By-Elections - 28th March 2013

[greatkingrat]

FENLAND - Parson Drove and Wisbech St Mary (Conservative died)

2011 - Con 849/602, LD 652/405, Lab 303
Dec 2008 by - Con 512, LD 208, Lab 190, Grn 101
2007 - Con x2 unopposed
2003 - Con 683/630, Lab 264

David BROKER (The Conservative Party Candidate)
Maria GOLDSPINK (English Democrats - "Putting England First")
Mary LANE (Liberal Democrat)
Alan LAY (UKIP)

LEWISHAM - Evelyn (Labour resigned)

2010 - Lab 2795/2469/2367, LD 925/746/732, Con 719/676/562, Grn 533/355/299, LPBP 445, Ind 294
2006 - Lab 1317/1073/1021, Con 347/296/263, LD 326/304/278, Grn 301/301/261
Jun 2004 by - Lab 1432, Con 463, SocAlt 374, LD 367, Grn 199
2002 - Lab 1164/1011/942, Grn 274, LD 265/259, Ind 234/207/202, Con 222/201/186

Olufunke ABIDOYE (The Labour Party Candidate)
Simon NUNDY (The Conservative Party Candidate)
Paul OAKLEY (UK Independence Party (UKIP))
Barbara RAYMOND (Lewisham People Before Profit)
Bill TOWN (Liberal Democrats)

TENDRING - Harwich West (Labour died)

2011 - Lab 683/557, Con 671/547, CRP 180/138, Ind 177
2007 - Lab 451/353, Con 405/384, CRP 321/297, Ind 247, LD 149
2003 - Lab 613/456, Con 359, CRP 320/256, SocAll 80

Simon BANKS (Liberal Democrats)
John HAWKINS (The Labour Party Candidate)
Steven HENDERSON (Community Representatives Party)
Hugh THOMPSON (Conservative Party Candidate)

[marksenior]

Fot Listener , there are also 2 Town Council byelections on Harwich TC East and West wards on this day .

[David Ashforth]

	Ward maps	ONS data
FENLAND - Parson Drove & Wisbech St Mary	link	link
LEWISHAM – Evelyn	link	link
TENDRING – Harwich West	link	link

[East Anglian Lefty]

For some reason, about half the local council candidates in the west of the Tendring peninsula seem to have the surname Henderson. I'm beginning to wonder if it's a clan.

[Pete Whitehead]

I assume you mean the East. There do seem to have been a huge number and from various parties - Ms J. Henderson (Lab) defeated incumbent S. Henderson (CRP) in Harwich West Central in 2011. I guess a nhumber of the Labour ones are related to Ivan Henderson?

[paulw]

Labour's chance of winning the Lewisham Evelyn by-election is similar to Celtic's chance of winning the Scottish Premier League this season. However the election is probably more interesting than the football.

People of African background comprise about 30% of the ward's population. The three Labour councillors elected in 2010 were all from this group. One of them has now resigned to spend more time in Africa amid controversy over not attending Council meetings while still drawing his allowance. To be fair to him his wife has died since he was elected in 2010. The Labour by-election candidate is also of African origin and there are indications that not everyone in the area is completely happy about this. A look at the names of the proposers and seconders is instructive, the Labour names appear entirely African, including two people who may be related to the departed councillor, while the proposers and seconders for the other candidates seem mainly non-African.

Meanwhile the yuppie element from Lewisham Labour managed to spell their candidate's name wrong when tweeting messages of support, suggesting something of a social chasm within the party.

[listener]

Here is some background to the by-election in the Broadfields ward of Horsforth Town Council in the City of Leeds.

Horsforth Town Council comprises 22 members, elected from five wards as follows – Broadfields (5), Brownberrie (5), Hall Park (5), Victoria (5) and Woodside (2).

The entire parish of Horsforth is combined with the Cragg Wood and Layton wards of Rawdon parish to form the Horsforth city ward of Leeds.

The council strengths were:

Elections on 3 May 2007: Lib Dem 12, Con 6, Lab 1, Ind 1, Independent Friend of Hall Park 1, Vacant 1.
Only four candidates were nominated in Brownberrie ward and the final vacancy was filled by co-option. The remaining four wards were contested.

