Oxford West & Abingdon Election Results 2014

We had successful local elections for Oxford West and Abingdon. I know, I know. All you hear in the news is how washed up the Lib Dems are, and how UKIP are stealing the show.  It’s true we lost all our MEP’s except for Catherine Bearder, but she is from OxWAb. We got the vote out to save her job. UKIP didn’t win any council seats here. (They say they ‘don’t do well in university towns.’)

We are working hard locally to elect Layla Moran as our MP, and it will be a very close contest between us and the Tories. Part of that effort is in local elections this year, and in the campaign for the local elections next May. That’s when I stand for re-election too, so you may be hearing more from me.

We targeted six wards in 2014. We won in four of them. In Cherwell District Council, we held Kidlington North, and lost Kidlington South. In Oxford City, we held St. Margaret’s, Wolvercote, and two seats in Summertown. We failed to re-gain Oxford North (we lost it last year in a by-election). There were no elections in the Vale of White Horse.

In every ward we improved our position compared to the last time the ward was up and we were well ahead in the aggregate vote.

 2014 LD Con Lab Grn UKIP  
J&O 241 221 1313 399
North 657 318 723 379
St Margs 610 409 492 305
Summ 1100 441 413 344
Wolv 971 677 250 275
Kid N 584 495 206 136 281
Kid S 596 930 453 138 520
Total 4759 3491 3850 1976 801 14877
  31.99% 23.47% 25.88% 13.28% 5.38%
 
 2012/11 LD Con Lab Grn UKIP  
J&O 149 214 835 337
North 353 291 516 385
St Margs 474 353 198 350
Summ 753 379 246 418
Wolv 655 584 200 495
Kid N 771 757 295 221
Kid S (’11) 396 1122 494 114
Total 3551 3700 2784 2320 0 12355
  28.74% 29.95% 22.53% 18.78% 0.00%

 

In the European counts, Oxford delivered the third highest number of votes for the Lib Dems and the Vale the eighth highest, and the highest of any council without local elections. Catherine sent a special thank you as she saw our numbers come through.

We are proud of our success, especially in the face of national trends. If you can help us, please let me know. We can use you! I’d very much like to send Layla Moran to Westminster, and I’d like to keep my job as well.

🙂

 

Individual electoral registration

From June 10th, the way we register to vote is changing.

Instead of using a household form to register everyone at your address, everyone will take individual responsibility for their own registration. IER: Individual Electoral Registration.

All currently registered electors will have their name and address checked against government records so that they can be confirmed under IER. The vast majority will be confimred and automatically transferred. In the Vale’s test run this was almost 80%. Those people need do nothing.

Every registered elector will get a letter. It will either tell you that your details have been transferred successfully and you need do nothing, or that you need to provide some additional information to the Electoral Register Officer.

If you are successfully transferred, your postal or proxy vote status will be transferred with you.

Look out for your letter in July.

 

 

 

 

 

 

North Hinksey Parish Council By-election 24 Apr 14

North Hinksey Parish Council is holding a by-election to fill 3 vacancies.

The deadline for nominations is noon Weds 26 March. If there are more than 3 nominations, an election will be held on 24 Apr 14.

You can see all the rules on the PC website, here: http://bit.ly/Q3IqL3

May I draw your attention to how to apply for a new postal vote, on that page. (If you are already registered for a postal vote, there’s no noeed to do anything else.)

In my opinion, what we’ve learned over the past 3 years is that the most important quality in a local councillor is how well they represent the community’s views. When you are elected to represent the community, your personal view doesn’t matter any more than anyone else’s view. You are elected to represent the view of the community and work for what the community wants. The trick is in being able to find out from the community what they think about issues, and then taking appropriate action.

I think this is a great chance to move forward into a parish council that works hard in support of community aspirations.