2006 Woking Borough Council election

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Results of the 2006 Woking Borough Council election Woking UK local election 2006 map.svg
Results of the 2006 Woking Borough Council election

The 2006 Woking Council election took place on 4 May 2006 to elect members of Woking Borough Council in Surrey, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control. [1]

Contents

After the election, the composition of the council was:

Campaign

6 sitting councillors stood down at the election including the former Conservative leader of the council Jim Armitage and the independent Mike Copham who had resigned from the Conservatives. [3]

Housing and development was a contentious issue during the campaign, with the council being required to build 240 houses a year for the next 20 years under the South East Plan. Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats fought the election on a platform of opposing overdevelopment and protecting the green belt. [4]

The campaign saw allegations of electoral fraud in Woking, which were investigated by the police. [5] [6] These included claims of multiple voter registrations at 6 addresses in Maybury and Sheerwater, intimidation and that blank postal votes had been given community leaders. [5] [6] The investigation saw one man arrested on suspicion of impersonating another voter. [7]

Election result

The results saw the Liberal Democrats become the largest party on the council with 18 seats as compared to 15 for the Conservatives. [8] The Conservatives failed to take any seats from the Liberal Democrats, who gained 3 seats in Horsell West, Knaphill and Mount Hermon East wards and almost won a majority on the council for the first time since 1998 after losing by just 2 votes in Byfleet after 4 recounts. [8] [9] Despite this the Conservatives took more votes across the council than the Liberal Democrats and made a gain from Labour in Maybury and Sheerwater. [8] Labour was reduced to only 3 seats on the council after losing in Maybury and Sheerwater, which was the only ward where they won more than 200 votes. [8] Overall turnout in the election was 42.17%. [10]

Woking Local Election Result 2006 [2] [10]
PartySeatsGainsLossesNet gain/lossSeats %Votes %Votes+/−
  Liberal Democrats 830+361.541.010,450+1.4%
  Conservative 523-138.545.211,527+4.4%
  Labour 001-108.12,063-2.1%
  UKIP 000003.4865-3.4%
  Independent 001-101.5384-0.1%
  UK Community Issues Party 000000.9229+0.0%

Ward results

Byfleet [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Irene Watson Green1,04945.7+10.3
Liberal Democrats Suzanne Kittelsen1,04745.6+7.6
Labour David Mitchell1134.9+1.1
UKIP Marion Free883.8−3.3
Majority 20.1
Turnout 2,29741.9−1.4
Conservative hold Swing
Goldsworth East [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Democrats Bryan Cross1,06250.6
Conservative Hilary Addison84040.4
Labour Chanchal Kapoor1989.4
Majority 22210.2
Turnout 2,10039.3
Liberal Democrats hold Swing
Goldsworth West [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Democrats Denzil Coulson81064.2+12.0
Conservative Manish Gajjar36829.2+1.6
Labour John Bramall836.6−0.2
Majority 44235.0+10.4
Turnout 1,26132.9+4.9
Liberal Democrats hold Swing
Hermitage and Knaphill South [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Democrats Kenneth Howard76054.0+1.4
Conservative Valerian Hopkins53538.0+4.0
Labour Graeme Carman1128.0−5.4
Majority 22516.0−2.6
Turnout 1,40735.5+9.9
Liberal Democrats hold Swing
Horsell West (2) [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Democrats Richard Sanderson1,297
Liberal Democrats Gareth Davies1,242
Conservative Anthony Branagan1,163
Conservative Roger Wiltshire1,027
UKIP Timothy Shaw172
Labour Audrey Worgan119
UKIP Richard Squire107
Labour Christopher Lowe88
UK Community Issues Party Michael Osman79
Turnout 5,29451.4+4.0
Liberal Democrats hold Swing
Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative Swing
Knaphill [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Democrats Richard Sharp1,30249.4+8.3
Conservative Anthony Hayes-Allen97837.1−15.5
UKIP Matthew Davies1987.5+7.5
Labour Linda Kendall1576.0−0.3
Majority 32412.3
Turnout 2,63538.1+3.6
Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative Swing
Maybury and Sheerwater [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Mohammed Iqbal1,35748.6+9.2
Labour Mohammed Khan89632.1−2.3
Liberal Democrats Peter Hough38913.9−8.9
UK Community Issues Party Katrina Osman1505.4+2.0
Majority 46116.5+11.5
Turnout 2,79242.2−1.2
Conservative gain from Labour Swing
Mayford and Sutton Green [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Simon Bellord67571.0−4.0
Liberal Democrats Malcolm Randall19120.1+2.8
UKIP Dennis Davey454.7+0.8
Labour Christopher Martin404.2+0.4
Majority 48450.9−6.8
Turnout 95150.4+5.5
Conservative hold Swing
Mount Hermon East [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Democrats Norman Johns86048.4+20.7
Conservative David Bittleston78644.2−12.2
UKIP Judith Squire693.9−5.6
Labour Michael Kelly623.5−2.9
Majority 744.2
Turnout 1,77748.7+9.0
Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative Swing
Mount Hermon West [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Democrats Susan Smith97056.7+2.6
Conservative Carl Thomson60335.2+3.9
UKIP Mary Kingston774.5−5.2
Labour John Pitt623.6−1.3
Majority 36721.5−1.3
Turnout 1,71243.3+3.0
Liberal Democrats hold Swing
St Johns and Hook Heath [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative John Kingsbury96363.4−9.5
Liberal Democrats Andrew Larkham27117.8−3.8
Independent Adrian Gray18812.4+12.4
UKIP Marcia Taylor523.4+3.4
Labour Colin Bright463.0−2.6
Majority 69245.6−5.7
Turnout 1,52043.3+8.1
Conservative hold Swing
West Byfleet [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Frederick Webber-Taylor1,18366.8+8.1
Liberal Democrats Michael Wilson24914.1+0.1
Independent Richard Wilson19611.1−10.5
Labour Louise Every874.9−0.7
UKIP Robin Milner573.2+3.2
Majority 93452.7+15.6
Turnout 1,77244.6+10.8
Conservative gain from Independent Swing

References

  1. "Local elections: Woking". BBC News Online . Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  2. 1 2 Wilson, Graeme (5 May 2006). "Conservatives Cameron's crusade puts Tories back on victory trail". The Daily Telegraph . p. 4.
  3. "Release of nomination papers kicks off election fever". getsurrey. 6 April 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  4. "Development at the price of green belt?". getsurrey. 20 April 2006. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
  5. 1 2 "Politics: Labour braced for heavy blow and 400 losses in local elections: Bad publicity blamed as party's forecasts worsen: Big changeover expected in London boroughs". The Guardian . 4 May 2006. p. 15.
  6. 1 2 "New fraud fears hit polling". getsurrey. 4 May 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  7. "Arrest at polling station". getsurrey. 11 May 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Lib Dems triumph in polls". getsurrey. 12 May 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  9. "Jubilation and shock as the voters make their feelings clear". getsurrey. 11 May 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Election of Borough Councillors for the Wards of Woking Borough Council: Summary of Results" (PDF). Woking Borough Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 January 2011. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Results for the borough's elections". getsurrey. 11 May 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.