This week's set of by-elections were bound to be a test for the Conservatives as they were defending in all seven of the contests in England. They only managed to hold half of their eight seats as Labour, the Liberal Democrats and a number of Independents enjoyed tight and/or surprising victories over the Tories.
I'll start in Torbay with, what was for the causal observer, a shock victory for the Liberal Democrats as they gained a seat in the Cockington-with-Chelston ward from the Conservatives. The by-election took place because the Tories' candidate for the Mayoral race Gordon Oliver hedged his bets and stood for re-election in this Council ward. His victory in both contests meant he was simultaneously the Mayor, Leader of the Council and a Councillor; an untenable position, his political opponents argued. Despite initially intending to carry on with all three roles Oliver bowed to the inevitable and resigned his Council seat.
The fact this by-election could have been avoided if Oliver had only ran for Mayor was bound to be a feature of the campaign and the Liberal Democrats ruthlessly exploited it to their advantage. They produced a 14.3% swing to gain the seat as Mark Pountney comfortably topped the poll. Although the win is entirely attributable to local circumstances it does give a glimmer of hope for the Lib Dems in these dark times. The victory shows they are still capable of campaigning effectively in their areas of strength. Although Lib Dem MPs in former Labour areas are sure to struggle at the next General Elections the Conservatives are going to have to come up with an effective strategy to get rid of their coalition partners if they are to win a majority. This victory, and the fact Lib Dems made a net loss of only one seat in Torbay last month, would indicate that local MP Adrian Sanders will not be easy to shift.
Despite the defeat the Conservatives still hold a comfortable working majority on the Council and, of course, the Mayoralty.
Cockington-w-Chelston (Torbay) | |||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/- |
Mark Pountney (E) | 1048 | 46.3% | +19.7% |
Sylvia Faryna | 614 | 27.1% | -8.9% |
Leonora Critchlow | 357 | 15.8% | +1.0% |
Susie Colley | 129 | 5.7% | +5.7% |
Mark Dent | 61 | 2.7% | -7.9% |
Thomas Cooper | 55 | 2.4% | -9.6% |
The postponed election for Deeping St James, South Kesteven DC was always going to be interesting as the amount of candidates this re-run had attracted easily surpassed previous contests. In 2007 only four stood in this three member ward and although there were seven names on the ballot for May 5th none of the political parties were fielding a full roster. It was the death of the Liberal Democrat incumbent Ken Joynson, who was seeking re-election, which caused the election to be countermanded and the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Greens, somewhat controversially, found an extra candidate for this week's poll. So with 10 candidates, including two with an official party affiliation, in contention for three seats the previous result was unlikely to be a great indicator!
Joyson was the sole Liberal Democrat elected in 2007 and the Conservatives were defending the other two seats. Neither party will have been very pleased with this result as the two 'Independents' topped the poll with the Tories hanging on to the last seat. 'Fair Deal' Phil Dilks came out on top of this crowded field and his name, apparently changed by deed poll, isn't the only intriguing thing about this newly elected Councillor. In 2007 Dilks came fourth, and last, here when he stood as the Labour candidate, which was surely a disappointing result given that he was the incumbent County Councillor for this ward. He then threw away his County Council seat in 2009 when he messed up his nomination forms, although as a Labour candidate in 2009 his victory was far from assured. His win on Thursday would have been helped by the fact there was not an official Labour candidate on the ballot.
The Independent candidate Judy Stevens and the Conservative Ray Auger comfortably finished ahead of the fourth placed candidate to fill the other two seats. The latter enjoyed a margin of almost 150 votes over his running mates, which is likely to be due to the fact he was the only incumbent Councillor left on the ballot. Although things could have gone better for the Tories they have a large majority on Council from last month's full elections.
Deeping St Johns (South Kesteven) | ||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % |
Phil Dilks (E) | 792 | 29.8% |
Judy Stevens (E) | 647 | 24.3% |
Ray Auger (E) | 631 | 23.7% |
Robert Thomas | 483 | |
Mike Exton | 318 | |
Ashley Baxter | 350 | 13.1% |
Michael Bossingham | 289 | |
Philip Hammersley | 242 | 9.1% |
Janire Morris | 70 | |
Peter Morris | 67 | |
The Conservatives fell foul to an Independent in another of Thursday by-elections. The Binstead & Fishbourne seat was vacant following the death of Tory Cllr. Ivan Bulwer, who had won his seat in 2009 by just four votes from the Independent Ivor Warlow. Warlow contested this by-election and, bizarrely, his margin of victory over the Conservative candidate was four votes! I'm sure all involved saw the funny side of this electoral quirk but the result doesn't really affect the balance of power on the Council. The Tories still enjoy a comfortable majority on the Isle with the next full Council elections due in 2013.
