A total of nice by-elections took place this week but just one seat changed hands. The Conservatives were the party on the receiving end of the sole gain as an Independent candidate enjoyed a comfortable victory in Stafford. This came two days after the Tories almost lost a seat to Labour in Adur. In the only other seemingly marginal ward up for grabs this week the Liberal Democrats held off a challenge from the Conservatives; providing more evidence that the latter struggle more than their opponents to get their support to the polling stations on cold October days.
The surprise result of Thursday night came from the Walton ward in Stafford, where the Independent candidate Jill Hood enjoyed a 12.6% swing to gain a seat from the Conservatives. The by-election was taking place following the death of a long-serving Conservative Councillor Mike Carey. Hood had narrowly missed out on a seat in May, falling 84 votes short of the third Tory candidate in the multi-member ward.
The main problem the Conservatives seem to have had in this by-election is getting their supporters to go out and vote. Their top candidate in the spring polled 1009 votes where as John O'Leary could only manage 371 on Thursday. In comparison, Hood managed to hold on to three-quarters of her support from May and ended up a comfortable winner.
The Conservatives still enjoy a large majority in Stafford with the next full Council elections not due to take place until 2015.
Walton (Stafford) | |||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/- |
Jill Hood (E) | 569 | 45.7% | +19.9% |
John O'Leary | 371 | 29.8% | -5.3% |
Lloyd Brown | 306 | 24.6% | +1.7% |
The Conservatives were also involved in the other competitive by-election on Thursday in the Mole Valley DC ward of Bookham South. The Liberal Democrats were defending the seat following the death of Cllr. Anne Howarth. The Lib Dems held two of the three seats in the ward but the Tories had won the most recent contest in May.
In general, the Liberal Democrats have been recovering from their poor performance in May and this by-election proved no exception. Stella Brooks enjoyed a 3.5% swing since the spring election to win with a majority of 103 over the Tory candidate Gail Collett.
The victory means the Liberal Democrats remain the largest party in Mole Valley; however the Conservatives currently control the Council in coalition with an Independent grouping. That is likely to remain the case until next May's partial elections, when Brooks will have to defend her seat again.
Mole Valley District Council | ||||||||||
LD | Con | Ind | LIG | |||||||
18 | - | 17 | - | 5 | - | 1 | - | |||
Bookham South | ||||||||||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/- | |||||||
Stella Brooks (E) | 1043 | 47.2% | +2.6% | |||||||
Gail Collett | 940 | 42.5% | -4.4% | |||||||
Bob Cane | 228 | 10.3% | +1.8% | |||||||
As for the other six by-elections on Thursday there was relatively little movement in any of them from the last time the wards were contested. A running theme through the contests was that Labour have slipped back slightly from the vote shares they achieved in May this year.
Shortlands (Bromley) | Ellesmere Port Town (Cheshire West & Chester) | |||||||||||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/-* | By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/-* | |||||
David Jefferys (E) | 1480 | 59.5% | +1.5% | Lynn Clare (E) | 686 | 71.6% | -9.5% | |||||
Anuja Prashar | 490 | 19.7% | +6.4% | Graham Pritchard | 102 | 10.6% | -1.4% | |||||
Gareth Abbit | 256 | 10.3% | -4.0% | Kenny Spain (Soc) | 65 | 6.8% | +6.8% | |||||
Emmett Jenner | 153 | 6.1% | +6.1% | Andrew Roberts | 64 | 6.7% | +6.7% | |||||
Anna Martin | 75 | 3.0% | -11.5% | Hilary Chrusciezl | 41 | 4.3% | -2.6% | |||||
Michael Payne | 35 | 1.4% | +1.4% | * Change from 2011 | ||||||||
* Change from 2010 | ||||||||||||
Bradwell & South Hopton (Great Yarmouth) | Park Hall (Mansfield) | |||||||||||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/-* | By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/-* | |||||
Martin Plane (E) | 557 | 49.6% | +3.4% | Ann Norman (E) | 416 | 53.2% | -4.6% | |||||
Hilary Wainwright | 407 | 36.2% | +0.3% | Linda Davidson (MIF) | 164 | 21.0% | -14.3% | |||||
Colin Aldred | 159 | 14.2% | +1.4% | Mark Quick | 157 | 20.1% | +13.1% | |||||
* Change from 2011 | Andrea Hamilton | 25 | 3.2% | +3.2% | ||||||||
Fraser McFarland | 20 | 2.6% | +2.6% | |||||||||
* Change from 2011 | ||||||||||||
Bridge (Nottingham) | Eccles (Salford) | |||||||||||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/-* | By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/-* | |||||
Michael Edwards (E) | 1152 | 50.2% | -1.8% | Michael Wheeler (E) | 1227 | 54.5% | -0.6% | |||||
Saghir Akhtar | 892 | 38.9% | +2.7% | Nicholas Johnson | 701 | 31.1% | +3.2% | |||||
Michael Illyas | 172 | 7.5% | -4.3% | Kay Pollitt | 147 | 6.5% | +6.5% | |||||
Andrew Taylor | 50 | 2.2% | +2.2% | Valerie Kelly | 125 | 5.5% | -0.7% | |||||
David Bishop (BPE) | 27 | 1.2% | +1.2% | Alan Valentine | 53 | 2.4% | +2.4% | |||||
* Change from 2011 | * Change from 2011 | |||||||||||
Tom Harris
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