FOUR LANES

Cornwall council

Caused by the resignation of UKIP councillor Derek Elliott, who has become disillusioned by how the council is run. He had served since 2013.

Moving to Cornwall for our fourth by-election of the week. The Four Lanes division lies in the hills immediately to the south-west of Redruth: Four Lanes itself is a village on the Redruth-Helston road, over 700 feet above sea level. While Four Lanes is relatively modern, the ward also includes Carn Brea, a Neolithic settlement on a hilltop west of Redruth: to the north of that is the village of Illogan Highway on the old A30 road.The present Cornwall council has been through a dizzying series of boundary changes in its seven-year lifespan. At its inaugural election in 2009 most of this area was in Carn Brea South ward, which returned a Lib Dem in a freak vote split with just 28% of the vote. The Lib Dems didn’t defend the successor division of Four Lanes in 2013, and a similar freak vote split elected UKIP’s Derek Elliott, who also had 28% to 21% for the Tories, 20% for Labour and 17% for the continuing Liberal Party. Going back before Cornwall’s local government reorganisation in 2009 confuses the picture even more: this area was then a Labour stronghold, covered by the Carn Brea division of Cornwall county council and the Illogan South ward of Kerrier district council; despite the different names those units had the same boundaries.Whatever you call this area – Illogan South, Carn Brea, Carn Brea South, Four Lanes – it’s likely to produce another fractured result in this by-election. Defending for UKIP, who have already lost four seats in Cornish by-elections since 2013 and will have just one seat left on the council if this one goes down the Swanee as well, is Dan Hall – and the fact that Hall gives an address fifteen miles away in St Ives doesn’t give much indication that UKIP think they can hold here. The Tory candidate is Peter Sheppard, a Carn Brea parish councillor. The Labour candidate is Peter Williams, who gives an address in Falmouth; since there is already a Tory Peter Williams on Cornwall council a Labour gain here would give endless scope for confusion. The continuing Liberals are not standing this time, so the ballot paper is completed by two more Carn Brea parish councillors – Christopher Lawrence for Mebyon Kernow and independent Bernard Webb – and Nathan Billings for the Lib Dems, who are on a hot streak in Cornwall at the moment with three by-election gains since April.Parliamentary constituency: Camborne and RedruthMay 2013 result UKIP 239 C 173 Lab 169 Lib 143 MK 115

via http://election-data.co.uk/by-election-previews-1-9-16