1999 Sunderland City Council election

The 1999 Sunderland Council election took place on 6 May 1999 to elect members of Sunderland Metropolitan Borough Council in Tyne and Wear, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Labour Party stayed in overall control of the council. ^{[1] [2]}

After the election, the composition of the council was:

• Labour 64
• Conservative 8
• Liberal Democrat 2
• Liberal 1

Election result

The results saw Labour stay in control, but their leader, Bryn Sidaway, lost his seat after 16 years on the council. ^{[3] [4]} Sidaway lost in Hendon ward by 2 votes to Conservative Paul Maddison after 3 recounts, ^[4] which was one of 4 gains made by the Conservatives. ^[5] Labour blamed the defeat of Sidaway on dirty tricks after anonymous posters were displayed associating Sidaway with neo-nazis, but this was denied by the Conservatives. ^[6] Overall turnout was 20%, but was as low as 12.4% in Central ward. ^[7]

Following the election Colin Anderson was elected as the new leader of the Labour group and the council. ^[3]

Sunderland Local Election Result 1999 ^{[8] [9]}

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	20			4	80	59.3
	Conservative	4			4	16	30.1
	Liberal Democrats	0			0	0	8.2
	Liberal	1			1	4	3.1

References

1. "Sunderland". BBC News Online . Retrieved 21 December 2010.
2. "How Britain voted: Council Election Results". The Independent . 8 May 1999. p. 12.
3. "Defeated council leader vows to return". The Northern Echo. 10 May 1999. p. 7.
4. Metcalf, Tony (7 May 1999). "Hague makes it - just". The Northern Echo. p. 1.
5. Hetherington, Peter (8 May 1999). "The elections: England: Prescott transforms loss into mid-term triumph Town halls: Tories hit by north-south divide". The Guardian . p. 4.
6. Carlin, Brendan (8 May 1999). "Dawning of a new era of coalition". The Northern Echo. p. 1.
7. Frean, Alexandra (8 May 1999). "Town hall politics become an increasing irrelevance". The Times . p. 47.
8. "How the nations voted". The Times . 8 May 1999. p. 48.
9. "Local Election Results, 1999". Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2010.

Preceded by 1998 Sunderland City Council election

Sunderland City Council elections

Succeeded by 2000 Sunderland City Council election