It’s Officially a Four-horse Race For the Lovelace By-election

Published on: 1 Sep, 2014
Updated on: 2 Sep, 2014

The finalised nomination list for the Lovelace by-election was published this morning (September 1) by Guildford Borough Council (GBC). As expected there are four candidates, one each for the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP parties.

The Guildford Greenbelt Group (GGG) were unable to field their own candidate as the party has not yet completed the necessary registration with the Electoral Commissioner. The by-election is to be held on Thursday, September 25th.

Instead the campaign group have endorsed both the Conservative and the Lib Dem candidates, both GGG members, who are opposing the level of house building proposed in the Draft Local Plan, in particular the idea of building a completely new settlement on the old Wisley airfield site.

Official nominations notice issued by Guildford Borough Council this morning.

Robin Woof , the Labour candidate, also stood in 2011 when he came second behind the runaway Conservative winner, the late John Garrett, pushing the Lib Dems into third place.

However, reports received indicate that Colin Cross and his Lib Dem colleagues are pleased with the response they are getting in their doorstep canvassing and are hoping for a much better result this time.

It is the first time UKIP have contested the council seat and observers will be watching to see if their success at the European elections will be reflected in support given to David Sheppard in a local election where local issues are likely to be unusually prominent.

The Mole Valley Conservative Association’s controversial selection, of Ben Paton as the Conservative candidate will have interesting consequences at Millmead if he is successful. He has been a vociferous critic of the Tory led borough council and it is hard to see how he could smoothly fit in to the Conservative Group.

The Guildford Dragon NEWS has already interviewed three of the four candidates: Colin Cross (Lib Dem), Ben Paton (Conservative), David Sheppard (UKIP) and Robin Woof (Labour).