2004 Sunderland City Council election

2004 Sunderland City Council election

←  2003 10 June 2004 2006  →
All 75 seats on Sunderland City Council 38 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrats Seats before 63 9 1 Seats won 61 12 2 Seats after 61 12 2 Seat change 2 3 1   Fourth party Fifth party   Party Independent Liberal Seats before 1 1 Seats won 0 0 Seats after 0 0 Seat change 1 1
Map of the 2004 Sunderland City Council election results. Labour in red, Conservatives in blue, and Liberal Democrats in yellow.
Majority party before election Labour Majority party after election Labour

The 2004 Sunderland City Council election took place on 10 June 2004 to elect members of Sunderland City Council Council in Tyne and Wear, England. The whole council was up for election following boundary changes since the last election in 2003. ^[1] The Labour Party stayed in overall control of the council. ^[2]

Campaign

Every seat was contested in the election for the first time since 1982. ^[3] Labour held a big majority before the election with 63 seats, but almost a quarter of Labour's councillors stood down at the election. ^[3] Labour was the only party to field a full 75 candidates, while the next largest number of candidates was from the Conservative party who fielded 54 candidates. ^[3] Candidates in the election also included 25 from the British National Party after the party failed to win any seats in the 2003 election but came second in 6 wards. ^[4]

Labour described their record in control of the council as being positive and that they were making progress, but the Conservatives described Labour as being "arrogant and remote". ^[3] The Conservatives targeted wards in the town of Washington as well as Millfield, St Chad's and St Peters, while Barnes ward was seen as being a three-way battle between Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. ^[5]

At the election count anti-Nazi demonstrators had a scuffle with British National Party supporters when the candidates entered the building, with one British National Party candidate being arrested on suspicion of assault. ^{[6] [7]}

Election result

The results saw Labour hold control of the council with a large majority, but the Conservatives made some gains in Barnes, Fulwell and St Michael's. ^[6] This meant Labour ended with 61 seats, while the Conservatives were up three on 12 seats. ^[8] The Liberal Democrats took two seats, while the British National Party failed to win any seats. ^[8] Overall turnout was 40.26%, down on the 47.47% in 2003 but up on the 22% at the 2002 election before all postal voting was used. ^{[6] [8]}

Sunderland Local Election Result 2004 ^{[9] [10]}

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	61	1	3	2	81.3	55.4	103,550	2.9
	Conservative	12	3	0	3	16.0	28.9	54,119	6.6
	Liberal Democrats	2	2	0	1	2.7	8.0	14,886	0.7
	BNP	0	0	0	0	0	6.6	12,398	7.2
	Independent	0	0	1	1	0	0.9	1,638	1.8
	Liberal	0	0	1	1	0	0.2	429	0.2

This resulted in the following composition of the council:

Party		Previous council	New council
	Labour	63	61
	Conservatives	9	12
	Liberal Democrats	1	2
	Liberal	1	0
	Independent	1	0
Total		75	75
Working majority		51	47

Ward by ward results

Barnes (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Stephen Daughton	1,557
	Conservative	Lee Martin	1,495
	Conservative	Michael Arnott	1,427
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Greenfield	1,296
	Labour	Ian Galbraith	1,171
	Liberal Democrats	Emma Pryke	1,016
	Labour	Anne Morrison	1,011
	Labour	Iain Key	938
	Liberal Democrats	Peter Taylor	884
	BNP	Paul Humble	427
Turnout			11,222	48.5

Castle (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Thomas Foster	1,655
	Labour	Leslie Mann	1,543
	Labour	Robert Symonds	1,449
	BNP	Ian McDonald	687
	Conservative	Gillian Connor	513
	Conservative	Alice Mclaren	443
Turnout			6,290	36.3

Copt Hill (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joan Carthy	1,805
	Labour	Juliana Heron	1,642
	Labour	Robert Heron	1,551
	Conservative	Jane Wilson	1,161
	BNP	Anthony James	508
Turnout			6,667	37.2

Doxford (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Blyth	1,543
	Labour	Michael Tansey	1,494
	Labour	Elizabeth Gibson	1,463
	Conservative	Peter Elliot-West	918
	Conservative	George Brown	909
	Conservative	Stephen Sinclair	843
	BNP	Debra Hiles	496
Turnout			7,666	38.9

