July 24, 2008 - By Martin Wingfield

THE British National Party is involved in just one local council by-election today and that is for a seat in the Coastal ward of Boston District Council.

The election was caused by the resignation of councillor Neil McGregor from the Boston Bypass Independents (BBI) who was allegedly caught drinking and driving which was rather embarrassing for the local transport-orientated pressure group.

The candidates standing are:
Boston District Council
Coastal Ward
Thursday 24th July 2008
David Durrant (BBI)
Pam Imlah (Lab)
David Owens (BNP)
Felicty Ransome (UKIP)
Raymond McGuire (Con)
Ossy Snell (Lib-Dem)
May 2007: BBI 681, 515, Con 557, Ind 354, UKIP 123.

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The local BNP election team, helped by activists from Leicester and Charnwood, have worked hard to raise the profile of British National Party candidate David Owens. A recent day of action saw the team deliver the election address in the villages of Leverton, Benington, Butterwick and Freiston.

One activist told the BNP’s Regional Website:
“We have had nothing but positive responses to our leafletting and many times there were words of support such as ‘it’s about time something was done to sort the country out’ and ‘we’ve already voted for you by post and so have our neighbours,’ from those people we met. It’s been a good team effort all round.”

East Midlands Election Officer Wayne McDermott, provides a bit more background to the contest.
“We have only contested one seat in Boston before coming last behind UKIP (which doesn’t happen very often) with 11.5% in a multi-seat ward. This time we have the Liberal Democrats and Labour entering into the fray which will make matters even more interesting. 
“Our main target is to beat UKIP, which polled 7.2% last time around coming last of the five candidates contesting the seat. It would also be nice to top 10% of the vote as well, which will be no mean achievement in this quite rural made ward up in the main of four villages.

“We are not quite sure what to expect but again the BNP is popping up and contesting seats where our opponents wouldn’t expect us too. We are building up an impressive list of candidates in the region as we warm up for the big election push next year.”

A brief profile of David Owens and his pledges to the voters can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/5gl9z5 – He also answers voters questions.