Local election review: Plymouth

Labour needs to win four seats to win control of Plymouth City Council from the Conservatives, and is targeting the wards of Moor View, Southway, St Budeaux and Stoke for their gains. All four seats fell to the Conservatives in the electoral Annus Horribilis of 2008 when the Conservatives won 14 of the 18 seats up for election in the city that year. Labour comfortably won contests in all four wards last year (in St Budeaux by over 1000 votes) and should complete a clean sweep again next month. The Conservative Party’s task has been made all the harder by the defection to UKIP of its councillor in Southway, who is standing again. Labour will also be hopeful that it will prevail in St Peter and the Waterfront, a Conservative seat it won in a by election last year.

Achieving these four gains would only give Labour a slender one seat majority so the party will be looking to extend its majority with an extra gain or two elsewhere in the city; it is worth watching the result in Budshead where a Conservative majority of over 700 in 2008 was whittled down to just a little over 100 last year.

While the two Plymstock seats are not targets for Labour this time around, their results will be eagerly anticipated by those with an eye on the newly drawn Plymouth Sutton constituency, as the wards form part of the new boundary. Large parts were Labour until the 2010 general election.

This is an electoral contest that is essentially a two-way fight between Labour and the Conservatives, although UKIP are contesting every ward. The Liberal Democrats are a weak force locally and are only contesting 10 seats. They have no councillors on the council.

Labour is fielding a strong team in 2012 but it is worth highlighting one candidate in particular: Kate Taylor will become Labour – and the city’s – youngest ever councillor if she wins in Devonport, where she is favoured to retain the seat for Labour.

The Conservative campaign is being hampered by the council’s unpopular sale of CityBus, the former publicly-owned bus company in Plymouth, and their support for the plans to build a massive incinerator near homes in Devonport. Labour is running a strong and highly professional campaign in Plymouth and doing everything that is to be expected of a party serious about retaking control of the council. The launch of an impressive manifesto is one sign of this, as is the regular phone canvassing sessions held in London that allow activist there to support this important South West target. That works looks like being rewarded come 3rd May.