2015 Woking Borough Council election

Results of the 2015 Woking Borough Council election

The 2015 Woking Borough Council election took place on 7 May 2015 to elect one third of members to Woking Borough Council in England coinciding with other local elections held simultaneously with a General Election which resulted in increased turnout compared to the election four years before. Elections in each ward are held in three years out of four. ^[1]

Results

The Conservatives were starting from a high ‘baseline’, having performed very well in the previous equivalent local election in Woking in 2011 (which coincided with the AV Referendum). The Conservatives secured 49% of the vote, gaining two seats from the Liberal Democrats and losing one to Labour. Of the 12 wards up for election, the Conservatives won 10 and the LibDems and Labour won 1 each. This was the best Conservative local Borough election result in Woking, and the worst result for the LibDems, for many years, although the Conservative 49% share of the vote failed to match the 56% share of the vote achieved on the same day by their Parliamentary candidate Jonathan Lord as he secured re-election as Woking’s MP with a landslide majority of 20,810 votes (over the second-placed Labour Party candidate).

The result added one councillor (net) to the Conservative group that had enjoyed overall control of the Council since 2011 and that had been in power locally since 2007 (if one includes a short period of minority administration). ^{[2] [3]}

Woking Borough Council Election, 2015

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	24	2	1	1	83.33	49	19091
	Liberal Democrats	9	0	2	2	8.33	17	6808
	Labour	2	1	0	1	8.33	15	5901
	Independent	1	0	0		0	3	1350
	UKIP	0	0	0	0	0	11	4390
	Green	0	0	0	0	0	4	1377
	Patriotic Socialist	0	0	0	0	0	0.02	9

Ward by ward

Byfleet

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Harry Briggs	1445
	Independent	Amanda Boote	1050
	Liberal Democrats	Andy Grimshaw	558
	UKIP	Richard Squire	449
	Labour	Michael Wood	316
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

Goldsworth East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Hilary Addison	1592
	Liberal Democrats	James Sanderson	859
	Labour	Jay Butcher	766
	UKIP	Tim Read	377
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

Hermitage and Knaphill South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Paul Smith	1129
	Liberal Democrats	Tina Liddington	710
	UKIP	Troy De Leon	401
	Labour	Colin Bright	302
	Green	Vanessa King	118
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Horsell East and Woodham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Anne Murray	1849
	Liberal Democrats	Rosemary Johnson	361
	UKIP	Terry Knight	264
	Labour	Elizabeth Evans	241
	Green	Topher Dykes	140
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

Horsell West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Beryl Hunwicks	2117
	Liberal Democrats	Anne-Marie Barker	987
	UKIP	Stephen Herbert	385
	Labour	John Scott-Morgan	376
	Green	Joanna Kelly	198
	Patriotic Socialist	Leo Dix	9
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

Kingfield and Westfield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Will Forster	971
	Conservative	Natalie Bourne	922
	Labour	Nigel Jackson	440
	UKIP	Robert Shatwell	396
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Knaphill

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Melanie Whitehand	2645
	Labour	Richard Ford	659
	UKIP	Bradley Hough	617
	Liberal Democrats	Syed Jaffri	595
	Green	James Brierley	304
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

Maybury and Sheerwater

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Tahiz Aziz	1913
	Conservative	Colin Scott	1002
	UKIP	Judith Squire	416
	Independent	Ian Vousden	300
	Green	Will Hemmings	248
	Liberal Democrats	Norman Johns	214
Majority
Turnout
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Old Woking

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Lawrence	486
	Liberal Democrats	Louise Morales	467
	UKIP	Jim Gore	240
	Labour	Barney Pimentel	176
	Green	John Parkin	75
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Pyrford

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Graham Chrystie	2076
	Liberal Democrats	Gareth Davies	366
	UKIP	Robin Milner	331
	Labour	Mohammed Khalid	154
	Green	Joel Street	140
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

St Johns and Hook Heath

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Graham Cundy	1744
	Liberal Democrats	Rebecca Whale	320
	Labour	Tom Willis	216
	UKIP	Marcia Taylor	197
	Green	Hilary Griffiths	154
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

West Byfleet

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Wilson	2084
	Liberal Democrats	William Wolfe	400
	Labour	Katherine Kearey	342
	UKIP	Neil Willetts	317
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

1. "Upcoming elections & referendums". The Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
2. Woking Results Get Surrey, website of Surrey Advertiser/Herald/Guardian Group of newspapers. Accessed 2015-05-20.
3. Borough composition, showing 24, 9, 2, 1 split of councillors Archived 22 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine WBC. Accessed 2015-05-20