Local Council by-elections 27th January 2022

[Tony Otim]

DARTFORD BC; Maypole & Leyton Cross (Con died)
Candidates:
HOOD, Julian Patrick (Green)
MARSH, Kyle Grenville Albert (Liberal Democrat)
STEALEY, Kyle (Conservative)
UWAIBI, Leah Nicole (Labour)

2019: Con 474; Lab 89


DARTFORD BC; Wilmington, Sutton-at-Hone & Hawley (Con resigned)
Candidates:
HATZIMASOURAS, Jane (Liberal Democrat)
HOLT, George Raymond (Conservative)
PERRY, Maria Louise (Labour)

May 21by: Con 1465; Lab 445; RefUK 68
2019: Con 1184, 1112, 1021; Ind 433; UKIP 394; Lab 314, 307, 294


Current Council: Con 27*; Lab 9; Independent Party Grp 2 (both elected as Swanscombe & Greenhithe Residents); Alliance Group 2 (1 Green (Elected as Labour) and 1 Swanscombe & Greenhithe Residents); 2 vacancies

* I’m assuming there is actually no difference between the listings of Local Conservatives (26) and Conservative (1) on the council website.



KENT CC; Wilmington (Con died)
Candidates:
CAPELL, Amanda Jane (Liberal Democrat)
HOOD, Julian Patrick (Green)
POVEY, Darren Anthony (Labour)
SANDHU, Av (Conservative)

2021: Con 2987; Lab 825; Grn 314
2017: Con 2610; Lab 841; UKIP 497; LD 195

Current Council: Con 61; Lab 7; LD 6; Grn 4; Swale Ind 1; Swanscombe & Greenhithe Res Ass 1; 1 vacancy



At County Level, Maypole & Leyton Cross is entirely within Wilmington division (and the same councillor represented both prior to her death), whilst Wilmington, Sutton-at-Hone & Hawley is split between Wilmington and Dartford Rural divisions.

Maria Perry (Lab) stood last May for Labour in both the ward by-election and county elections for Wilmington division.

[tonyhill]

Are there really two candidates for Maypole with the first name Kyle?

Good to see a LibDem candidate in all of them.

[andrew111]

Dec 31, 2021 12:36:55 GMT tonyhill said:

Are there really two candidates for Maypole with the first name Kyle?

Good to see a LibDem candidate in all of them.

The juxtaposition of Kyle, Grenville and Albert challenges my usual assumptions about names..

Probably a good thing...

[listener]

Wilmington county electoral division has the same boundaries as the former Dartford South West division and the previous Wilmington division, which was a Con-Lab marginal until Ann Allen consolidated her grip on it.

Labour won Dartford South West in 1985, the 1985 by-election following an election petition and 1993. The Conservatives won it in 1989 and the late Ann Allen gained the seat from Labour in 1997 with a majority of 61.

She increased her majority in 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017 to 395, 994, 1559 (over English Democrats, with Labour in 3rd position), 899 (over UKIP, with Labour in 3rd position) and 1769. She undoubtedly had a large personal vote, as the various tributes have confirmed.

Wilmington division includes Princes ward, comprising the Tree Estate, a large estate of social housing, built as "homes for heroes" in the 1920s and straddling either side of Princes Road, the inner Dartford by-pass (an unemployment relief road scheme) opened in 1924 by the Prince of Wales. At borough level, Princes ward has recently shown elements of the "red wall" effect.

The Liberal Democrats have never won a seat in the Borough of Dartford at County or District level. Could they "cut through" in 2022 ?

[kevinf]

Shadsy has the Wilmington county by-election up on Smarkets.

[shadsy]

Jan 25, 2022 13:06:49 GMT kevinf said:

Shadsy has the Wilmington county by-election up on Smarkets.

Lib Dems initial odds were 17.5, now just 6.0.

[phil156]

All counts are being done on Friday so bed early on Thursday

[minionofmidas]

www.britainelects.com/2022/01/27/previewing-the-kent-and-dartford-council-by-elections-of-27-jan-2022/

[Smartie]

I was Deputy Head at one of the schools in the Maypole / Wilmington wards when we were doubling in size through building additions and celebrating our centenary. I was also a Labour Councillor in another borough (I had a bit of a fiery reputation in chambers at the time).

We engaged Ann to help us navigate some officer issues and she was absolutely outstanding, she was also phenomenal in supporting our centenary celebrations. We were sitting one day discussing both issues and being a councillor in general. She told me a story about a firebrand left winger who’d come into Dartford and had caused a stir but not achieved anything. As with all conversations I tend to reflect on them later and knowing that she was colleagues with 5 of the Conservative members who were on Swale and on KCC I always presumed she was giving me some very indirect advice. Which I believe I took both at the time and now.
She was excellent and I am sure no fan of the current prime minister. Tories should hold but maybe as a result of split opposition rather than a mandate for the current shambles that they are.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Dartford is one of the very few principal local authorities which has never joined Twitter. It doesn't seem to bother with Facebook either.

