Worthing Borough Council election, 2008

Map of the results of the 2008 Worthing council election. Conservatives in blue and Liberal Democrats in yellow.

The 2008 Worthing Borough Council election took place on 1 May 2008 to elect members of Worthing Borough Council in West Sussex, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Conservative party stayed in overall control of the council. ^[1] Overall turnout was 35%. ^[2]

Candidates from five political parties took part in the election from the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, British National Party, Labour and United Kingdom Independence Party and one candidate standing on a "Stop! Durrington's Overdevelopment – Save Titnore's Trees" platform. ^[3] The results of the election were declared at a joint count with Adur council, the first time such a joint count had taken place in West Sussex. ^[4] The count saw an incident where one candidate, Dawn Smith, was arrested after some of her supporters were prevented from entering the count. ^[5]

The results saw the Conservatives gain three seats to increase their majority on the council. ^[6] They gained Broadwater ward from the Liberal Democrats, and also Goring where the previous councillor had defected from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats. ^{[7] [8]} The third Conservative gain was in Offington where the previous councillor, Mark McCarthy, had been elected as a Conservative, but had resigned to sit as an independent Conservative. ^{[7] [9]} The Liberal Democrats did make one gain when they took Selden ward, where the previous Conservative councillor had stood down. ^[7]

After the election, the composition of the council was

• Conservative 25
• Liberal Democrat 12 ^[2]

Election result

Worthing local election result 2008

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	9	3	1	+2	69.2	50.5	13,137	-1.9%
	Liberal Democrat	4	1	2	-1	30.8	37.0	9,632	+4.4%
	UKIP	0	0	0	0	0	7.7	2,008	+2.2%
	Labour	0	0	0	0	0	3.1	813	-1.6%
	BNP	0	0	0	0	0	1.3	326	+1.3%
	Stop Durrington's Overdevelopment – Save Titnore's Trees	0	0	0	0	0	0.4	99	-0.2%
	Independent	0	0	1	-1	0	0	0	0

Ward results

Broadwater ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Don Allen	977	47.4	-2.2
	Liberal Democrat	Nick John	952	46.2	+2.2
	Labour	John Turley	132	6.4	+0.0
Majority			25	1.2	-4.4
Turnout			2,061
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrat		Swing

Castle ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	David Potter	1,167	55.8
	Conservative	Ruth White	926	44.2
Majority			241	11.6
Turnout			2,093	33	-2.5
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing

Central ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Martin Coppard	791	44.9	+2.2
	Liberal Democrat	Neil Condon	698	39.6	+8.8
	Labour	Peter Barnes	148	8.4	-0.4
	UKIP	Christopher Woodward	126	7.1	+2.3
Majority			93	5.3	-6.6
Turnout			1,763	28	-3.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

Durrington ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	Michael Donin	708	45.6
	Conservative	Mark Withers	631	40.6
	UKIP	Chris Chatfield	215	13.8
Majority			77	5.0
Turnout			1,554	35	-1.1
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing

Gaisford ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ann Barlow	1,026	48.5	+1.1
	Liberal Democrat	Janet Goldsbrough-Jones	951	45.0	+8.1
	Labour	Hazel Rennie	137	6.5	-0.8
Majority			75	3.5	-7.0
Turnout			2,114	32	-3.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Goring ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Mary Lermitte	1,921	68.3	+5.4
	Liberal Democrat	Merlin Jones	523	18.6	+4.4
	UKIP	Richard Bater	368	13.1	+1.9
Majority			1,398	49.7	+1.0
Turnout			2,812	42	-1.0
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrat		Swing

Heene ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Paul High	1,018	61.7	+8.1
	Liberal Democrat	Alan Jones	632	38.3	+14.4
Majority			386	23.4	-6.3
Turnout			1,650	28	-3.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Marine ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Joan Bradley	1,351	63.2	-0.2
	Liberal Democrat	Gary Riding	508	23.8	+9.4
	UKIP	Phil Ruddock	278	13.0	+5.8
Majority			843	39.4	-9.6
Turnout			2,137	33	-3.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

Northbrook ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Mary Harding	372	40.5	-5.0
	Liberal Democrat	Michael Cranefield	354	38.6	-15.9
	Stop Durrington's Overdevelopment – Save Titnore's Trees	Dawn Smith	99	10.8	+10.8
	BNP	Jim Baxter	93	10.1	+10.1
Majority			18	1.9
Turnout			918	26	+3.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

Offington ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Elizabeth Sparkes	1,533	64.8	-12.4
	UKIP	Mike Glennon	402	17.0	+17.0
	Liberal Democrat	Patricia Izod	289	12.2	-5.6
	Labour	John Gardiner	142	6.0	+0.9
Majority			1,131	47.8	-11.6
Turnout			2,366	38	-1.0
	Conservative gain from Independent		Swing

Salvington ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Jacqui Marsh	1,311	57.5	-3.8
	Liberal Democrat	Jacqueline Cranefield	540	23.7	-0.4
	UKIP	Ron Brooks	428	18.8	+4.2
Majority			771	33.8	-3.4
Turnout			2,279	32	-3.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Selden ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	James Doyle	1,227	54.1	+9.5
	Conservative	Stephanie Hedley-Barnes	673	29.7	-15.5
	BNP	David Little	233	10.3	+10.3
	Labour	Ann Saunders	133	5.9	-4.3
Majority			554	34.4
Turnout			2,266	39	+3.0
	Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative		Swing

Tarring ^{[2] [7] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	Norah Fisher	1,083	54.1	-4.2
	Conservative	David Ide	607	30.3	+1.0
	UKIP	Ann Brown	191	9.5	+2.8
	Labour	Sid Wells	121	6.0	+0.2
Majority			476	23.8	-5.2
Turnout			2,002	31	-2.8
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing

References

1. "Worthing". BBC News Online . 2008-04-19. Retrieved 2009-10-15. 
2. "Local Election 2008 – Results". Worthing Borough Council. Retrieved 2009-10-15. 
3. "Elections: Candidates announced". Worthing Herald. 2008-04-07. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
4. "Worthing and Adur election results as they happen". West Sussex Gazette. 2008-04-29. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
5. "Breaking news: Arrests as trouble flares at Worthing election count". Chichester Observer. 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
6. "Gallery: Worthing election photos". Crawley Observer. 2008-05-03. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
7. "Worthing election results round-up". Midhurst and Petworth Observer. 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2009-10-15. 
8. "Former mayor defends email which 'questions' party leader". The Argus . 2007-11-30. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
9. "Boozy Worthing councillor will stay on". Worthing Herald. 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
10. "Worthing elections – live results". Worthing Herald. 2008-05-01. Retrieved 2009-10-15. 

External links

• Manifestos from each of the parties standing in the election