A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Council by-election results

Last night's results, including two Labour gains.

Pendre Ward, Bridgend UA. Lab gain from LD. Lab 200 (36.6%, -12.8) LD 193 (35.3%, -15.3), Ind 68 (12.5%, +12.5), Con 60 (11%, +11), PC 25 (4.6%, +4.6). Swing of 1.7% from LD to Lab since 2007.

Birstall Watermead Ward, Charnwood DC. Con hold. Con 674 (47.7%, +2.8), Lab 452 (32%, +32), BNP 288 (20.4%, +20.4). Swing of 14.6% from Con to Lab since 2007. LD candidate was not validly nominated.

Hyde Park & Woodhouse Ward, Leeds MBC. Lab gain from LD. Labour 1054 (47.6%, +9.1), LD 671 (30.3%, -10.4), Con 188 (8.5%, +1.1), Ind 160 (7.2%, +7.2), Green 140 (6.3%, -3.8%). Swing of 9.8% from LD to Lab since 2008.

Fazakerley Ward, Liverpool MBC. Lab hold. Lab 1525 (57.5%, -0.1), Lib Dem 807 (30.5%, +11.2), BNP 234 (8.8%, -5.2), Green 84 (3.2%, +1.2). Swing of 5.6% from Lab to LD since 2008.

Ivybridge Filham Ward, South Hams DC. LD gain from Con. LD 379 (44.3%, +11.9), Con 356 (41.6%, -26), Lab 121 (14.1%, +14.1). Swing of 19% from Con to LD since 2007.

Evesham South Ward, Wychavon DC. Con hold. Con 358 (52.3%, +1.2), LD 176 (25.7%, +2.1), UKIP 150 (21.9%, -3.3). Swing of 0.5% from Con to LD since 2007.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Alex Sobel said...

The Hyde Park and Woodhouse result was interesting as the Labour candidate had been a ward council until 2004 and the Lib Dems won the ward when Labour lost Leeds. Since then they have wrecked havoc on local services shutting down 1 school and refusing to engage with a campaign for community ownership, threatening to shutdown the high school, mismanaging the local park and of course our 12 week bin strike. These factors lead to the collapse of the Lib Dem vote. It felt like the people of the ward after 6 years had finally realised that it wasn't Labour running the City anymore. Oh and the students didn't come out in a student-heavy ward.

Labour with strong union support had a lot of bodies out and the Lib Dems were thin on the ground.

4:15 pm, February 19, 2010

 
Blogger Unknown said...

The Birstall seat was a Tory resignation and a Tory hold, not gain from LD. They only increased their vote on 2003 by 1% without a LD candidate.

4:51 pm, February 19, 2010

 
Anonymous Andy said...

And one of the sitting (former) libdem councillors joined Labour this week after a period as an independent councillor. She had previously quit the libdems after an internal split where she was either de-selected or jumped before she was de-selected (I'm not interested enough in Leeds libdem internal politics to give you a definitive account of what happened). I can't say I am a massive fan of the Cllr concerned, but it is nice that Labour now has two of three councillors in a previously solidly libdem ward, and Leeds Libdems seem to be increasingly unpopular with the electorate and riven with internal splits.....

7:30 pm, February 19, 2010

 
Blogger Simeon Jackson said...

I didn't vote in this election, nor will I be voting in May. This is not out of a disinterest in politics, it’s not that I disagree in principal with political parties and the electoral system, but that none of the viable candidates for Hyde Park and Woodhouse have showed any kind of unique stance on any issues that I care about, in fact, barely have you seemed to take a stance on anything at all.
I may be a student, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about how this city is run, and what happens to it, and I don’t feel that any attempt has been made to attract student voters in real terms, and by this, I don’t mean touring houses with freebies and asking whether we’ll come along and put an X on a form, I mean engaging us in issues that affect us.

Personally, I am dissatisfied with Leeds City Council at the moment. Their handling of the bin strikes did not seem satisfactory. Several new student accommodation blocks have been approved and built with no apparent consultation with possible residents as to whether that is what they really want. I am unhappy with several other planning decisions too, such as Broadcasting Place, which is a totally unsatisfactory development, and how it was awarded a prize from Leeds City Council, despite being totally insensitive to its context, is beyond comprehension. Hyde Park and Woodhouse continues to be a target for burglary and on occasion other crimes and no party has publicly taken a stance on such issues.

Any party wanting this ward in future elections should go after the student vote. It's an easy vote. If only there were some policies that we could relate to.

6:08 pm, April 25, 2010

 

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