A review of Council by election results for February

By MiddleEnglander

There were 5 by-elections in February with 1 (20%) changing hands. The results can be summarised by:

Party	Candidates	Defended	Retained	Gained	Lost	Won	retention rate
Conservative	5	2	2			2	100%
Labour	5	2	2	1		3	100%
Liberal Democrat	4
Plaid Cymru	1
UKIP	4	1			1		0%
Green	3
Independent *	2
Resident Group **	1
Total	25	5	4	1	1	5	80%

*   contested 2 seats
** People First in Carmarthenshire

Conservatives retained:
- Cambridgeshire, Bar Hill - single member division - with 31.3% majority over UKIP although Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green were all close behind UKIP
   2013 majority was 23.4% over UKIP whilst majority over Liberal Democrat was 39.6% in 2009 and 9.2% in 2005
   swing UKIP to Conservative 4% since 2013 but 7% Conservative to UKIP since 2009
- Shropshire, Oswestry East - two member "split" ward in 2013 - with 28.9% majority over Labour although Green and Liberal Democrat both close behind
   an Independent topped the poll in 2013, winning Conservative second and sole Labour close third whilst Conservative won both seats in 2009
   swing, if meaningful, Labour to Conservative ~14% since 2013 and ~5% since 2009

Labour retained:
- Carmarthenshire, Hengoed - two member"split" ward in 2012 - with 2.2% majority over Plaid Cymru whilst People First fell way back
   2012 saw Labour top 1 vote ahead of People First (former Plaid Cymru Councillor) with Plaid a further 22 votes behind; Plaid Cymru won both seats in 2008
   very small Plaid Cymru to Labour swing since 2012 but ~11% since 2008
- Derbyshire, Brimington - single member division created in 2013 - with 43.8% majority over UKIP compared to 57.6% over Conservative in 2013
Labour gained:
- Harlow, Mark Hall from UKIP - a three member ward electing annually - with a 16.9% majority and on a ~10% swing since 2014
   Liberal Democrats won seats in 2002, 2006, 2007 & 2008,  Labour in 2004, 2010, 2011 & 2012 whilst UKIP won 2 seats, including casual vacancy, in 2014
   UKIP won the seats in 2014 at its first attempt whilst the Liberal Democrat share fell from 34.6% in 2010 to 3.4% at by-election