The 1999 Woking Council election took place on 6 May 1999 to elect members of Woking Borough Council in Surrey, England.
Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district. In Scotland, similarly chartered communities were known as royal burghs, although the status is no longer granted.
Surrey is a subdivision of the English region of South East England in the United Kingdom. A historic and ceremonial county, Surrey is also one of the home counties. The county borders Kent to the east, East Sussex and West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west, Berkshire to the northwest, and Greater London to the northeast.
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north-northwest. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
One third of the council was up for election. The council stayed under no overall control. Before the election the largest council party grouping, the Liberal Democrats, were two seats short of a majority. The effect of the election was to make the Liberal Democrats four seats short, to remove their option of relying on the independent councillor and vacant seat where necessary and calling for issue-by-issue full council chamber support of either a third of the local Conservatives or most of the local Labour Party councillors. [1]
In the context of local authorities in the United Kingdom, the term no overall control refers to a situation in which no single political group achieves a majority of seats; and is analogous to a hung parliament. Of the 310 councils who had members up for election in the 2007 local elections, 85 resulted in a NOC administration.
The Liberal Democrats are a centrist, liberal political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently led by Vince Cable. It has 11 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, 96 members of the House of Lords, one member of the European Parliament, five Members of the Scottish Parliament and one member in the Welsh Assembly and London Assembly. At the height of its influence, the party served as junior partners in a coalition government with the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2015.
After the election, the composition of the council led by 35 councillors was:
The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom. The governing party since 2010, it is the largest in the House of Commons, with 313 Members of Parliament, and also has 249 members of the House of Lords, 18 members of the European Parliament, 31 Members of the Scottish Parliament, 12 members of the Welsh Assembly, eight members of the London Assembly and 8,916 local councillors.
The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. The party's platform emphasises greater state intervention, social justice and strengthening workers' rights.
There were no boundary changes (by the Boundary Commission) to affect comparisons made between this election and that of four year's before for the same vacancies. The council had had no single party overall control relatively frequently, for nine years of 25, since its creation in 1974. [1]
Party | Seats | Gains | Losses | Net gain/loss | Seats % | Votes % | Votes | +/− | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 6 | +2 | 50.0 | ||||||
Liberal Democrat | 3 | -2 | 25.0 | ||||||
Labour | 2 | 0 | 16.7 | ||||||
Independent | 1 | 0 | 8.3 |
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