Labour come from 4th to take seat in Gloucestershire

For the second time in a month Labour have gained a seat from the Conservatives in a ward where they were way off the pace in the 2009 County Council elections. Three weeks ago they produced a shock in Cornwall and last night's impressive performance was again in the South West; Gloucestershire. The Tories held the Stroud District Council seat that was also up for grabs.

The two vacancies were caused by the death of Conservative Councillor Stephen Glanfield, who held the Rodborough County seat as well as the Amberley & Woodchester ward on Stroud DC. The County by-election was always likely to be the closest with the Liberal Democrats very close to beating the Tories here in 2009. The two frontrunners had selected District Councillors from the ward but they were both beaten by Labour Brian Oosthuysen, who took his party from fourth place to win by just 3 votes. Oosthuysen is hardly a political novice himself as he chairs Stroud CLP, but however you look at it a 20% increase in vote share is pretty impressive. Labour took votes from all three of their competitors, although the Greens suffered the most with an 11% drop. The Tories and the Lib Dems lost 4% and 5% respectively, but more importantly an election they thought they had a great chance of winning. Oosthuysen becomes Labour's fifth County Councillor in Gloustershire with the next full elections due in 2013.

Rodborough (Gloucestershire)
By-Election Candidate	Votes	Vote %	+/-
Brian Oosthuysen (E)	793	31.7%	+19.4%
Nigel Cooper	790	31.6%	-3.7%
Christine Headley	660	26.4%	-4.9%
Phil Blomberg	260	10.4%	-10.7%

The District by-election result was quite boring in comparison. There were no shocks here as Rhiannon Wigzell easily held Amberley & Woodchester for the Conservatives with virtually the same vote share Glanfield managed in 2008. The Greens came second in that election but as they did not field a candidate for this contest their vote was divided between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Amberly & Woodchester (Stroud)
By-Election Candidate	Votes	Vote %	+/-
Rhiannon Wigzell (E)	366	54.9%	+0.5%
Jo Smith	177	26.5%	+10.8%
Adrian Walker-Smith	124	18.6%	+6.8%
N/C (GRN)	-	-	-18.1%

The third by-election taking place last night was in Angus, Scotland but they only started counting an hour ago. I'll pop up another post in the evening for that result.