The candidates lining up to contest a council by-election in Portslade next month have been announced.
The election for a new councillor for the South Portslade ward will be held on Thursday, 11 January 2024.
It has been called to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Councillor Les Hamilton.
The candidates for the South Portslade by-election have now been confirmed:
- Danny John Booth – Green Party
- Benjamin James Franks – Conservative Party
- Jamie Rutherford Gillespie – Independent
- Josh Guilmant – Labour Party
- David Timothy Maples – Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
- Georgia Arabella McKinley Fitch – Democratic Liberation Party
- Kenneth Lloyd Rist – Liberal Democrats
For more information, please go to the elections pages on the council’s website.
If you live in South Portslade and would like to vote in the upcoming by-election, you must be registered to vote. If you’re not yet registered, you can do so until midnight on Thursday 21 December 2023 by visiting gov.uk/register-to-vote.
If you won’t be able to get to the polling station on the day, you can apply for a postal or proxy vote. You must apply for a postal vote by 5pm on Friday, 22 December at the latest.
You can also ask someone you trust to vote on your behalf. This is known as a proxy vote. You must apply for a proxy vote by 5pm on Wednesday 3 January or change existing proxy arrangements by 5pm on Friday 22 December.
The government brought in new legislation which requires voters to show photo identification when voting at polling stations in elections from May 2023.
This means that you must bring photo ID with you to vote in the upcoming by-election.
For more information, and to see which forms of photo ID are accepted, please visit the council’s voter ID webpage.
If you don’t have a valid form of photo ID, you can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate (VAC). The deadline for the council to receive your VAC application for use at the South Portslade by-election is 5pm on Wednesday 3 January. The council is encouraging voters to apply sooner in case they need to check any details with you.
Apply for a Voter Authority Certificate online or email electors@brighton-hove.gov.uk to be sent a paper application form.
Labour should have waited until after the by-election to declare they were closing South Portslade schools down.
Not much brighter than the Greens and no less toxic to this city.
The running theory is that the previous Councillor resigned in protest to the South Portslade schools closing down. This isn’t a question of timing, it’s a consequence.
Actually Benjamin that is simply not true in regards to Les and is a deliberate rumour propogatted by the Green Party. Those that know Les know why he resigned.
Fair enough, like I said, it’s the prevailing rumour that’s been going around. Les was a good Councillor from what I’ve heard, well-liked!
Don’t vote Labour!! They pushed through the St Peter’s closure proposal without looking at other options (despite what a certain editorial published today). They excluded the nursery from its numbers, they excluded all students from West Sussex (just under half of our school is from here as we’re just by the border), and they are breaking government policy in a number of areas. Please send a message as a community to say we are not happy about this. Don’t vote Labour – Greens, Liberal Democrats, and independent candidates have said they would fight for our community. Let’s voice our disapproval in this half-baked proposal.
It is important to note that you can vote via postal vote, without needing ID.
*** PSA ( JOKE ONE NOT TO BE MISTAKEN AS COMING FROM OR IN ANYWAY REFLECTING THE VIEWS OF THE LABOUR PARTY. JUST SO I CAN’T BE ACCUSED OF ELECTION INTERFACE OR BE USED AS AN EXCUSE BY SAID PARTY SHOULD THEY LOSE THAT THERE SHOULD BE A RE-RUN – Ironic due to what comes next 😁 ) In line with current labour party policy they would like to remind all candidates that they are running for the constituency of “Dunnie-on-the-Wold”, possibly “Sector 9”, potentially “Charlottenburg Central”, outside chance of your seats and the place voters are casting their ballots for is “Yonkers” but fairly certain it’s not “Townsville, NSW”. Whatever one, and/or other place(s) totally rest assured that Labour are aiming to maybe have one, some, all or none listed on your voting cards and candidate documentation. Though please bare in-mind it’s also ( factually and as confirmed, documented event) possible we’ll use some “questionably sourced” postage payment so please be ready to take time out your day to go collect our stuff and remember your purse so you can pay for our mistake ( which we’d ask you to ignore and not view as a factor or indication of any other mistakes we may make)
This has been a NON POLITICAL post highlighting, imho, ludicrous incompetence and baffling lack of professionalism or oversight of arguably relatively simple tasks. I didn’t make them so I’m to blame. If you’ve taken offence in any way to your parties failures then I assure you that’s your problem not mine or anyone else’s and I don’t have any obligation to care in the slightest.
I’m here all week and hell if you’re a taxpaying local voter ( please note: Leicestershire is NOT within city boundaries) and wanna give me a few bangers for any of the other lot that I can check then so long as like me you’re NOT a member, registered supporter, employee, agent or in any other way linked to any party which may deem your actions as a conflict of interest, overt or covert attempt to discredit another party or candidate/ create a favourable view of the party you have links to then I’ll knock up a ‘Sh*tpost’/ ‘Roast’ of them if I can be bothered.
Oh also. No idea who the labour candidate is in this election. Might ( and likely is) a lovely chap/ess. Might be a nightmare. Not my area so I’ve had no reason to find out and none of this was directed at them so let’s not have any running to teacher eh. You’re literally irrelevant to me. but be of mind that should you want to make a false claim or silence a joke about NOT you then tbh I’d probably make an issue of that. Toodles
Whilst I fully sympathise and support the protest at closing St.Peter’s school, simply casting your vote on that premise alone is why we get so much what I call “ping pong” politics and why we never actually get a properly run council because the vote is focused on just one thing. Yes I understand the logic of a protest vote, but we need to look forward on what decisions are going to be made, rather than the ones which have already been made and which are very unlikely to be changed. The Labour party won a majority on the council mostly by voting as a backlash to the complete mash up made by the Green party.. and when the Labour party have had their go at a virtually impossible task of making the money they receive go round, we will be voting them out in favour of someone else who says they can do it better, when in fact they won’t. We need to take politics out of the council altogether and have Councillors who are interested in the communities they live in not just the party they represent. Les Hamilton was just such a person and he will be sorely missed. I will be voting for a Councillor who is actively interested in Portslade south, not as a vehicle to further their career.
You say what councillors should be, but do not suggest whether you yourself would take on the task – you assume that others would do so for you.
Quite. We need more intelligent citizens to put themselves forwards or we will never have a good council.
It’s interesting that you say taking the politics out of council. From my experience of the Councillors, much of their political alignments really don’t matter to them when it comes to fulfilling the job, it appears to be more that the public care.
Election season spices things up a little bit more, but for the most part they all get on well with each other, and when there is a distaste, it’s usually for their personalities, rather than their political colours.
That’s what I’ve witnessed at least, maybe your experience has been different!
Considering Labour parachuted in Councillor Candidates all the way from Leicester to make up the numbers in the last local election, I’d guess that ;political alignment; means everything to Labour to the point of committing electoral fraud and those Councillors now have crime numbers next to their names, yet still seem to be allowed to hang onto their seats to rot the other Red apples around them. This by-election is only the beginning. Perhaps we should ‘spice’ things up a bit by giving our Council Leader and her Deputy a boxing ring to decide the outcome of their own personality differences. Queensbury rules, or shall it be gloves off?
Reckon Bella is a bit of a scraper, don’t you?