
On Thursday 6th February the voters of the Fairfax East ward of Bridgwater Town Council (Bower Manor) will be going to the polls to elect a new Town Councillor. The By-Election follows the resignation of Independent Councillor Richard Morgan and will be a 3-party fight with Labour, Conservative and LibDem each trying to get a seat on the Labour Town Council. The 2 member ward was won by Labour in 2022 but the death of long serving Labour candidate Alex Glassford led to a by-election in December 2023 which was won by just 20 votes by Tory Diogo Rodrigues on a very low 11% turnout. All eyes are now on the final week of this latest popularity poll and Labour’s candidate David Solomon.

Labour Candidates 4 point programme
Labour’s candidate David Solomon is a Bridgwater man who has lived and worked in the town all his life and is currently a lecturer at Bridgwater & Taunton college in East Bridgwater. David has a simple 4 point programme that he’s standing on
- Stop the sell off of assets where the money goes to Somerset Council.
- Continue to improve the standard of street cleaning.
- Maintain the green spaces and parks for Bridgwater people and wildlife.
- Campaign for Somerset Council to reduce the Council Tax burden on public services they do not provide for Bridgwater.
David has already contacted postal voters who have been able to vote for over a week and is currently out with the Labour team delivering follow up leaflets and knocking on doors.
Opposition Sows Confusion

The Tories and LibDems are the opposition in Fairfax East and to say they’re doing their best to confuse the electorate is an understatement.
The Conservatives, who lost Somerset County Council in 2022 after running down the budget and creating the current financial crisis, bringing in the failing Unitary Council, which they’re trying to blame others for, saw their stronghold Sedgemoor District Council abolished in their own local government reforms and then saw themsevles chucked out of Government nationally. Teetering on the precipice in the national polls as they fight for the far right vote with the Reform party, they have resorted to conning people that they’re innocent by-standers. Ashley Fox, the last surviving Tory MP in Somerset has been campaigning against the Celebration Mile project-which was a Tory idea, funded by his own Government, devised by Tory Sedgemoor and now in the hands of the County Lib Dems. Absolutely nothing to do with Town Council. Local Tory Leader Diogo Rodrigues has been scaremongering with online petitions, opinion polls and paid advertising to try to point the finger at the Town Council for a council tax increase which in fact protects jobs, services and assets and will be swamped shortly by the Lib Dem increase at county…brought about totally by the failed outgoing Tory County adminstration. Their candidate is Chedzoy woman Carol Edmunds.

The Lib Dems have adopted cheese merchant Pele Barnes as their candidate. The Lib Dem policy is clear – they run the County Council, are facing bankruptcy and trying to stop the unitary council collapsing by making cuts, selling assets and sacking workers. Pele’s own programme is difficult to follow at best. Standing 4 times for the Tories and then twice as an Independent ‘against party politics’ it seems he’s now decided to join a party (again). This time the Libdems. He seems to be mainly campaigning against the celebration mile (which doesn’t run through Fairfax East)- but that won’t make too much sense to voters as it was brought in by the Tories when he was a member and now run by the Lib Dems, of whom he is currently, presumably, a member. Either way he says he’s running ‘against’ the Town Council. Sadly, he’s actually running ‘for’ the town council.
Polling station for the Fairfax East Ward will be at Sydenham Community Centre and open from 7am until 10pm on Thursday February 6th.
You can write to David Solomon at somersetlabour@gmail.com