Previewing the Instow, North Devon by-election of 9th January 2025
"All the right votes, but not necessarily in the right order"
One by-election on 9th January 2025:
Instow
North Devon council; caused by the resignation of Conservative councillor Lucinda Renshaw.
Welcome to the sixteenth year of Andrew's Previews, the (normally) weekly column which looks at British politics from an unusual angle. Nearly every week, voters go to the polls up and down the country to fill some vacancies in our local councils, and the purpose of this column is to put those polls into context. Here you will find a description of the area up for election, reasons why you might (or might not) want to visit, and a discussion of the local strength of the parties and the candidates they have nominated. I'll leave you to make your own judgment as to how the rise and fall of the national political tide might interact with the eddies, currents and whirlpools of local politics.
The rise and fall of the tide has traditionally been a major factor for the residents of Instow, which is a fishing village on the north coast of Devon. Its beach is a magnet for tourists in days of better weather than we have at the moment, while when the tide is high enough a ferry connects Instow with Appledore on the other side of the Torridge estuary. This beach was used during the Second World War for training the troops who would go on to make the D-Day landings, and the Royal Marines still have a small camp here. Instow is also associated with the former Test cricket umpire David Shepherd, whose family ran the village post office for many years.
Instow gives its name to a ward of North Devon council which essentially covers the countryside between Barnstaple and Bideford along the A39 Atlantic Highway. The ward runs east to the River Taw, and its largest single polling station is at Tawstock - a parish which covers a number of scattered villages to the south of Barnstaple. This was the home of the Earls of Bath in the 16th and 17th centuries, and they and other lords of the Manor of Tawstock are commemorated in the village's 14th-century parish church; the Baths' old country house of Tawstock Court was rebuilt in the late 18th century and is now a private residence. Within Tawstock parish is Chapelton railway station, the last stop on the Tarka Line before Barnstaple, although calling this a railhead would be a little ambitious; Chapelton is Devon's least-used railway station, serving fewer than 200 passengers per year. The railway through Instow closed long ago, but its signalbox has been preserved and is Grade II listed.
Most of Tawstock parish was transferred into Instow ward in 2019, when North Devon's current ward boundaries were introduced. Instow ward has returned Conservative councillors at every election this century, but the two polls on these boundaries have both been close calls. In May 2019 Selaine Saxby became the ward's new Conservative councillor by a majority of just 46 votes, polling 43% against 37% for the Lib Dems and 16% for the Green Party.
Saxby had run a small business selling sports bras before her first venture into politics in 2015, when she was the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Llanelli. That experience helped when the Conservative MP for North Devon, Peter Heaton-Jones, announced his retirement at the 2019 general election after just four years in office. Selaine Saxby got the Conservative nomination for the seat, and she was duly elected to Parliament in December 2019 with a greatly-increased majority over the Liberal Democrats.
Selaine Saxby kept her seat on North Devon council until her term expired in 2023, at which point Instow ward turned in a very fragmented result. The new Conservative councillor Lucinda Renshaw held the seat but only polled 30% of the vote; second place went to independent Becky Coombs on 26%, with independent Joanne Bell polling 16% and the Greens 14%. On this occasion there was no Liberal Democrat candidate in Instow ward, but that didn't stop the party winning a bare majority on North Devon council; the 2023 elections returned 22 Lib Dem councillors against 10 independents, 7 Conservatives and 3 Greens.
The North Devon parliamentary constituency has had the same boundaries as the North Devon constituency since 2010, and the Lib Dems followed up on their 2023 council success by gaining the North Devon constituency the following year. Their candidate Ian Roome made the step up to Parliament in 2024 from both North Devon council, which he had become leader of in 2023, and from Devon county council to defeat Selaine Saxby by 6,744 votes. Like Saxby before him, Roome has held on to his district and county council seats at least for the time being.
Talking of Devon county council, it's not entirely clear whether the scheduled election to that body in May will actually go ahead. Reorganisation is in the air, and reports suggest that the county council - which is run by the Conservatives, who would lose seats here in the current political climate - has requested that its 2025 elections be postponed while the details are thrashed out. For the moment Instow ward is split between two county council divisions: the part of Tawstock parish within the ward is covered by the safe-Tory division of Chumleigh and Landkey, but most of the ward is covered by Fremington Rural county division where Frank Biederman is a popular independent county councillor.
Today's Instow by-election is the only Conservative by-election defence in the diary for at least the next month, which partly reflects just how far the party has sunk in local government in recent years. We are seeking a replacement for Lucinda Renshaw, who tendered her resignation last November after eighteen months in office. Renshaw had previously worked for many years as a nurse and in the hospitality trade in Instow village.
Five candidates are contesting the Instow by-election, which is the first item on the agenda in the electoral year of 2025. Defending for the Conservatives is Christopher Hopkins, who contested the neighbouring Bickington ward in 2023; he is a pub landlord and parish councillor in Instow. The independent candidate who finished a close runner-up last time, Becky Coombs, is back for another go and this time she has the Liberal Democrat nomination; she works in children's services. Last time there were three independents standing here including Coombs; this time there is just one, Graham Payne, who runs the "North Devon Pothole Community" Facebook group. The Greens' Howard Porter has fairly recently moved to Barnstaple from Kent, where he was the Green parliamentary candidate for Tonbridge and Malling in 2015; he works in art and graphic design, and he contested Barnstaple Central ward in 2023. And at the top of the ballot paper of five candidates is Instow's first Reform UK candidate, Richard Booth.
Parliamentary constituency: North Devon
Devon county council divisions: Fremington Rural (Horwood, Lovacott and Newton Tracey; Instow; and Westleigh parishes); Chumleigh and Landkey (part: part of Tawstock parish)
ONS Travel to Work Area: Barnstaple
Postcode districts: EX31, EX37, EX39
Richard Booth (RUK)
Becky Coombs (LD)
Christopher Hopkins (C)
Graham Payne (Ind)
Howard Porter (Grn)
May 2023 result C 217 Ind 188 Ind 114 Grn 103 Lab 66 Ind 29
May 2019 result C 319 LD 273 Grn 120 Lab 29
Previous results in detail
If you enjoyed these previews, there are many more like them - going back to 2016 - in the Andrew's Previews books, which are available to buy now (link) and would make an excellent Christmas present. You can also support future previews by donating to the Local Elections Archive Project (link).
Andrew Teale