Nicholas Bye

Who is Nicholas Bye?

Nicholas Bye is a former Conservative local politician in England. Bye was born in Paignton, Devon and graduated from Oxford University. He was Liberal candidate for Torbay in the 1987 election.

Bye served on Torbay Council for five years and served a term as civic mayor in 2003-04. In October 2005, he became the first directly elected mayor of Torbay, under an electoral system which was later described as "a total failure", Bye receiving votes from fewer than 7% of the electorate. He beat Liberal Democrat Nicholas Pannell in the second round of counting with a total of 7,096 votes to Pannell's 5,197. After the election, Bye noted that "it is quite clear from canvassing that a lot of people did not want an elected mayor."

Bye was the Conservative Party's third directly elected mayor, after Chris Morgan and Linda Arkley in North Tyneside and the first directly elected mayor in the South West. In 2008 fellow Conservative Boris Johnson was elected as the first Conservative mayor of London.

Bye was one of three contenders for the Totnes Conservative candidacy, after the announcement by Anthony Steen that he will not stand in the next election. He placed third in the Totnes primary, and defeated by Sarah Wollaston.