well as the two-and-a-half (and very strange) Westminster/Cardiff by-elections, there were some interesting local by-elections last night:

In Tameside MBC, Labour easily held two seats (Denton South, Stalybridge North) last fought in May; there were swings to Labour in both and in Denton the Tories only just avoided falling behind the BNP.
In Lincoln, the Tories held a marginal seat, but there was a slight swing towards Labour... while in Burton, turnout collapsed and the Labour vote fell with it (although still held it fairly easily).
And finally (I think) the LibDems had a good night in the Southeast, with a suprisingly easy hold in Uckfield and coming suprisingly close in a safe Tory ward somewhere in Kent.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Apologies for a mistake; the swing in Lincoln was close to 4%.
And there was another by-election; Residents hold a seat in Surrey.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

There was a very strange by-election in Lincolnshire last night; the Tories held the Bourne Castle division (traditionally a very strong area for the Tories; other parties rarely fight the area in district elections) but suffered a swing to Labour. This isn't suprising as the by-election was called following the disqualification of a discredited former leader of Lincolnshire County Council (not sure which one though; there are so very many of them), but is a little suprising in light of the fact that the Labour candidate had no party label on the ballot due to a cock-up of some kind... another strange by-election in Lincolnshire saw the Tories, just about, hold the Fishtoft ward on Boston BC in the face of a strong LibDem challenge. Labour, who took one of the seats in the ward on a big swing last year, did not run a candidate.
Meanwhile in West Norfolk the Tories held the marginal Hunstanton ward, but there was no swing from 2003, something that Labour is probably very pleased about (Hunstanton is in the North Coast division at county level, which voted very strongly Tory in 2005. In 2003 there was also a strong Indie candidate in Hunstanton).
Labour also held the marginal Castlefields ward in Halton BC from a LibDem assault, while the LibDems gained a seat in North Dorset vacated by a Condependent.

[Democratic Hawk]

Quite a lot of by-elections yesterday:

Ashfield District - Hucknall West: Lib Dem 848, Lab 514, Ind 389, BNP 331. (May 2003 - Three seats Lab 1088, 1005, C 950, Lab 807, BNP 472). [yellow] Lib Dem gain [/yellow] from C.

Barnsley Borough - Penistone West: C 897, Lab 558, Green 328. (May 2006 - C 1012, Ind 808, Lab 763, BNP 399, Green 281). Con gain from Ind. Swing 5.7% Lab to C.

Bolton Borough - Crompton: Lab 1793, C 978, Lib Dem 224, Green 96, Socialist Lab 35. (May 2006 - Lab 1932, Lib Dem 1132, C 941, Veritas 190, Socialist Lab 129). Lab gain from Lib Dem. Swing 15.8% Lib Dem to Lab.

Devon County - Alphington and Cowick: Lib Dem 1265, C 1211, Lab 568, Green 174. (May 2005 - Lib Dem 3188, Lab 1919, C 1443, Green 331, Ukip 282, Liberal 109). Lib Dem hold. Swing 11.1% Lib Dem to C.

Essex County - Brentwood Rural: C 2062, Lib Dem 1150, Lab 142. (May 2005 - C 4751, Lib Dem 3060, Lab 834, Ukip 616, Green 298). C hold. Swing 4.8% Lib Dem to C.

Exeter City - Alphington: Lib Dem 890, C 703, Lab 227, Green 142. (May 2006 - Lib Dem 906, C 705, Lab 398, Green 233). Lib Dem hold. Swing 0.3% C to Lib Dem.

Fenland District - Slade Lode: C 259, Lib Dem 194. (May 2003 - C 165, Lib Dem 129, Lab 125). C hold. Swing 2.9% Lib Dem to C.

North Wiltshire District - Colerne: Lib Dem 425, C 399. (May 2003 - Lib Dem 454, C 250, Lab 43). Lib Dem hold. Swing 12% Lib Dem to C.

Peterborough City - Northborough: C 393, Ind 388, Lib Dem 64, Lab 36. (May 2004 - C 519, Ind 218, Lab 112). C hold. Swing 3.7% C to Lab.

