By-election victory
While I was in Budapest, the Oxford Labour party were working hard to retain the Hinksey Park (south-central Oxford) seat vacated by Rick Muir, who’s had to resign after starting a new job in London.
Turnout was 33.5 per cent and the results are as follows:
* Oscar van Nooijen (Labour): 676 votes
* Lilian Sherwood (Green): 436
* Nathan Pyle (Lib Dem): 217
* Carolyn Ten Holter (Conservative): 155
All-round a great result, and I was only sad not to be there to see it! I’ve known Oscar van Nooijen (his surname is pronounced something like noy-en) for years, and he’ll be a great councillor, as well as making another contribution to keeping the average age of the council down. I learned at the conference in Budapest that the average age of a councillor is 58; in Oxford, with ten or so councillors under 35, including Oscar at 24, I reckon we’re ahead of the pack. It does feel odd to be blogging about a by-election victory and not be gingerly rubbing my poor feet, as I was after Jericho and Osney and Northfield Brook.
The Oxford Mail, of course, are only interested in one angle - that Labour have now become the largest party on Oxford City Council, though it’s still in no overall control. The scores on the doors are:
* Labour - 18 councillors
* Liberal Democrat - 17 councillors
* Green - 8 councillors
* Independent Working Class Association - 4 councillors
* Independent - 1 councillor
And no, having been back for 18 hours, of which 13 were asleep, I don’t know what the Labour group are going to do.
Nice one.
Good to see some younger councillors. When I was on our council I was still referred to as “young Andrew” even though I was 40. At the time I was the 2nd-youngest in the Labour group.
Oxford has to be near the top of the ‘youngest average councillor age’ league table, UK-wide. We’ve got three councillors under 25, let alone under 30…
Matt
Well the average age of the three councillors in my ward of Pollards Hill in LB Merton is under 30(we also 3/4 youngest Labour councillors!)I know it is even lower in Antonia’s ward but we believe we have one of the youngest average for the Labour part for a three member ward.
The average age in London Borough, Mets and Unitaries is much younger then in the shires and counties were the average age is 60+ and anyone under 40 is considered young.
Oscar Van Nooijen was our assistant history teacher for 3/4 of a year and i found being in his company great! We had a lot of fun! Good for him!