A by-election was held yesterday for the vacant Aberkenfig seat on Bridgend County Borough Council. Here’s the result:
By my count turnout was around 22-23%, which is very low but not unusual for a local by-election (edit: I’ve been reliably informed that turnout was actually 27%).
It’s a good result for Labour, regardless. It’s the first time they’ve won the Aberkenfig seat despite some close calls in the past. Given some of the negative stories which have come out of BCBC in the last several years, they’ll take this as a timely endorsement ahead of the next UK General Election.
This was probably the best opportunity the Independents have had in a while to win Aberkenfig. There wasn’t much in it in the end and I’m sure Luke Richards will be back to run in the county council elections in the future.
There might be some disappointment that they couldn’t capitalise as they were quick off the mark to put a candidate forward and the seat has been a tough nut to crack for Independent candidates in the last few election cycles.
You could argue that it’s a poor showing by Plaid Cymru not to defend the seat. Given that the record of the previous two Plaid councillors has been less than stellar for different reasons, they’re going to struggle to win the seat back.
That might be explained by Plaid being part of the second-largest Independent-led opposition group (Democratic Alliance). So it would make sense for the opposition groups to not put up candidates against each other.
The by-election has resulted in a minor change to the political composition of BCBC, with Labour extending their majority slightly:
