20 out of 60 seats to Colchester Borough Council 31 seats needed for a majority
Turnout
34.5% (0.2%)
First party
Second party
Party
Conservative
Liberal Democrats
Last election
30 seats, 41.8%
21 seats, 29.3%
Seats before
32
19
Seats won
7
9
Seats after
27
23
Seat change
5
4
Popular vote
13,142
13,111
Percentage
37.3%
37.2%
Swing
4.5%
7.9%
Third party
Fourth party
Party
Labour
Independent
Last election
6 seats, 16.3%
3 seats, 3.1%
Seats before
6
3
Seats won
3
1
Seats after
7
3
Seat change
1
Popular vote
4,593
1,247
Percentage
13.0%
3.5%
Swing
3.3%
0.4%
Leader of the council after election
Anne Turrell Liberal Democrats
The 2008 Colchester Borough Council election took place on 1 May 2008 to elect members of Colchester Borough Council in Essex, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Conservative party lost overall control of the council to no overall control.[1]
After the election, the composition of the council was
After the last election in 2007 the Conservatives held half of the seats on the council with 30 councillors, while the Liberal Democrats had 21 seats, Labour 6 seats and there were 3 independents.[3] However, in July 2007, 2 Liberal Democrat councilors, Craig and Terry Sutton, defected to the Conservatives after falling out with the local Liberal Democrat Member of parliament Bob Russell over a new community stadium.[4] This gave the Conservatives a majority on the council with 32 of the 60 seats.[5]
20 seats were contested at the election, with the Conservatives defending 12 of the seats.[6] A total of 82 candidates stood at the election, including full slates from the Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green parties, along with one candidate from the British National Party.[5]
Election result
The Conservatives lost their majority on the council after losing 5 seats, 4 to the Liberal Democrats and 1 to Labour.[7] Among those who lost seats were 2 members of the Conservative council cabinet, while Craig Sutton in Berechurch lost his seat to Labour after having defected to the Conservatives from the Liberal Democrats in 2007.[7] Conservative defeats were attributed to high levels of housebuilding in the area, with the Conservatives dropping to 27 seats, while the Liberal Democrats rose to 23 seats and Labour went up to 7 seats.[7] Meanwhile, the British National Party came fourth in High Woods ward with 131 votes after putting up the party's first candidate for Colchester council.[8] Overall turnout at the election was 34.5%.[9]
Following the election the Liberal Democrat, Labour and independent groups made a deal to take control over the council from the Conservatives, with Liberal Democrat Anne Turrell becoming the new leader of the council.[10]
A by-election took place in Birch and Winstree ward on 4 December 2008 after the death of the Conservative councillor Peter Crowe.[12] Andrew Ellis retained the seat for the Conservatives by a majority of 322 votes.[12]
^"Colchester". BBC News Online. 4 May 2007. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
^Wilkin, Chris (11 July 2007). "Colchester: Lib Dems furious at pair's defection to the Tories". The Echo. Archived from the original on 30 May 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
^ ab"Colchester: BNP candidate stands for election". Daily Gazette. 7 April 2008. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
^Parkes, Tom (1 May 2008). "Colchester : Town goes to the polls". The Gazette. NewsBank.
^ abcParkes, Tom (2 May 2008). "Colchester: Tories lose control of council". Daily Gazette. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
^"North Essex: BNP pledges more candidates". The Gazette. NewsBank. 6 May 2008.
^Hore, James (2 May 2008). "Colchester election results in full". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
^Orrell, Helen (12 May 2008). "Colchester : names of council cabinet unveiled". The Gazette. NewsBank.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstu"Declaration of result of poll". Colchester Borough Council. Archived from the original on 9 September 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
^ abc"Colchester: Andrew Ellis wins Birch and Winstree by-election". Daily Gazette. 5 December 2008. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
^"Local Authority Byelection Results". Archived from the original on 29 March 2010. Retrieved 30 May 2014.