We have a rare Tuesday by-election tonight and it is set to be a Britain-Votes.co.uk first; we're planning on attending the count. Handily for us the Cokeham ward in Adur is just fifteen minutes drive from our flat in Hove so it seems an opportunity to good to miss. We had tried to contact some of the candidates but to no avail so I can only offer the usual coverage for the preview. Hopefully this evenings/nights coverage will make up for it though!
The vacancy in Cokeham, Adur DC (West Sussex) is taking place following the death of Conservative Councillor Norman Wright. On the face of the 2010 result in this ward the Conservatives should have too much bother holding this seat but the result isn't quite a foregone conclusion.
Labour held a seat here until 2006 and their perennial candidate is currently the Chairman of Sompting Parish Council. Not to be outdone, the Conservative candidate is also a Parish Councillor in Sompting and represented this district seat until 2008. Given Labour's poor national performances in 2008 and 2010 I would expect them to run the Conservatives a little closer in this than they have done in recent years but the 11% swing required for a gain seems unlikely.
The by-election appears to have caused a little controversy locally with Conservatives attacking UKIP for calling the by-election with just 7 months to run on the current term. However, a similar attack in the local newspaper drew some comments supporting the decision to call the election.
In the unlikely event the Conservatives fail to win tonight it will not be too much of a problem for them as they currently hold all but three seats on the Council. The next partial Council elections in Adur are due to take place next May.
Cokeham (Adur) | ||
By-Election Candidate | 2010 | 2008 |
Nicholas Pigott (Con) | 41.5% | 55.2% |
Cyril Cannings (LD) | 26.7% | 19.6% |
Barry Mear (Lab)* | 20.0% | 25.2% |
David Bamber (UKIP) | 11.8% | - |
Jennie Tindall (Grn) | - | - |
* Appeared without a description on the ballot in 2010 following a mix up with the nomination papers.
Tom Harris
0 comments:
Post a Comment