Redbridge London Borough - Bridge: C 1014, BNP 857, Lab 299, Lib Dem 245, Green 147. (May 2006 - Three seats C 1665, 1617, 1521, Lab 598, 510, 507, Lib Dem 490, 464, 422, Green 404). C hold. Swing 3.7% C to Lab.

South Derbyshire District - Swadlincote: Lab 562, Lib Dem 301, C 231. (May 2003 - Three seats Lab 637, 617, 536, C 335, 328, 297, Ind 280; April 20 2006 by-election - Lab 565, C 356). Lab hold. Swing 3.5% C to Lab.

Stafford Borough - Fulford: C unopposed. (May 2003 - Three seats C 1019, 913, 828, Lib Dem 636, 618, 599, Lab 366). C hold.

Staffordshire County - Cheadle and Checkley: C 791, Ind 560, Lib Dem 311. (May 2005 - C 3462, Lab 2240, Lib Dem 1159). C hold. Swing 2.3% C to Lib Dem.

Staffordshire Moorlands District - Cheadle West: C 354, Ratepayers 239. (May 2003 - Ratepayers 702, C 579, Ind 518, Ind 465, C 414, Lab 370, C 312). C hold.

Dave

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Ashfield District - Hucknall West: Lib Dem 848, Lab 514, Ind 389, BNP 331. (May 2003 - Three seats Lab 1088, 1005, C 950, Lab 807, BNP 472). [yellow] Lib Dem gain [/yellow] from C.

Seems as though in the absense of a Tory, the Tory voters voted LibDem here.

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Dire turnout apparently.

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I think that counts as a good result...

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This is in suburban Exeter IIRC

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We could have won that if we ran a candidate. Our organisation in Fenland (probably our best district in Cambridgeshire in the last General Election) is atrocious...

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Ick... this is actually a very middle class ward (on the very edge of London as well. In IDS's constituency I think). Borders Epping Forest.

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Well our vote has held up very well since April

[Rural Radical]

Ashfield District - Hucknall West: Lib Dem 848, Lab 514, Ind 389, BNP 331. (May 2003 - Three seats Lab 1088, 1005, C 950, Lab 807, BNP 472). [yellow] Lib Dem gain [/yellow] from C.

Seems as though in the absense of a Tory, the Tory voters voted LibDem here.

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Dire turnout apparently.

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I think that counts as a good result...

Cracking Result.

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This is in suburban Exeter IIRC

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We could have won that if we ran a candidate. Our organisation in Fenland (probably our best district in Cambridgeshire in the last General Election) is atrocious...
Where does this remind me of?

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Ick... this is actually a very middle class ward (on the very edge of London as well. In IDS's constituency I think). Borders Epping Forest.

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Well our vote has held up very well since April

[Filuwaúrdjan]

An interesting set of results, with things for all three mainstream parties to be happy about...

In Huddersfield, Labour won a huge majority (45.7% over a LibDem) in a ward in the centre of the town with a big Asian population; the ward was home to an Asian taxi-driver killed in an appalling racist murder a few days ago and both the BNP and Respect polled very poorly (about 3% each), and Labour also held off the Greenies in an Oxford ward. The LibDems did well to hold a marginal ward in Norwich and made a suprise gain off the Tories in Aldershot. Better news for the Tories came in Rushden, where they easily held a usually marginal ward by a wide margin.
In Dartford, the Tories held onto the safe Heath ward, but there was a large swing to Labour and the combined vote of the BNP, UKIP and the EDP was over 30%. Apparently the incumbent Tory counciller had resigned in disgrace ('though I know no details).

Prize for the weirdest result of the night goes to Filey (town a few miles down the coast from Scarborough). The result is... er... well... have a look for yourselves.

[minionofmidas]

So, in Dartford, a defacto swing from the Tories to the far right?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

So, in Dartford, a defacto swing from the Tories to the far right?

Yes; but there seems to have been a genuine swing to Labour as well. I think UKIP stood there last time round.

I think the Heath ward is demographically similer to the ward in Redbridge which saw a large, direct, Tory-to-BNP swing a few weeks ago.