Wednesday 13 July 2011

By-Election Preview (14th July)

There is only one by-election this week and I'm afraid it's not exactly a tight marginal. The vacancy in the Old Catton division, Norfolk CC is due to the resignation of Conservative Councillor Stuart Dunn for reasons unknown. The division is just on the outskirts of Norwich and it is pretty safe for the Tories. Their dominance here has been compounded in recent years because the other parties have conspired to split the non-Tory vote. Aided by the concurrent Euro elections, UKIP came second here in 2009 with just 16.3% of the vote. The Lib Dems, Labour and the Greens all managed over 10% of the vote but Dunn won easily with a majority of 800.

If May's result in the identical Broadland District Council ward is anything to go by Labour should emerge as the most likely challengers to the Conservatives in this by-election but a gain is quite unlikely. Labour would need a swing of around 13% from that election two months ago so it would be a big upset. In any case, the Tories have a huge majority on the County Council with the next full elections due in 2013.

Old Catton (Norfolk)

By-Election Candidate

2009

Judy Leggett (Con)

48.8%

Glenn Tingle (UKIP)

16.3%

Bob Fowkes (LD)

13.5%

Chrissie Rumsby (Lab)

10.8%

Jennifer Parkhouse (Grn)

10.6%

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