Local Election Notes
May 5th, 2008The Local Elections in Swindon this year were a significant milepost on the way to the next General Election. The omens look good. We secured 53.8% of the vote in South Swindon, with Labour and the LibDems far behind on about 21% each. Turnout was down, which is always depressing, and it does not mean that these numbers will automatically translate into a General Election result. In short, don’t assume anything! However, what was very significant was that we were able to win in nine out of the eleven wards in the constituency, which has not been achieved in the recent past.
Our win in Walcot, where former Labour Councillor Mavis Childs was elected with a majority of 135 over Labour, was an important result. Last year, we won it with a 45 majority. We were able to treble it in 2008. Walcot is a key barometer ward, so I know that Labour will be frustrated not to have won it this time. Mavis’s hard work and personal following made this seat a very tough one for Labour to try to retain.
The election of Graham Cherry in Parks Ward was the result of the night, however. This was the place where Labour put in its maximum effort. Labour’s Steve Allsopp topped the poll with 815, but Graham’s 749 votes was an historic high for us in this most traditional of Labour wards. There is no doubt that his previous attempts in ‘06 and ‘07 helped him along, together with the very hard work put in by his talented and energetic running mate Claire Ellis, who achieved 628 votes. Claire has a great future, no doubt! I do hope that the unsuccessful Labour candidate, Mr. Dempsey, does not take the defeat too personally.
The only Ward remaining solely Labour is Central, where Junab Ali succeeded Sinead Darker, who had defected to us from Labour in 2006 and who romped home in Upper Stratton. A mis-declaration by the Returning Officer gave us the seat at one stage. Both the Labour Agent and I sought clarification, and the correct result was then given. It did cause a fair degree of consternation on both sides, and I think that my attempt to seek further clarification from the Returning Officer upset a few of my Labour opponents for a few moments. However, it was all sorted out after a brief chat!
Last year, some of Labour’s election literature had bordered on the libellous, and caused something of a stink locally. There was no repetition this year, but it was the LibDems who annoyed me the most with a ridiculous letter sent to residents in some of the villages east of the A419 which claimed that the Conservatives were in favour of the development of 12,000 houses in that area and that the LibDems would stop it if elected. What an appalling caricature of the planning process! It is central Government, via its regional arm, that is imposing this level of development on Swindon. None of us want this - I have campaigned against housing at Coate/Commonhead and am opposed to seeing the villages being swallowed up into a greater Swindon.
Instead of cynically trying to get votes with misleading election letters, why don’t the local LibDems actually do something between elections? The local Libs are always quick to steal a Tory achievement and claim it for their own. This year, the Whitehill Way pedestrian crossing in West Swindon, secured by ward Cllr Pete Greenhalgh who is the Lead Member for Highways, was trumpeted as a LibDem achievement in one of their leaflets. Thankfully, the electorate was not taken in by all of this nonsense. “Working all the year round” is what we actually do, rather than just a convenient campaign slogan as it is for the LibDems.
