22 Dec 2023
The indications on the doorsteps were reassuringly positive, but did anybody really expect the Harpenden Rural by-election to see one of the biggest swings ever recorded at County Hall?
The resignation of Annie Brewster as county councillor earlier this year opened up her former ward for a fight between Liberal Democrat Allison Wren, Claudio Duran from the Conservative Party, Labour’s Symon Vegro and Mario May from the Greens.
In 2021, Annie held the seat with 2,833 votes (57 per cent, a slight drop of 5 per cent on her 2017 performance). A comfortable hold though, with Lib Dem Sharon Hollingsworth well behind with just 868 votes.
The story in 2023 was a very different one.
Allison’s final tally was 1,474 votes, compared to Claudio’s second place score of 766. A 30 per cent swing towards the Lib Dems, and perhaps a sign of things to come in next year’s General Election?
As the dust starts to settle, we caught up with Allison to pick over the bones of her bloody victory…
“I was, to be absolutely honest with you, not surprised,” she revealed. “My colleagues, of course, and friends were saying, ‘don’t you dare say that, Allison’. I understand, we all touch wood, but I have to say to you, I can admit now, as I was admitting to myself, that I absolutely knew. Partly because I personally had almost 3,000 conversations with people.
“As a group, and I want to stress, this isn’t just a solo thing, this is a group thing, Liberal Democrats worked hard for the vote.
“And as a group we had almost 10,000 conversations during the three months up to the by-election, which is a phenomenal number and if you bother to do that then people will talk to you.
“When you talk to people and you show your friendly listening face and you are someone who is not complacent and does not take them for granted you get their vote in return.
“People were saying to me, ‘you’ve persuaded me to vote for you. Number one, you bothered on a very cold and wet and rainy day to knock on my door. And two, I can see that you, dare I say, are an honest person, someone who means what she says’.
“This does not mean that other people who knock on their doors are not friendly or do not tell the truth. What I am saying though is that my way of contacting my residents is to knock on their doors, and by doing that thousands of times and by having friendly, smiley conversations, yes I knew that they would vote for me. Why would you vote for a photo, and forgive me, the opposition relied on that.
“People said to me, ‘you’re the first person who’s ever locked on my door in the 15 or 20 years I’ve lived in this house’.
“So that’s the first thing, it’s making those face-to-face relationships. The second thing is that you can show them that you’ve done your homework, that you know some of the things that affect the rural community.”
She said one of the key issues that residents were highlighting in the rural areas was the vast number of pathways, footpaths and rights-of-way that are now absolutely non-negotiable, due to the neglect of the countryside over many years.
Another was public transport: “All the bus routes serving the rural areas are closing, and I had people saying ‘I am now trapped in my house because the 366 bus I could catch into Hemel no longer runs, I can’t walk and I have no car’.”
Finally, there was the unsafe state of the roads, particular those between the villages and their neighbouring towns, particularly the A5183 and the B651, roads which have an average of one fatality each year.
So how can she improve the situation? “Number one, I need to make a productive, friendly and efficient relationship with my highways officer so we can work together on the state of the roads in my division and get them placed into the work programme in a timely manner. But don’t forget, I shall be competing with 77 other county councillors, so yes, yes, it’s a challenge.
“Number two, listen to and respond to my residents when they complain about flooding or a pothole and make sure that I go and look at it. It’s very simple, it’s called hard work. This is a job which you only want to do if you have the physical and mental fortitude. I want to put my arms around the villages to give them a voice, which I think has been somewhat unheard over the years.”
