Worcester City Council election, 2003

The 2003 Worcester City Council election took place on 1 May 2003 to elect members of Worcester District Council in Worcestershire, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Conservative party gained overall control of the council from no overall control. ^[1]

After the election, the composition of the council was

• Conservative 19
• Labour 10
• Independent 5
• Liberal Democrat 2 ^[2]

Campaign

13 seats were contested in the election with 2 seats available in St Nicholas ward after a Labour councillor stood down. ^[3] Labour defended 7 seats as against 5 for the Conservatives and 1 for the independents. ^[4] Meanwhile, the decision of the British National Party to put up a candidate in Holy Trinity ward received attention in the press. ^[3]

Worcester was a top Conservative target council in the 2003 local elections, ^{[5] [6]} with gains here seen as important signal for the parties performance at the next general election. ^[7] The Conservatives had controlled the council as a minority administration since the 2000 election and were hoping to win a majority. ^[4] They said Labour had been out of touch when they ran the council and had made poor decisions suching as using green fields for transport schemes. ^[4] However Labour attacked the Conservatives for the council's budget, including a council tax rise of 9.5% and poor waste collection services; as well as the controversy over the closing and then rescue of Swan Theatre in Worcester. ^[4]

The level of postal voting in the election was up on previous years with 5,000 postal voting forms being sent, compared to 3,000 in 2002. ^{[8] [9]}

Election result

The results saw the Conservatives win a majority on the council, ^[10] after gaining 2 seats from Labour but losing 1 seat to the Liberal Democrats. ^[11] This meant that Labour only held 10 seats which was the lowest number of seats they had held on the council up to then. ^[11] However Labour did manage to retain Holy Trinity ward, defeating the British National Party who came second in the ward. ^[11] Voter turnout was low, dropping as low as 18% in St Barnabus ward. ^[11]

Worcester Local Election Result 2003 ^{[2] [12]}

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	6	2	1	+1	46.2	41.3	9,399	-3.1%
	Labour	5	0	2	-2	38.5	35.9	8,163	-2.2%
	Liberal Democrat	1	1	0	+1	7.7	10.8	2,452	-0.7%
	Independent	1	0	0	0	7.7	9.5	2,164	+3.5%
	BNP	0	0	0	0	0	1.2	271	+1.2%
	Socialist Alternative	0	0	0	0	0	1.0	220	+1.0%
	UKIP	0	0	0	0	0	0.4	83	+0.4%

Ward results

All Saints ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Francis Lankester	722	48.1	-8.7
	Labour	Andrew Watson	559	37.2	-6.0
	Socialist Alternative	Douglas Menzies	220	14.7	+14.7
Majority			163	10.9	-2.7
Turnout			1,501	32.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Bedwardine ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	David Clark	900	55.8	-4.0
	Labour	Simon Arnold	389	24.1	-4.4
	Liberal Democrat	Louis Stephen	325	20.1	+8.4
Majority			511	31.7	+0.4
Turnout			1,614	30.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

Claines ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	Elizabeth Smith	1,346	57.2	-1.0
	Conservative	William Elsy	1,009	42.8	+1.0
Majority			337	14.4	-2.0
Turnout			2,355	44.0
	Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative		Swing

Holy Trinity ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Geoffrey Williams	566	51.6	-5.9
	BNP	Martin Roberts	271	24.7	+24.7
	Conservative	Robert Campbell	259	23.6	-2.9
Majority			295	26.9	-4.1
Turnout			1,096	26.2
	Labour hold		Swing

Nunnery ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Independent	Michael Layland	852	54.3	+9.4
	Labour	Christopher Taylor	505	32.2	-7.7
	Conservative	James Denlegh-Maxwell	212	13.5	-1.7
Majority			347	22.1	+17.1
Turnout			1,569	32.0
	Independent hold		Swing

St Barnabas ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Adrian Gregson	563	74.2	-5.0
	Conservative	Nicholas Turner	196	25.8	+5.0
Majority			367	48.4	-10.0
Turnout			759	18.3
	Labour hold		Swing

St Clement ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Colin Phillips	871	41.0	-9.1
	Labour	Matthew Lamb	858	40.4	-9.5
	Independent	Paul Coveney	394	18.6	+18.6
Majority			13	0.6	+0.4
Turnout			2,123	33.5
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

St John ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	David Candler	753	53.1	+0.6
	Independent	Colin Layland	396	27.9	+0.1
	Conservative	Gordon Hazelton	185	13.1	-6.6
	UKIP	Jean Eaves	83	5.9	+5.9
Majority			357	25.2	+0.5
Turnout			1,417	28.5
	Labour hold		Swing

St Martin ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Lucy Hodgson	1,460	50.2	-1.1
	Labour	Pamela Clayton	1,447	49.8	+1.1
Majority			13	0.4	-2.2
Turnout			2,907	23.6
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

St Nicholas (2) ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Robert Peachey	837
	Labour	Richard Bird	834
	Conservative	David Tibbutt	759
	Conservative	Rodney Staines	715
Turnout			3,145	33.0
	Labour hold		Swing
	Labour hold		Swing

St Peter ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Robert Rowden	1,121	42.9	-8.8
	Labour	George Squires	524	20.1	-7.7
	Independent	Craig Mills	522	20.0	+20.0
	Liberal Democrat	Iain Macbriar	446	17.1	-3.4
Majority			597	22.8	-1.1
Turnout			2,613	30.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

St Stephen ^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Stephen Inman	990	59.9	-1.4
	Liberal Democrat	Paul Griffiths	335	20.3	+2.8
	Labour	Ali Asghar	328	19.8	-1.4
Majority			655	39.6	-0.5
Turnout			1,653	30.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

1. "Local elections". BBC News Online . Retrieved 2010-01-04. 
2. "Election Results". The Times. 2003-05-02. p. 17. 
3. "Worcestershire council nominations: Far right join in battle for city ; Worcester". Birmingham Mail. 2003-04-08. p. 13. 
4. Walker, Jonathan (2003-04-20). "Elections 2003: Tories hoping to tighten their grip for majority". Birmingham Post. p. 4. 
5. Dillon, Jo (2003-04-20). "Tories in election plot to boost IDS". The Independent on Sunday. p. 4. 
6. Sherman, Jill; Kite, Melissa (2003-04-11). "Blair risks forfeiting a dozen councils to mid-term blues". The Times. p. 16. 
7. Courtauld, Charlie (2003-04-27). "Worcester Woman is unimpressed and may not be voting at all ; The Tories invented her, then wooed her. But she seems likely to rebuff them again on Thursday". The Independent. p. 10. 
8. Walker, Jonathan (2003-04-22). "Demand for postal votes on the rise". Birmingham Post. p. 4. 
9. "Post-your-vote idea catching on". Malvern Gazette . 2003-04-19. Retrieved 2010-01-05. 
10. Parker, Simon (2003-05-02). "Backlash costs Labour 750 seats". London: guardian.co.uk . Retrieved 2010-01-05. 
11. "Tories cling on to Worcester". icBirmingham. 2003-05-02. Retrieved 2010-01-05. 
12. "Electoral Services - Results 2003". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 2010-01-04.