The third Guildford Borough Council full-council elections were held on 3 May 1979, the same day as the General Election. The Conservatives retained control over the council winning 34 of the 45 seats. This represented a net loss of one seat from the 1976 elections. Labour retained all 6 councillors in its two strongholds Stoke and Westborough. The Liberals won 3 seats, a net gain of one seat from the 1976 elections. The Independents won 2 seats.
Measured from a party point of view, four wards changed hands partly or wholly in 1979, compared to the previous full-council elections in 1976. In two of those wards the councillors stayed the same but fought under a different party label. In Tongham a councillor who had been elected as an Independent Conservative in 1976 was reelected as a Conservative in 1979. The reverse occurred in Lovelace where a councillor who had been elected as a Conservative in 1976 was reelected as an Independent in 1979.
The Liberals lost their only seat in Holy Trinity ward to the Conservatives, but gained two of the three seats in Stoughton ward from the Conservatives.
↑ Gains and losses are shown relative to the May 1976 council elections.
↑ Although this is described as a gain, the same candidate retained his seat. In 1976 he had stood as a Conservative but in 1979 he stood as an independent, unopposed by any official Conservative candidate.
↑ GR Bellerby was more commonly known as Bill Bellerby. He appears in every Surrey Advertiser summary of Guildford BC election results from 1973 to 1991 as either B Bellerby or Bill Bellerby. For example both the 1973 and 1976 results list all other candidates in all the wards in Guildford by initials except one who they list as 'Bill Bellerby'. "Guildford Borough Council - A Compendium of Municipal Election results 1835 to 1974" by Roger Ottewill repeated lists his initials as 'GR Bellerby' and that form is used herein.
↑ Although this is described as a gain, the same candidate retained his seat. In 1976 he had stood as an Independent Conservative but in 1979 he stood as an official Conservative candidate.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
