Swale Borough Council election, 2010

Map of the results of the 2010 Swale Borough Council election. Conservatives in blue and Labour in red. Wards in dark grey were not contested in 2010.

The 2010 Swale Borough Council election took place on 6 May 2010 to elect members of Swale Borough Council in Kent, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Conservative party stayed in overall control of the council. ^[1]

After the election, the composition of the council was

• Conservative 33
• Labour 10
• Liberal Democrats 3
• Independent 1 ^[2]

Background

After the last election in 2008 the Conservatives had a majority on the council with 26 councillors, compared to 9 for Labour, 7 independents and 5 Liberal Democrats. ^[3] However both the Conservative and Labour parties gained a seat at two by-elections in September 2008, after the independent councillors from Sheppey First resigned from the council. ^[4]

By the time of the 2010 election there remained only one independent councillor, after Sheppey Central councillor Lesley Ingham joined the Conservatives in October 2009, before Pat Sandle and Paul Sturdgess also became Conservative councillors in March 2010. ^{[5] [6]} Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat group on the council was reduced when St Michael's councillor Nick Williams defected to Labour in October 2009. ^[7] This meant that before the 2010 election the Conservatives had 31 seats on the council, while Labour had 11, the Liberal Democrats had 4 and there was 1 independent. ^[8]

Election result

The Conservatives made a net gain of two seats to win 14 of the 17 seats contested. ^[9] The gains came at the expense of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, which each finished one seat down. ^[9]

The Conservatives took Murston from the Liberal Democrats and Roman from Labour, as well as gaining Sheerness East by a single vote from Labour. ^[9] However Labour retained Chalkwell with a majority of 30 votes over the Conservatives and gained one of the two seats contested in Queenborough and Halfway from the Conservatives. ^[9]

Swale local election result 2010 ^{[2] [8]}

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	14	3	1	+2	82.4	50.2	23,751	+4.7%
	Labour	3	1	2	-1	17.6	29.5	13,957	+5.8%
	Liberal Democrat	0	0	1	-1	0	16.1	7,610	-1.9%
	UKIP	0	0	0	0	0	3.7	1,755	+3.7%
	Green	0	0	0	0	0	0.6	275	-0.5%

Ward results

Abbey ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Bryan Mulhern	1,227	43.4	+6.1
	Labour	Trevor Payne	701	24.8	-1.9
	Liberal Democrat	Richard Williams	621	22.0	+8.7
	Green	Gary Miller	275	9.7	+9.7
Majority			526	18.6	+8.0
Turnout			2,824	63.5	+28.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Chalkwell ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Roger Truelove	991	41.6	-3.3
	Conservative	Emma Bridges	961	40.3	-1.6
	Liberal Democrat	David Spurling	432	18.1	+4.9
Majority			30	1.3	-1.7
Turnout			2,384	63.6	+29.7
	Labour hold		Swing

Grove ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Gareth Randall	1,629	49.1	-1.2
	Liberal Democrat	Bernie Lowe	732	22.1	+1.4
	Labour	Kenneth Rowles	686	20.7	-8.3
	UKIP	James Nash	268	8.1	+8.1
Majority			897	27.1	+5.9
Turnout			3,315	63.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

Hartlip, Newington and Upchurch ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Gerry Lewin	1,745	54.0	-12.9
	Labour	Ruth Walker-Grice	514	15.9	-0.8
	Liberal Democrat	Anne Jenkins	511	15.8	-0.6
	UKIP	Richard Palmer	460	14.2	+14.2
Majority			1,231	38.1	-12.1
Turnout			3,230	72.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

Kemsley ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Brenda Simpson	1,743	55.8	-9.8
	Labour	Martin McCusker	766	24.5	+1.8
	Liberal Democrat	Mary Zeng	616	19.7	+8.0
Majority			977	31.3	-11.6
Turnout			3,125	62.7	+36.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

