Wyre Forest District Council election, 2004

Map of the results of the 2004 Wyre Forest District Council election. Conservatives in blue, Health Concern in pink, Liberal in orange, Labour in red, Liberal Democrats in yellow and independent in grey.

The 2004 Wyre Forest District Council election took place on 10 June 2004 to elect members of Wyre Forest District Council in Worcestershire, England. The whole council was up for election with boundary changes since the last election in 2003. ^[1] The council stayed under no overall control, but with the Conservatives taking over as the largest party on the council from the Health Concern party. ^[2]

Background

In total 113 candidates stood in the election with all 42 seats being contested for the first time since 1979 after boundary changes had taken place. ^{[3] [4]} The boundary changes meant that Bewdley ward had gained an extra councillor and become Bewdley and Arley, while Blakedown and Chaddesley had been combined into one ward. ^[3] The Conservatives put up a full slate of 42 candidates with Health Concern having the next most with 27. ^[3] Other candidates included 24 Labour, 9 Liberal, 7 Liberal Democrats and 3 independents. ^[3] A noted feature of the candidates was that there were ten married couples standing in the election with two of them being existing councillors. ^{[5] [6]}

Before the election Health Concern had 16 seats on the council as compared to 11 for the Conservatives. ^[7] This was a drop for Health Concern from 2003 after 3 councillors had defected to the Conservatives. ^[3]

Election result

The results had the Conservatives gain 8 seats to become the largest party on the council. ^{[8] [9]} This was mainly at the expense of Health Concern whose losses included the leader of the council, Howard Martin. ^[8] For other parties the election saw the Liberals gain one seat to hold 8, while both Labour and the Liberal Democrats stayed on the same number of seats. ^[9] The results meant that 14 councillors, a third of the council, would be new. ^[10] Voter turnout was up at 38.83% after seeing less than 31% in 2003, with the highest turnout being 54.36% in Wolverley. ^[10]

The Conservatives success was put down to a strong campaign and they were expected to form the next administration. ^[11] This would be the first time in 15 years that the Conservatives would have control of Wyre Forest council, with the other parties saying they would not attempt to form a rival coalition leaving the way clear for the Conservatives. ^[10] The Conservatives were expected to attempt to implement their manifesto pledges including bringing a cinema to Kidderminster, changing car parking in Kidderminster and reviewing the fortnightly refuse collection. ^[10]

Conservative control was confirmed at a council meeting on 30 June with Stephen Clee becoming leader of the council. ^[12] Meanwhile, Health Concern councillors chose Ken Stokes to become the new leader of their group on the council. ^[12]

Wyre Forest local election result 2004 ^{[2] [13]}

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	19			+8	45.2	38.6	26,373	+11.5%
	Health Concern	8			-8	19.0	25.8	17,650	-1.2%
	Liberal	8			+1	19.0	11.7	8,034	-1.0%
	Labour	4			0	9.5	16.1	11,014	-8.0%
	Liberal Democrat	2			0	4.8	5.8	3,945	-3.0%
	Independent	1			-1	2.4	2.0	1,381	+1.6%

Ward results

Aggborough and Spennells (3 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	Helen Dyke	1,037
	Liberal Democrat	Peter Dyke	946
	Conservative	Maureen Aston	673
	Liberal Democrat	Samantha Walker	654
	Health Concern	Keith Robertson	560
	Conservative	Ian Siddall	511
	Health Concern	Anthony Butcher	482
	Conservative	Susan Godwin	479
	Labour	Lesley Brown	182
Turnout			5,524	38.8

Areley Kings (3 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Maureen Mason	841
	Labour	James Shaw	733
	Conservative	Michael Partridge	673
	Conservative	Allan Wood	669
	Labour	James Cooper	628
	Health Concern	Nigel Thomas	606
	Labour	Albert Adams	595
	Independent	Arthur Millington	260
Turnout			5,005	40.7

Bewdley and Arley (3 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Louise Edginton	977
	Health Concern	Mavis Baillie	918
	Conservative	Stephen Clee	906
	Health Concern	Frank Baillie	886
	Health Concern	Maxwell Keen	859
	Conservative	Robert Court	765
	Labour	Paul Gittins	604
Turnout			5,915	43.6

Blakedown and Chaddesley (2 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Stephen Williams	925
	Conservative	Pauline Hayward	867
	Health Concern	Harry Grove	687
	Labour	Flora Wright	166
Turnout			2,645	47.0

Broadwaters (3 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Robert Wheway	770
	Health Concern	Kenneth Stokes	723
	Liberal	Amanda Poole	589
	Health Concern	Marian Spragg	564
	Liberal	Michael Price	526
	Conservative	Gordon Hinton	412
	Labour	Stephen Hill	362
	Conservative	Janette Adams	345
	Conservative	Peter Dudley	322
Turnout			4,613	32.1

Cookley ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Christopher Nicholls	435	46.7
	Conservative	David Pittaway	296	31.8
	Health Concern	Graham Barker	201	21.6
Majority			139	14.9
Turnout			932	50.4

Franche (3 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Jeffrey Baker	774
	Conservative	Anne Hingley	738
	Health Concern	Michael Shellie	699
	Health Concern	Howard Martin	693
	Conservative	Graeme Carruthers	646
	Health Concern	Robert Spragg	628
	Labour	Nigel Knowles	625
	Labour	Geoffrey Morgan	561
	Labour	Leroy Wright	490
Turnout			5,854	38.1

Greenhill (3 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Graham Ballinger	1,045
	Liberal	Paul Harrison	993
	Liberal	Rachel Lewis	864
	Health Concern	Christopher Gadd	518
	Health Concern	Pauline Stokes	456
	Conservative	John Aston	324
	Conservative	Geoffrey Bulmer	324
	Conservative	David Muston	306
	Independent	Tavis Pitt	265
Turnout			5,095	33.9

