Students face another bout of electioneering after Lib Dem councillor for Holywell ward, Richard Huzzey, stood down just days after the local elections.
Coming to the end of his History doctorate at St Catz, Mr Huzzey has been offered a post-doctoral research fellowship at Yale University, Connecticut, an offer he described as “too good to miss”.
Mr Huzzey was elected in 2006, and was not up for re-election in 2008 as Oxford City Council is elected in halves, with one of the two seats for each ward elected every two years.
Mr Huzzey said: “It’s been fantastic to work with Holywell residents over the past two years, and I’d have liked to continue for the rest of my four-year term. Yet an academic job at Yale is just too good to miss.”
Lib Dem hopes
The Lib Dems will be keen for success in the by-election, after losing ground to Labour in the elections earlier this month.
The by-election will be held on 12 June, which is likely to benefit the Lib Dems as many students will still be eligible to vote.
In the local elections recently held, the Lib Dems performed well in the two main student wards, Carfax and Holywell, but fared poorly elsewhere.
Lib Dem candidate Nathan Pyle won his Holywell ward seat with more than twice the votes of the second place Conservative candidate, Alex Stafford.
Candidates
By-election candidates have been announced, with several faces returning from the previous local elections.
Two losing candidates from the Carfax election, Sarah Hutchinson for Labour, and Paul Sargent for the Conservatives, are hoping for better luck in Holywell.
Paul Sargent defected to the Conservatives from the Lib Dems during his term, and subsequently lost his council seat to Lib Dem Stephen Brown at the start of this month.
Green candidate Chip Sherwood is also having a second attempt, having come third in the race for the other Holywell seat earlier this month.
The Lib Dems are fielding a fresh face, in the form of Mark Mills, a student at Teddy Hall. Mr Huzzey described his potential successor as “a hard-working and committed campaigner.”
Check back to Cherwell on 12 June for the results as they are announced.
