By-Election Watch (17/10/11)

Here are this week's changes to the by-election page:

Council	Type	Ward	Defending Party	Reason	Date
East Staffordshire	District	Yoxall	Conservative	Resigned	3rd Nov
Islington	London	St Marys	Labour	Disqualified	10th Nov
Redbridge	London	Aldborough	Labour	Resigned	10th Nov
Isle of Wight	Unitary	West Wight	Independent	Death	17th Nov
Redcar & Cleveland	Unitary	Zetland	Lib Dem (x2)	Resigned	17th Nov
Ribble Valley	District	Salthill	Lib Dem	Resigned	17th Nov
Warrington	Unitary	Poulton North	Lib Dem	Death	17th Nov
Wycombe	District	Hazelmere South	Conservative	Resigned	24th Nov
Shetland	Scotland	Central	Independent	Resigned	15th Dec
Rutland	Unitary	Uppingham	Independent	Death	TBA

I'll repeat my apologies for last week's missing update; I've noticed a direct correlation between the amount of times I have to make the two hour commute from Brighton to London and how shattered I am! My lack of free time at the moment is also due to the fact I took a temporary job before I moved up here just in case other potential employment prospects couldn't cover the bills. It turns out they have been and the second job is a quite a lot of unnecessary hassle!

Thankfully the temporary contract is almost up so I should have a bit more time to spare on pushing Britain-Votes forward, as opposed to letting it drift backwards. We hope to make some announcements on that front in the not to distance future, although it does feel like I have been saying that for a while. Anyway, you came to see the by-election page update; not listen to me rambling about my time management issues...!

There haven't actually been that many new vacancies over the last fortnight, which is nice considering the busy few weeks we have coming up. The 17^th of November is of particular interest to the Liberal Democrats as they are defending four seats that day. The two in Redcar are as a result of an eligibility dispute regarding the two Councillors' employment at a independent foundation school that receives funding from the local authority. Whether or not they could have stood still isn't clear but fresh elections should remove the issue. One of the Councillors is re-standing for his seat as he has since left the school.

This week we have a rare Tuesday by-election in the (nearby for me) Adur District Council. We did try to make contact with the campaigns but no-one got back to us, so sadly we'll just be reporting it like any other by-election. There are also eight by-elections on Thursday so tune in for a busy night on the LiveBlog!

 

Tom Harris