When the nominations were declared today, Friday, there was a glaring absence of a Liberal Democrat.


Standing for election in the Middle Rasen Ward - covering West Rasen, Osgodby and Usselby too - on Thursday October 9 are Geoff Wiseman for the Conservatives and UKIP's Steve Pearson only.


It was expected that Carol Skye would have been put forward by the Liberal Democrats by their election agent David Cotton said there was a 'shortage of time' to get her nomination in by noon today, even though it had been known since late June that an election was looming as soon as Coun Fenwick resigned.


Coun Cotton said he had no doubt that West Lindsey elections officer Graham Spicksley had done everything by the rules, but the party expected a longer period of time in which to get the papers processed.


"It's usually longer and we thought we were in time, but we weren't. We were surprised ourselves at the shortage of time as we thought nominations closed next week.


"I'm still a bit shell-shocked myself to be honest," said Coun Cotton this afternoon.



After it became clear that there were only two candidates, Deputy Conservative Leader at West Lindsey, Adam Duguid send this statement :




The local Conservative Chairman, Adam Duguid, who is also a Market Rasen representative on West Lindsey Council, has attacked the Liberal Democrats & Labour parties for ignoring residents of West Lindsey in general and Middle Rasen ward in particular.


The LibDem councillor for the Ward, Gary Fenwick, resigned earlier this month and nominations for the by-election scheduled for 9th October closed at midday today. The only candidates are Conservative Geoff Wiseman & UKIP's Steve Pearson.


Councillor Duguid said "I'm amazed that neither the LibDems or Labour have found a candidate. It's staggering; Labour didn't contest any seat in this year's May elections - they have completely ignored West Lindsey. I suppose it's no surprise that they were unable to find a candidate considering the state they're in but for the LibDems who caused the election not to contest it shows how ineffective they have become. Either they are so incompetent that they have missed the deadline or the candidate, and its been an open secret for weeks who it was going to be, has realised that their Group on West Lindsey are so ineffective that she had last minute doubts."


Now we have an election between the Conservatives who have detailed policies to tackle the challenges facing the area and a single issue UKIP candidate; what is UKIP's policy on waste collection, housing, economic development in the area? They have none but they are contesting an election that will cost the taxpayer thousands. UKIP are at fault but the real villains in this story are the LibDems."




* What do you think? Is Coun Duguid right or is it just bad luck for the Liberals?

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