Minster Cliffs ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ken Pugh	2,141	57.7	+11.3
	Labour	Libby Tucker	1,013	27.3	+11.3
	UKIP	Alison Donkin	557	15.0	+15.0
Majority			1,128	30.4	+15.4
Turnout			3,711	64.5	+33.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Murston ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ed Gent	845	39.2	+15.0
	Liberal Democrat	Keith Nevols	695	32.2	-25.8
	Labour	Shelley Cheesman	618	28.6	+10.8
Majority			150	7.0
Turnout			2,158	56.3	+31.4
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrat		Swing

Queenborough and Halfway (2 seats) ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Richard Darby	1,548
	Labour	Jackie Constable	1,504
	Conservative	Mick Galvin	1,316
	Labour	Sean Dalton	1,092
Turnout			5,460	60.8	+27.3
	Conservative hold		Swing
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Roman ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Lloyd Bowen	982	44.2	+14.4
	Labour	Simon Clark	813	36.6	-21.6
	Liberal Democrat	David Philips	425	19.1	+7.1
Majority			169	7.6
Turnout			2,220	60.7	+31.0
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Sheerness East ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Chris Foulds	687	38.7	+16.5
	Labour	Mark Ellen	686	38.6	+6.8
	Liberal Democrat	Colin Howe	403	22.7	+11.8
Majority			1	0.1
Turnout			1,776	50.9	+24.0
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Sheerness West ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Angela Harrison	839	40.4	-9.1
	Conservative	Dave Wilson	768	37.0	+20.0
	Liberal Democrat	David Kemp	469	22.6	+22.6
Majority			71	3.4	-12.6
Turnout			2,076	51.5	+21.3
	Labour hold		Swing

Sheppey Central ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	John Morris	2,333	63.3	+29.4
	Labour	Dennis Grover	1,354	36.7	+21.5
Majority			979	26.6
Turnout			3,687	69.7	+42.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

St Anns ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Mike Cosgrove	1,305	47.8	+6.8
	Labour	Paul Durkin	733	26.8	+5.3
	Liberal Democrat	David Evans	693	25.4	+14.6
Majority			572	20.9	+6.5
Turnout			2,731	69.2	+33.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

Teynham and Lynsted ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Trevor Fentiman	1,482	55.2	-4.9
	Labour	David Feltham	556	20.7	-6.9
	Liberal Democrat	Dave Manning	458	17.1	+4.8
	UKIP	Aaron Donkin	188	7.0	+7.0
Majority			926	34.5	+2.0
Turnout			2,684	66.3	+32.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

Watling ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ted Wilcox	1,411	49.9	-9.4
	Liberal Democrat	Mike Wheeler	899	31.8	+21.2
	Labour	Judith Webb	517	18.3	+4.8
Majority			512	18.1	-24.5
Turnout			2,827	69.7	+29.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

Woodstock ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Alan Willicombe	1,628	51.8	-3.8
	Liberal Democrat	Peter Springham	656	20.9	+3.5
	Labour	Geraldine Feltham	574	18.3	-1.8
	UKIP	Lee Burgess	282	9.0	+9.0
Majority			972	31.0	-4.5
Turnout			3,140	78.1	+33.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

1. "Swale". BBC News Online. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 3 April 2015. 
2. "Local elections 2010". The Guardian. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 4 April 2015. 
3. "National: Full election results". The Guardian . NewsBank. 3 May 2008. 
4. "By-election results for two wards". Kent Online. 26 September 2008. Retrieved 3 April 2015. 
5. "Independent councillor for Sheppey Central joins Conservatives". Kent Online. 21 October 2009. Retrieved 4 April 2015. 
6. Grove, Emma (4 March 2010). "Tories welcome Sheppey's last two independents". Kent Online. Retrieved 4 April 2015. 
7. Robinson, Hayley (6 October 2009). "Lib Dem joins Labour". Kent Online. Retrieved 4 April 2015. 
8. "Election Results 2010". Swale Borough Council. Retrieved 3 April 2015. 
9. "Tories win 14 council seats". Kent and Sussex Courier . 14 May 2010. Retrieved 4 April 2015.