Fulwell (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Norman Bohill	2,978
	Conservative	John Walton	2,394
	Conservative	George Howe	2,263
	Labour	Rosalind Copeland	884
	Labour	Norman Dent	864
	Labour	Gordon Higgins	819
	Liberal Democrats	Bill Ryder	665
	BNP	Joseph Dobbie	417
Turnout			11,284	51.7

Hendon (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Brynley Sidaway	1,142
	Labour	Thomas Martin	1,123
	Labour	Mary Smith	1,015
	Conservative	Janice Morrissey	647
	Conservative	John Cowley	627
	Liberal Democrats	Jane Walters	578
	Conservative	Malcolm Vickers	507
	BNP	David Guynan	504
	Liberal Democrats	Tafazzal Hussain	456
	Liberal	Winifred Lundgren	429
Turnout			7,028	36.0

Hetton (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Blackburn	1,670
	Labour	Florence Anderson	1,663
	Labour	Richard Tate	1,413
	Liberal Democrats	Philip Dowell	920
	Conservative	Christopher Galley	676
	BNP	John Richardson	442
Turnout			6,784	37.2

Houghton (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Lawson	2,054
	Labour	Kathryn Rolph	1,944
	Labour	Dennis Richardson	1,864
	Conservative	William Lewis	783
	BNP	Louise Smith	518
Turnout			7,163	38.3

Millfield (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	James Hollern	893
	Labour	Colin Anderson	846
	Labour	Keith Adshead	824
	Labour	Louise Farthing	728
	Liberal Democrats	John Jackson	629
	Conservative	Michael Dixon	579
	Conservative	Patricia Francis	570
	Liberal Democrats	Sham Vedhara	557
	Conservative	Gordon Newton	530
	BNP	Jason Dent	360
Turnout			6,516	35.9

Pallion (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Amy Wilson	1,350
	Labour	Paul Watson	1,333
	Labour	Robert Kirby	1,148
	Conservative	Gwennyth Gibson	802
	Conservative	Dorreen Storey	754
	BNP	James Davison	647
Turnout			6,034	36.0

Redhill (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Bryan Charlton	1,804
	Labour	Richard Bell	1,594
	Labour	Paul Stewart	1,521
	BNP	Ian Leadbitter	716
	Conservative	Terence Docherty	499
	Conservative	James McIntosh	441
Turnout			6,575	36.5

Ryhope (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ronald Bainbridge	1,433
	Labour	Aileen Handy	1,268
	Labour	David Wares	1,218
	Conservative	Audrey Casson	859
	BNP	William Brown	585
	Conservative	Tariq Al-Dulaymi	549
Turnout			5,912	37.6

Sandhill (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Scott	1,515
	Labour	David Forbes	1,411
	Labour	David Allan	1,238
	Conservative	Ronald Drayton	894
	BNP	Christopher Lathan	530
Turnout			5,588	36.7

Shiney Row (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Anne Hall	1,817
	Labour	John Scott	1,491
	Labour	Melville Speding	1,417
	Liberal Democrats	Neil Grundy	994
	Liberal Democrats	Paul Forster	846
	Conservative	Douglas Middlemiss	664
	Conservative	Kathleen Cowe	582
	BNP	Sharon Leadbitter	423
Turnout			8,234	38.8

Silksworth (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patricia Smith	1,811
	Labour	Peter Gibson	1,773
	Labour	John Donnelly	1,578
	Conservative	Dionne Ross	941
	Conservative	Norman Rosemurgey	922
	BNP	Joseph Dobbie	647
Turnout			7,672	43.2

Southwick (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Margaret Higgins	1,680
	Labour	Maureen Ambrose	1,398
	Labour	Norma Wright	1,344
	Conservative	John Brown	762
	Conservative	John Calvert	701
	BNP	Alan Brettwood	698
Turnout			6,583	37.8

St Annes (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Susan Watson	1,300
	Labour	Patricia Bates	1,252
	Labour	Thomas Wright	1,189
	Conservative	Marjorie Matthews	593
	Conservative	Norman Oliver	508
	BNP	Treena Smith	490
Turnout			5,332	35.1

