Liberal Democrats Made Some Progress Last Week in Council By Elections - But Not a Good Week for Labour

There were six council by elections last week across a variety of councils and locations.

In Hailsham Town Council in East Sussex the Conerservatives made a gain from the Independents - though only just, with the Liberal Democrats only 7 votes behind!

More significantly, on Wells City Council, the Liberal Democrats gained a seat from the Independents with a respectable 43% vote share.

In the Mudeford & Friars Cliff ward on Christchurch Borough Council in Hampshire no Liberal Democrat candidate stood and the Conservatives held the seat.

In almost as different a seat as you could find the Liberal Democrats bravely stood for the first time in Kersal Ward on Salford Metropolitan Borough Council. - only a 2% vote share, but it's a start! More importantly the Conservatives gained the seat from Labour.

Meanwhile on the other side of the country, in Redcar & Cleveland, there were two by-elections. One of these, Hutton, was held by the Conservatives though the Lib Dems increased their vote share by a modest 4%. The other, Newcomen, was a Liberal Democrat hold with 46% of the vote - up 6%. Labour and UKIP were both down and there were twoIndependents who traded votes between themselves, one going up and the other down.

So at the end of all that the Conservatives made 2 gains and the Liberal Democrats made 1 - with more grief for both Labour and UKIP.