Elections on 5 May 2011: Lib Dem 12, Lab 5, Con 4, Vacant 1

Only four candidates were nominated in Hall Park ward and the final vacancy was filled by the co-option of Neil Hunt (Con). The remaining four wards were contested.

Ray Agar (Lab) was top of the poll in Victoria ward, denying Neil Hunt (Con) a place, but he was not expecting to win. He was absent on a family holiday on polling day and failed to return in time to sign the declaration of acceptance of office. The resulting vacancy was filled by co-option. Mr Agar was rejected and the town council co-opted Martin Hughes (Lib Dem) to fill the Victoria ward vacancy. Considerable heat was generated locally at the time.

According to this website: “The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats did a deal, co-opting a Liberal Democrat Martin Hughes into the seat that should have gone to Ray Agar and Conservative Neil Hunt was co-opted into the Hall Park vacancy.”

Current make-up of the council: Lib Dem 12, Con 5, Lab 4, Vacant 1

The chair and vice-chair of the council are Lib Dem.

The result in Broadfields ward on 3 May 2007 was:
Lib Dem 573/467/399/395, Con 352, Lab 284
Elected: Lib Dem 4, Con 1

The result in Broadfields ward on 5 May 2011 was:
Lab 508, Lib Dem 424/422/397/294, Con 347
Elected: Lab 1, Lib Dem 3, Con 1

Jan Hardy (Lib Dem) held the Hall Park by-election on 15 November 2012, caused by the resignation of Pat Williams (Lib Dem), because of other commitments.

The by-election in Broadfields on 28 March is caused by the death of Sylvia Whitlock (Lib Dem)

The three candidates on 28 March are Lib Dem, Lab and Con.


The result in the Horsforth ward of Leeds Council on 4 May 2006 was Lib Dem 2585, Con 2488, Lab 954, Green Party 566, Christian Peoples Alliance 140

The result in the Horsforth ward of Leeds Council on 3 May 2007 was Lib Dem 2626, Con 2599, Lab 828, Green Party 344, BNP 323, Independent 178, UKIP 127, Christian Peoples Alliance 65

The result in the Horsforth ward of Leeds Council on 1 May 2008 was Lib Dem 3321, Con 2746, Lab 563, BNP 339, Green Party 272

The result in the Horsforth ward of Leeds Council on 6 May 2010 was Lib Dem 5959, Con 3138, Lab 2356, BNP 358, UKIP 326, Green Party 316

The result in the Horsforth ward of Leeds Council on 5 May 2011 was Con 2680, Lib Dem 2466, Lab 2213, UKIP 421, TUSC 164

The result in the Horsforth ward of Leeds Council on 3 May 2012 was Lib Dem 2636, Con 1725, Lab 1381, UKIP 453, Green Party 317, TUSC 77

[thirdchill]

Fenland looks the most interesting of the above, the lib dems were a close second last time and won one of the two seats and UKIP are standing. This is a good target for both of them, but a lib dem win is more likely.

Tendring might throw up a surprise. I fully expect a labour hold but as the conservatives got one of the two seats last time, there is no UKIP standing and the community representatives and the lib dem standing, there is an outside chance of a shock labour loss.

Lewisham.....outcome is a foregone conclusion.

[Deleted]

Surprised there's no Green candidate in Lewisham Evelyn. I'd have thought that they would have had a good chance of coming second there.

[andrewteale]

There was another by-election in Parsons Drove and Wisbech St Mary in April 2008: C 646 Lab 191 Ind 119 UKIP 55 LD 35

[paulypaul]

Mar 17, 2013 19:58:18 GMT listener said:

Ray Agar (Lab) was top of the poll in Victoria ward, denying Neil Hunt (Con) a place, but he was not expecting to win. He was absent on a family holiday on polling day and failed to return in time to sign the declaration of acceptance of office. The resulting vacancy was filled by co-option. Mr Agar was rejected and the town council co-opted Martin Hughes (Lib Dem) to fill the Victoria ward vacancy. Considerable heat was generated locally at the time.

