There were no real surprises about the results in the six OX3 wards. The LibDems not unexpectedly lost their seat in Headington Hill & Northway to Labour, but given that Labour won there in 2012 with a big majority and with the LibDems in fourth place it was no surprise. The LibDem’s sitting councillor Altaf Khan moved to stand successfully in Headington Ward, taking the seat vacated by David Rundle who had stood down. All the other wards re-elected the sitting candidates.
The media hype surrounding UKIP didn’t play out into any significant achievements for them. Their best performance was in Barton and Sandhills where they came a good second with 19.2% of the vote. They also came second in Churchill with 15.4%, beating the Greens into third place by just 15 votes. In Marston they could only manage fourth with 10.2%.
As I write I haven’t got the individual turnout figures for each ward. In Oxford as a whole turnout was 37%, up from 29% in 2012. The six wards all had higher numbers of votes cast this year than in 2012.
Ward-by-ward:
Barton & Sandhills
UKIP came in and took 19% of the vote, almost all from Labour who lost 16 percentage points. The Green vote was down slightly by about 3 percentage points and the Conservatives were down slightly too. The total vote was up 34% on 2012.
Churchill
It was a similar story in Churchill where UKIP took percentage share off all other parties in achieving a 15.4% share of the vote, but Labour were the big losers with their share down 19 percentage points. The total vote was up 7.5%.
Headington
The LibDems took the seat, with their share slightly down by about 3 percentage points. Labour’s share also dropped by about the same amunt. The Greens were up 3.6 percentage points despite not campaigning, and the Conservatives were up almost 3 percentage points after an active campaign by their new candidate. The overall votes were up an impressive 53%, a tribute to the campaigning efforts of the LibDem team in support of their candidate.
Headington Hill & Northway
Labour (who won in 2012) took the seat with an almost unchanged share of the vote, and the Greens’ share was similarly almost unchanged. The LibDem share fell by 1.3 percentage points: their sitting candidate had moved to stand successfully in Headington Ward. UKIP’s candidate in 2012 was on the ballot paper with no allegiance but had announced he didn’t want to be considered a candidate. He nevertheless polled 1.6% of the vote compared to just under 8% in 2012. The overall vote was up 20%.
Marston
A confusing picture here. In 2012 an Independent won with a 46% share of the vote. This year UKIP fielded a candidate who achieved a 10% share. Conservatives, Greens and LibDems all increased their share of the vote but the big gain was for Labour who took the seat with over 53% of the vote, up from 33% in 2012. In contrast with the other wards, the total votes here only increased by 3%.
Quarry & Risinghurst
With no UKIP candidate this year their 4% share of the 2012 vote was available to the other candidates. Labour held the seat with a share 6 percentage points lower than 2012; the LibDem vote was up slightly (1.4 percentage points), Conservatives increased by 1.1 percentage points but the Green vote went up by a comparatively large 7.3 percentage points. The overall voting numbers were up 26% on 2012.
