Cambridge City Council - By-election Victory!

The result in yesterday's by-election in Queen Edith's (Cambridge) was:

Lib Dem 933 36.5% (+1.2)
Labour 790 30.9% (-8.8)
Conservative 614 24.0% (+5.2)
Green 222 8.7% (+2.4)

This is the one ward in Cambridge City which is not in the constituency of Cambridge but in South Cambs, Andrew Lansley's constituency. It became a national target for Labour in 2012 - with a "tell Lansley what we think of his reforms of the NHS" campaign which overwhelmed the steady ward work of a good, long-standing councillor.

The Labour councillor for Queen Edith ward resigned unexpectedly a month ago - unexpected to Labour as well as us. Officially this was for "personal reasons" but statements had been made about Labour not caring about the ward since it wasn't in the constituency.

Fortunately a good candidate stepped forward for the Lib Dems, Viki Sanders.

Viki, a sister in the fracture clinic at Addenbrooke's, served a four-year term on the city council between 2007 and 2011, deciding afterwards to support her daughter who was taking GCSEs at the time.

She said: "I am ready to give back to the community as a councillor once again.

"My interests are the arts and the issues that are important to our residents, including facilities for children, teenagers and young adults, older residents, parking, schools, traffic, roads and care of older people."

A full campaign has resulted in a satisfactory result - and we have gained another good councillor in Queen Edith's.