St Chads (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Leslie Scott	1,762
	Labour	John Porthouse	1,466
	Conservative	Robert Oliver	1,341
	Conservative	Paula Wilkinson	1,323
	Labour	Cecilia Gofton	1,240
	Conservative	Anthony Morrissey	1,145
	BNP	Carol Dobbie	430
Turnout			8,707	46.4

St Michaels (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Margaret Forbes	2,072
	Conservative	Peter Wood	1,997
	Conservative	Paul Maddison	1,918
	Labour	Garry Dent	1,045
	Labour	Barbara McClennan	861
	Labour	Phillip Gibson	821
	Liberal Democrats	Geoffrey Pryke	656
	BNP	Pauline Smith	302
Turnout			9,672	48.3

St Peters (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Lilian Walton	1,679
	Conservative	Graham Hall	1,609
	Labour	Christine Shattock	1,414
	Conservative	Alistair Newton	1,336
	Labour	Linda Mitchell	1,261
	Labour	David Errington	1,069
	BNP	Derek Wright	604
Turnout			8,972	45.2

Washington Central (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Derek Sleightholme	1,880
	Labour	Eric Timmins	1,725
	Labour	Denis Whalen	1,621
	Liberal Democrats	Christine Griffin	860
	Conservative	Jacqueline Atkinson	797
	Conservative	Olwyn Bird	777
	Conservative	Kathleen Irvine	635
	BNP	Andrew Galloway	400
Turnout			8,695	40.2

Washington East (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Young	1,445
	Labour	Bryan Williams	1,360
	Labour	Neil Macknight	1,284
	Conservative	Kathryn Chamberlin	882
	Liberal Democrats	Avril Grundy	821
	Conservative	Ian Cuthbert	727
	Conservative	David Wilson	657
	BNP	Duncan Matthews	322
Turnout			7,498	37.0

Washington North (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Walker	1,876
	Labour	Peter Walker	1,500
	Labour	Pamela Baggaley	1,478
	Independent	John Bedlington	969
	Conservative	Russell Bloxsom	589
	BNP	Richard Templton	431
Turnout			6,843	36.6

Washington South (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Linda Williams	1,135
	Labour	Joan Grey	994
	Liberal Democrats	Owen Dumpleton	972
	Conservative	Justin Garrod	851
	Labour	Robert Bowman	848
	Conservative	Jill Martin	731
	Independent	Walter Scott	669
	BNP	Gordon Pace	411
Turnout			6,611	36.9

Washington West (3) ^{[9] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	William Stephenson	1,585
	Labour	Henry Trueman	1,487
	Labour	Dennis Haworth	1,392
	Liberal Democrats	Irene Bannister	969
	Liberal Democrats	David Griffin	874
	Conservative	Robert Sharp	762
	BNP	Frank Butterfield	403
Turnout			7,472	37.5

References

1. "Sunderland council". BBC News Online . Retrieved 24 December 2010.
2. "Local councils". Financial Times . 12 June 2004. p. 7.
3. Casey, Matt (19 May 2004). "All change for city's council". Evening Chronicle . p. 8.
4. Arnold, Stuart (13 May 2004). "BNP sets its sights on the Labour vote". The Northern Echo. p. 4.
5. Smith, Ross (28 May 2004). "A mountain to climb". The Journal. p. 16.
6. "Tories make a dent in stronghold". The Journal. 11 June 2004. p. 8.
7. Carter, Helen (12 June 2004). "Elections 2004: Mixed results a surprise for BNP". The Guardian . p. 8.
8. Casey, Matt (11 June 2004). "Labour romp home, BNP fail". Evening Chronicle . p. 8.
9. "Local Elections Results 2004". Sunderland City Council. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
10. "Ballot box". The Times . 12 June 2004. p. 26.
11. "Sunderland results". The Journal. 11 June 2004. Retrieved 24 December 2010.^{[ permanent dead link ][ dead link ]}

Preceded by 2003 Sunderland City Council election

Sunderland City Council elections

Succeeded by 2006 Sunderland City Council election