Binstead & Fishbourne (Isle of Wight) | |||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/- |
Ivor Warlow (E) | 428 | 37.2% | -4.9% |
Ian Cobb | 424 | 36.9% | -5.6% |
Tim Wakeley | 139 | 12.1% | -3.3% |
Daryll Pitcher | 93 | 8.1% | +8.1% |
Mick Lyons | 66 | 5.7% | +5.7% |
One ward it was very clear that the Conservatives would struggle to hold this week was St Andrews, Great Yarmouth (Norfolk). The by-election was taking place following the death of sitting Conservative Councillor Gerry Cook. He had won his seat comfortably in 2008 but last month Labour gained the seat on a 15% swing from Cook's election three years ago. Previous results had suggested that Cook's comfortable win was the outlier and that his margin of victory was down to his personal vote rather than this being a strong Tory ward.
As expected, Thursday's result was very similar to May's as Labour scored a narrow win over the Tories. Marlene Fairhead's margin of victory was just 21 votes and the result actually represented a 0.9% swing back to the Conservatives from last month. The Tories still enjoy a majority of 7 on the 39 seat Council.
St Andrews (Great Yarmouth) | |||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/- |
Marlene Fairhead (E) | 424 | 51.4% | -0.9% |
Carl Smith | 401 | 48.6% | +0.9% |
The Conservatives did a better job of defending Seabridge, Newcastle-Under-Lyme BC (Staffordshire), although they were starting from a stronger position. The election in the ward was delayed due to the death of the UKIP candidate Paul Gregory 5 days for the poll. Labour have been gaining ground on the Conservatives since Peter Hailstones last contested his seat in 2007 and this by-election followed the trend. Hailstones was re-elected by a margin of 60 votes on Thursday which represented a 4.9% swing from 2010 and a 12.4% swing since his previous win.
Encouragingly for the Tories their vote held up in this by-election and Labour's advance was mostly at the expense of the Liberal Democrats. Being the Conservatives' junior coalition partner nationally and locally has not helped the Lib Dems' electoral fortunes in this corner of Staffordshire as their vote share slumped 15.2% as they dropped to fourth.
The hold was important locally as the Tory/Lib Dem coalition in control of Newcastle-Under-Lyme had a majority of five following May's elections. This win takes that up to six but as Labour gained 10 seats in the Borough this year the 2012 partial council elections are sure to be keenly fought.
Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Council | ||||||||||
Lab | Con | LD | UKIP | |||||||
25 | - | 21 | - | 12 | - | 2 | - | |||
Seabridge | ||||||||||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/- | |||||||
Peter Hailstones (E) | 557 | 45.7% | +1.7% | |||||||
Colin Brooks | 497 | 40.8% | +11.5% | |||||||
George Harvey | 112 | 9.2% | +1.9% | |||||||
Hilary Jones | 52 | 4.3% | -15.2% | |||||||
The final two elections taking place this week were in wards which did not attract any valid nominations on May 5th. Both were won by the Conservatives in 2007 and both were held with ease on Thursday. In Stanton, Derbyshire Dales DC the Conservative candidate Joanne Wild secured almost half the vote in what was a three way contest this time. Having not contested the seat in for a decade Labour came from nowhere easily push the Liberal Democrats into third. On this evidence the ward is more competitive than it had seemed and you would think Labour will offer a challenge to the Tories here at the next full Council elections in 2015. The Conservatives hold a large majority on the Council
Stanton (Derbyshire Dales) | |||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/- |
Joanne Wild (E) | 246 | 48.9% | -10.6% |
Juile Morrison | 173 | 34.4% | +34.4% |
Anthony Allwood | 84 | 16.7% | -23.7% |
Finally, the Conservatives easily held Elmley & Somerville, Wychavon DC (Worcestershire) as their candidate Roma Kirke took over two thirds of the vote in a two way fight with the Liberal Democrats. The result represented a 3.6% swing to the Lib Dems from the 2007 result. Again, the Tories enjoy a large majority on the Council.
Elmley Castle & Somerville (Wychavon) | |||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/- |
Roma Kirke (E) | 435 | 68.8% | -3.6% |
Jayne Lewis | 197 | 31.2% | +3.6% |
Tom Harris
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