Habberley and Blakebrook (3 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Lynn Hyde	931
	Labour	Michael Kelly	825
	Conservative	Arthur Buckley	804
	Labour	Trevor Bennett	771
	Health Concern	Elizabeth Davies	766
	Conservative	Kenneth Prosser	735
	Health Concern	George Eeles	705
	Conservative	Keith Fletcher	670
Turnout			6,207	44.1

Lickhill (3 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Health Concern	Brian Glass	939
	Health Concern	Jill Fairbrother-Millis	896
	Health Concern	Irene Dolan	768
	Conservative	David Little	696
	Conservative	Ian Cresswell	592
	Conservative	Michael Freeman	553
	Labour	Donovan Giles	344
	Labour	Roger Green	315
Turnout			5,103	34.3

Mitton (3 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	John Holden	758
	Conservative	June Salter	748
	Health Concern	Patricia Rimell	736
	Conservative	Michael Salter	691
	Health Concern	Dixon Sheppard	671
	Liberal Democrat	Peter Barrass	505
	Labour	David Keogh-Smith	314
	Labour	Gary Watson	284
Turnout			4,707	35.1

Offmore and Comberton (3 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Frances Oborski	1,186
	Liberal	Michael Oborski	1,043
	Liberal	Siriol Hayward	1,018
	Conservative	Margaret Gregory	561
	Conservative	Sheila Harrold	540
	Conservative	Gillian Onslow	539
	Labour	Keith Budden	415
Turnout			5,302	40.4

Oldington and Foley Park (2 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Nathan Desmond	493
	Conservative	Susan Meekings	414
	Health Concern	Peter Young	373
	Labour	James Brown	299
	Labour	John Gretton	291
	Liberal Democrat	Clive Parsons	195
Turnout			2,065	31.6

Rock ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Independent	John Simmonds	488	53.7
	Conservative	Douglas Godwin	420	46.3
Majority			68	7.4
Turnout			908	46.2

Sutton Park (3 seats) ^[13]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Marcus Hart	1,001
	Conservative	James Dudley	931
	Conservative	John-Paul Campion	852
	Health Concern	Jennifer Harrison	619
	Health Concern	Anthony Greenfield	606
	Liberal Democrat	Martin Meredith	375
	Labour	William Bradley	301
	Liberal Democrat	Stanley Ratcliff	233
Turnout			4,918	35.2

Wolverley ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Malcolm Hazlewood	439	46.4
	Independent	Nigel Addison	368	38.9
	Labour	Conrad Bourne	139	14.7
Majority			71	7.5
Turnout			946	54.4

Wribbenhall (2 seats) ^{[13] [14]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	William Jones	621
	Health Concern	Anthony Williams	574
	Conservative	Gordon Yarranton	542
	Health Concern	Derek Killingworth	517
	Labour	Barry McFarland	404
Turnout			2,658	39.0

By-elections between 2004 and 2006

A by-election was held in Aggborough and Spennells after the death of Conservative councillor Maureen Aston. ^[15] Candidates at the election included the former leader of the council Howard Martin for Health Concern, a former councillor for the ward, Adrian Sewell for Labour, and the first Green party candidate for an election to Wyre Forest District Council, Kate Spohrer. ^[15] The seat was held by Conservative John Aston, husband of the former councillor, with a majority of 63 votes over Liberal Democrat Samantha Walker. ^[15]

Aggborough and Spennells by-election 27 October 2005 ^[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	John Aston	527	40.0	+15.3
	Liberal Democrat	Samantha Walker	464	35.2	-12.8
	Health Concern	Howard Martin	185	14.0	-6.6
	Labour	Adrian Sewell	108	8.2	+1.5
	Green	Katherine Spohrer	33	2.5	+2.5
Majority			63	4.8
Turnout			1,317	24.7	-14.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

1. "Wyre Forest council". BBC News Online . Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
2. "Elections 2004: Results at a glance". The Guardian. 2004-06-12. p. 10. 
3. "113 hopefuls for 43 seats". Malvern Gazette . 2004-05-20. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
4. "Voters go to polls to elect entire council". Malvern Gazette . 2004-06-10. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
5. Chamberlain, Zoe (2004-06-06). "The Mag: Vote Mr & Mrs Domestic politics ; No fewer than 10 married couples are standing as candidates in the Wyre Forest District Council elections in Worcestershire on Thursday. Can the heady mix of politics and marriage lead to domestic bliss? Lifestyle Editor Zoe Chamberlain finds out". Sunday Mercury. p. 34. 
6. "Ten couples in bid for votes". Malvern Gazette . 2004-05-20. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
7. "Local council election nominations: Hung councils are up for grabs". Birmingham Mail. 2004-06-08. p. 30. 
8. "Election 2004: Town bucks trend". Birmingham Mail. 2004-06-12. p. 7. 
9. "Tories are biggest party". Malvern Gazette . 2004-06-11. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
10. "Tories ready to rule - how the new district council is made up". Malvern Gazette . 2004-06-17. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
11. Smith, Sue (2004-06-12). "Council Elections: Wyre Forest: Good gains but no clear winner". Birmingham Post. p. 4. 
12. "Schools row marks Tory takeover". Malvern Gazette . 2004-07-01. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
13. "Election results 2004" (PDF). Political Science Resources. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
14. "Full list of results". Malvern Gazette . 2004-06-17. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
15. "Tories win district by-election". Worcestershire, West Midlands, Herefordshire, and Shropshire Counties Publications. NewsBank. 28 October 2005. 
16. "District Council election" (PDF). Wyre Forest District Council. Retrieved 16 April 2015.