The result of yesterday’s Bridgend County Borough Council by-election in the Bridgend Central ward was announced yesterday evening.
Despite the efforts of the Independent and Labour campaigns to get people to vote turnout was, as expected, very poor at around 19% (about two-thirds of what it was in May).
As for the result, it builds upon the progress Independents made in the Bridgend town area back in May. They may consider it to be “natural justice” after Steven Easterbrook finished fourth only to be “denied” a seat by a winning Labour candidate who decided not to take it up. I’m not sure if you can “gain” a seat that was never filled, but that’s semantics.
I don’t think you can read too much into the percentages of the vote etc. due to the low turnout, but it may hint that the efforts of the Independent councillors since they were elected in May haven’t gone unnoticed by some residents.
For Labour, they ought to be disappointed on several levels. There are the circumstances of the by-election itself; Stuart Baldwin should never have run. So that’s a failure of the Labour party machinery to have not picked that up early.
The endorsements from Welsh Government ministers, MSs and MPs (the First Minister even paying a visit right at the end) made it look like the “establishment campaign” that wasn’t as locally focused as the Independents; more a stepping stone to something else like unseating Jamie Wallis.
The result also leaves Labour with an even thinner majority of 1 councillor – though that’s no different to how it was before given the seat was vacant. So it’s limited damage, but it’ll only take a few fallings out, resignations or health issues to turn a majority into a minority with an increasingly effective opposition.
The good news for Labour is that they have nothing to lose next time around – the Independents have to defend what they’ve got – and it points to them continuing to attract enough support to win back the Westminister seat.
Elsewhere, the Conservatives finished a distant third place (as predicted); it’s worth remembering that the old Newcastle ward elected Conservative councillors as recently as 2017, so it’s been a fairly rapid decline. Also of note is the Greens narrowly finishing ahead of the Lib Dems – the Lib Dems having previously held seats in the old Morfa ward.