[yellowperil]

Jan 28, 2022 10:16:28 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Dartford is one of the very few principal local authorities which has never joined Twitter. It doesn't seem to bother with Facebook either.

Which may be a nuisance atm but in general I applaud them - maybe not on Twitter and Facebook for the same reasons  as I am not on Twitter and Facebook?

[Toylyyev]

Jan 28, 2022 10:16:28 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Dartford is one of the very few principal local authorities which has never joined Twitter. It doesn't seem to bother with Facebook either.

This looks like it:

twitter.com/welovedartford?lang=en

Could be the local Leeds fanclub too. 

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Jan 28, 2022 11:04:45 GMT Toylyyev said:

Jan 28, 2022 10:16:28 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Dartford is one of the very few principal local authorities which has never joined Twitter. It doesn't seem to bother with Facebook either.

This looks like it:

twitter.com/welovedartford?lang=en

It's a twitter account run by the council but it's for the Dartford Town Team - cleaning and promoting the town centre. Likewise there is @mayorofdartford which is used by the Mayor to report on the civic events they have attended.

[anthonyjwells]

Jan 28, 2022 10:05:26 GMT Smartie said:

I was Deputy Head at one of the schools in the Maypole / Wilmington wards when we were doubling in size through building additions and celebrating our centenary. I was also a Labour Councillor in another borough (I had a bit of a fiery reputation in chambers at the time).

We engaged Ann to help us navigate some officer issues and she was absolutely outstanding, she was also phenomenal in supporting our centenary celebrations. We were sitting one day discussing both issues and being a councillor in general. She told me a story about a firebrand left winger who’d come into Dartford and had caused a stir but not achieved anything. As with all conversations I tend to reflect on them later and knowing that she was colleagues with 5 of the Conservative members who were on Swale and on KCC I always presumed she was giving me some very indirect advice. Which I believe I took both at the time and now.
She was excellent and I am sure no fan of the current prime minister. Tories should hold but maybe as a result of split opposition rather than a mandate for the current shambles that they are.

Heh, this means I know exactly who your are now: my eldest was at the school when you were Deputy Head! Anyway, you are spot on about Ann. I can barely remember not knowing Ann in some way - she was Chair of Governors at Joydens Wood school decades ago when my mum was Acting Deputy Head there, then she was our local councillor, then I knew her as a colleague on DBC.

She was terrific (when I was a Dartford councillor I did tend to try and find some excuse to take any Kent issue to Ann whenever I could, even if they weren't strictly her patch, as you knew she would get them sorted). Never spoke to her about Boris but my guess is the same as yours: he wouldn't be to Ann's taste.

Anyway. I'm assuming Tory holds on reduced majorities. Maypole & Leyton cross is a new ward so a little hard to judge, but is mostly the new build Bexley Park estate, and the amount people had to pay to live there in the first place... well. Wilmington was competitive in the past on different borders, but Sutton-at-Hone & Hawley have historically been proper "weigh the Tory vote" territory, so should push it out of range. The only real Labour area in the Kent division is the Tree Estate (Princes). Ann had a robust personal vote there (it was the sort of place where you got very different results canvassing depending on if you said "I'm canvassing for Ann Allen" or "I'm canvassing for the local Conservatives"). I've been a teller in that ward before and heard people going into vote saying "I'm voting for Ann, I always vote Labour", but even in her absence the ward itself has long since stopped being the sort of Labour monolith it was 20 years ago.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

DARTFORD Maypole and Leyton Cross

Kyle Stealey (Local Conservatives) 334
Julian Patrick Hood (The Green Party) 76
Leah Nicole Uwaibi (Labour Party) 65
Kyle Grenville Albert Marsh (Liberal Democrat) 54

[anthonyjwells]

Oh - and the Maypole one is in:


Maypole and Leyton Cross, Dartford Borough Council

Con: 334
Green: 76
Lab: 65
Lib Dem: 54

(Snap!)

[andrewp]

Maypole and Leyton Cross percentages

Con 63.1%
Green 14.4%
Lab 12.3%
LD 10.2%

The average shares predicted in our prediction comp were Con 49. LD 18, Green 17, Lab 15

[timmullen1]

Jan 28, 2022 11:03:11 GMT yellowperil said:

Jan 28, 2022 10:16:28 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Dartford is one of the very few principal local authorities which has never joined Twitter. It doesn't seem to bother with Facebook either.

Which may be a nuisance atm but in general I applaud them - maybe not on Twitter and Facebook for the same reasons  as I am not on Twitter and Facebook?

In this day and age a council should definitely be on social media, it’s a free way of getting information out to residents, an example, ours daily put out the venues for the walk in vaccination centres that are in three or four different places every day, emergency road closures, etc. Given the lack of a credible local newspaper, the gutting of BBC Local Radio and the scandalous abdication of responsibility by Ofcom in letting Bauer and Global destroy the independent local radio sector, it’s one of the last bastions for disseminating local information.

[andrewp]

DARTFORD.Wilmington, Sutton at Hone and Hawley

Con 996
Lab 272
LD 200

[timmullen1]