I’ll be taking a look today at some very impressive scores for the party over the past couple of weeks but first of all I want to congratulate our two newest councillors. Joan Phillips was co opted onto Middleton On Sea Parish Council in West Sussex last week and this week Ramsay Urquhart was elected to Anderston Community Council in Glasgow (I’ve been unable to find the full details of that election) so congratulations to the newest members of our ever growing ranks of councillors. You’ll all be pleased to note that makes 18 council seats gained by UKIP since June 1st.

On October 22nd in Forest of Dean’s Eriswell and The Rows, our candidate David Chandler achieved nearly 15% of the vote

Forest Heath
Con 400 45.77%
Lib Dem 346 39.59%
UKIP 128 14.65%

While the actual number of votes is down somewhat from last time, that was to be expected somewhat given that the Lib Dems, who had not contested the seat in 2007, fielded a candidate and a certain degree of polarisation seems to have occurred between them and the Conservatives.

In the Jubilee Ward of Wyre Borough Council meanwhile, Roy Hopwood achieved a strong second place, less than 150 votes behind the victorious Conservatives who held the seat. The presence of the BNP seems regrettably to have taken some votes away from us, as I and others had thought this seat winnable, but with what remains a solid result I think we could still take it come 2011 when it will next be up.

Con 492 (38.3%)
UKIP 345 (26.8%)
Lab 331 (25.8%)
BNP 116 (9%)

Meanwhile in Birmingham’s Sutton New Hall Ward, Maddy Westrop scored 314 votes, beating the Liberal Democrats to third place, showing that our positive  message of sovereignty and freedom can resonate in the big cities too!

Con 1633 58.3%
Lab 505   18%
UKIP 344    12.3%
Lib Dem 319   11.4%

Last week on the 29th, Peter Ashcroft made the most of July’s victory in the Ramsey Ward to drastically increase our vote in Huntingdonshire DC’s Huntingdon North Ward. Our vote share increased over 14%, far more than any other party standing.

Lib Dem  243 32.6% (+2.7%)
Con  213 28.% (-18.7%)
UKIP 167 22.3% (+14.1%)
Labour 123 16.4% (+1.8%)

Local UKIP councillor Peter Reeve remarked on the result in a press release “This result is typical of what is happening to UKIP right across the country. Voters are now deciding to back UKIP in huge numbers because of our common sense policies and our passion for listening to and representing the man in the street.” That certainly does seem to be the case with the strong results we have seen coming in week after week.

Lastly for today, John Youles, standing in the South East Ward for Norfolk’s Hellesdon Parish Council in Broadland, Norfolk scored over 20% of the vote.

Conservative 287 46.2%
Lib Dem 198 31.8%
UKIP 136 21.9%

As we can see from those numbers, the increase required to take the seat next time its up would be quite small, so this is a really positive result for us in Norfolk.

This week we are unfortunately not contesting any seats, in spite of a contest taking place in Epping Forest. The voters will instead get the “choice” of Conservative or Liberal Democrat. So I’ll be back with next week’s races in a few days time.