I bet there was! You've gotta love town/parish councils for the way they co-opt.

[innocentabroad]

Mar 23, 2013 12:21:01 GMT paulypaul said:

Mar 17, 2013 19:58:18 GMT listener said:

Ray Agar (Lab) was top of the poll in Victoria ward, denying Neil Hunt (Con) a place, but he was not expecting to win. He was absent on a family holiday on polling day and failed to return in time to sign the declaration of acceptance of office. The resulting vacancy was filled by co-option. Mr Agar was rejected and the town council co-opted Martin Hughes (Lib Dem) to fill the Victoria ward vacancy. Considerable heat was generated locally at the time.

I bet there was! You've gotta love town/parish councils for the way they co-opt.

I don't know much about them because IIRC we don't have them in London (and when I think of some of the community leaders in my neighbourhood I breathe far more easily) - but surely allowing these councils to co-opt defeated candidates makes a mockery of the whole electoral process?

[paulypaul]

Mar 23, 2013 12:36:59 GMT innocentabroad said:

Mar 23, 2013 12:21:01 GMT paulypaul said:

I bet there was! You've gotta love town/parish councils for the way they co-opt.

I don't know much about them because IIRC we don't have them in London (and when I think of some of the community leaders in my neighbourhood I breathe far more easily) - but surely allowing these councils to co-opt defeated candidates makes a mockery of the whole electoral process?

I absolutely agree. Coopting a defeated candidate flies in the face of democracy if you ask me.

The exact same thing happened in a local warded town council. Candidate A lost their election in parish ward X, but the town council coopted him, due to insufficiency of candidates for parish ward Y, against a resident who lived in ward Y.

[greatkingrat]

I don't see the problem - if anyone cares that much they are free to collect 10 signatures and force a by-election instead.

[East Anglian Lefty]

Mar 23, 2013 12:36:59 GMT innocentabroad said:

Mar 23, 2013 12:21:01 GMT paulypaul said:

I bet there was! You've gotta love town/parish councils for the way they co-opt.

I don't know much about them because IIRC we don't have them in London (and when I think of some of the community leaders in my neighbourhood I breathe far more easily) - but surely allowing these councils to co-opt defeated candidates makes a mockery of the whole electoral process?

Given that most of the time there aren't enough candidates for a contested election, I don't think you can say that parish councils have a particularly close connection to the electoral process.

[paulypaul]

This will be of interest to listener and others, but the good people of Escrick, North Yorks will be going to the polls on the 28th March. Electors will be electing all 10 members of the parish council after it had been operating 'illegally' following councillors failing to sign declarations of acceptance of office in 2011. The village precepts for £11,000 and the election being contested by 16 candidates, will cost the parish approx £2,000.

Escrick

[innocentabroad]

I see, courtesy of the "English elections" website, that the Labour candidate in Harwich is the retired Chief Executive of Tendring Council! You'd think he would have had enough - perhaps he can't get used to living on his pension and thinks the councillor's allowances a softer option than consultancy...

I'm surprised it's legal, I'm surprised he won the party selection process (most councillors have loads of privy resentment against their Chief Exec.) - but then again, it is Essex, after all.

Has anything like this happened before, does anyone know?

[jdc]

Mar 26, 2013 9:16:58 GMT innocentabroad said:

Has anything like this happened before, does anyone know?

The general concept is not unknown, albeit not usual.

The Head of HR at Northamptonshire CC retired in 1998, and was elected in 2001 as a Labour Councillor, becoming Cabinet Member for Adult Services.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

There are lots of ex-local government officers now serving as councillors. I certainly remember a case in the west country somewhere of a former Chief Executive being elected, although it was to a different authority.

[innocentabroad]

Mar 26, 2013 12:39:48 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

There are lots of ex-local government officers now serving as councillors. I certainly remember a case in the west country somewhere of a former Chief Executive being elected, although it was to a different authority.

A different authority doesn't count. At one time it seemed that half London's councillors worked for another borough - before "politically restricted posts" were invented.