Saturday, May 04, 2019

Three defences and two gains in Gateshead

Lib Dem celebration Whickham May 19

We had a number of clearly defined targets in Gateshead for the local elections:

  • hold our three defended seats - Low Fell, Whickham North and Whickham South and Sunniside - and to do so in a way that did not detract from sending resources to wards we aimed to gain;
  • to gain Dunston Hill and Whickham East and Pelaw and Heworth wards from Labour;
  • to develop new territory for future gains.
I'm pleased to report that we held all our defences quite convincingly.

Local election results May 2019-page-1

Local election results May 2019-page-3

Local election results May 2019-page-4

We also easily achieved our targets for gains:

Local election results May 2019-page-0
Local election results May 2019-page-2

Outside the above five seats, we secured the significant increase in our vote (and gained second place) in Lobley Hill and Bensham. Birtley however was complicated by the appearance of a "Liberal" candidate who is a former Councillor for the town. Put the Lib Dem and "Liberal" vote together and it is almost the size of the Labour total. Meanwhile, in Bridges ward, we got a good increase in our vote and 2nd place on the back of a minimal campaign.

We will be considering our targets shortly for next year. Watch this space!

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