Election postponed after candidate dies

Julian Whittle | Wednesday, 23 April 2008 Source: News and Star

THE Carlisle city council election in Upperby ward has been postponed following the death of a candidate.

Les Griffiths, who was standing for the British National Party, died in hospital on Saturday.

Upperby will now not be contested when local elections take place in 16 wards across the city on May 1.

Instead, nominations will re-open and there will be a separate poll on June 12.

The delay is a setback to Labour’s hopes of taking control of the city council for the first time since 1999.

Labour was expected to win the seat, which will now be vacant when the council meets on May 19 to elect a new council leader and mayor.

Mr Griffiths, 58, was licensee of the London Tavern in Alexander Street, off London Road. He was also a former landlord of Corby Bridge Inn and ran the Stars and Stripes club on Botchergate.

His funeral is at Carlisle Crematorium on Friday.

The city council is now writing to all 4,097 electors in Upperby telling them about the postponement.

It says polling cards and postal votes issued for the May 1 poll should be destroyed.

New paperwork will be issued for June 12.

The notice of election is due to be published on May 7. Nominations close a week later.

Mr Griffiths’ death is the second to hit the BNP in Cumbria in a month. Nigel Williamson, a BNP parish councillor at Broughton Moor, near Cockermouth, died from a heart attack in March.