2004 Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council election

Map of the results of the 2004 Sandwell council election. Labour in red, Conservatives in blue, Liberal Democrats in yellow and British National Party in dark blue.

The 2004 Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council election took place on 10 June 2004 to elect members of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in the West Midlands, England. The whole council was up for election with boundary changes since the last election in 2003. ^[1] The Labour Party stayed in overall control of the council. ^[2]

Campaign

Before the election the council was controlled by Labour with 55 seats, compared to 9 for the Conservatives, 6 Liberal Democrats and 2 British National Party. ^[3]

During the campaign the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown visited Sandwell and called on voters to reject the British National Party. ^[4]

Election result

The results saw Labour easily hold on to control of the council after dropping just 3 seats. ^[5] The leader of the council, Bill Thomas, described the results as "remarkable" considering it was a mid term election and called it a "vote of confidence". ^[5] However Labour did lose seats to the Conservatives, including 2 in St Paul's ward, meaning that the Conservatives made a gain of 4 seats. ^[5] The Liberal Democrats stayed on 6 seats, while the British National Party dropped to just 1 seat. ^[5] The only successful BNP candidate was in Princes End ward, where James Lloyd was elected, while in the same ward his party colleague John Salvage lost his seat on the council. ^[5]

Sandwell Local Election Result 2004 ^{[6] [7]}

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	52			-3	72.2	50.7	97,638	+3.7%
	Conservative	13			+4	18.1	28.1	54,028	-0.5%
	Liberal Democrats	6			0	8.3	13.3	25,631	+2.7%
	BNP	1			-1	1.4	4.0	7,750	-1.9%
	Freedom Party	0			0	0	1.5	2,872	-0.6%
	Socialist Labour	0			0	0	1.0	1,934	-3.2%
	2003 Community Party	0			0	0	0.9	1,759	-0.3%
	UKIP	0			0	0	0.3	588	+0.2%
	Independent	0			0	0	0.1	207	+0.1%

Ward results

Abbey (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ann Jaron	2,007
	Labour	Steven Eling	1,941
	Labour	Robert Piper	1,850
	Liberal Democrats	Roger Prior	840
	Conservative	Ewart Johnson	801
	Conservative	Roger Hickman	793
	Conservative	William Shipman	706
Turnout			8,938

Blackheath (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Mary Docker	1,369
	Labour	Robert Price	1,368
	Labour	Glenn Harris	1,346
	Labour	David Walker	1,310
	Conservative	Debbie Elwell	1,237
	Conservative	Shirley Ching	1,155
Turnout			7,785

Bristnall (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Malcolm Bridges	1,313
	Labour	Lois Griffin	1,247
	Conservative	Terence Grainger	1,235
	Labour	Vicky Handy	1,073
	Conservative	John Irons-Patterson	1,062
	Conservative	Leslie Pawlowski	940
	Socialist Labour	Sukhjinder Clair	256
Turnout			7,126

Charlemont with Grove Vale (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alan Burkit	1,646
	Conservative	Anne Hughes	1,521
	Conservative	Tony Ward	1,463
	Liberal Democrats	Keith Allcock	985
	Labour	Mark Handy	923
	Liberal Democrats	Diane Gorton	837
	Labour	Jean Heywood	808
	Labour	Bob Patel	714
	Liberal Democrats	Bhajan Rai	696
Turnout			9,593

Cradley Heath and Old Hill (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Margaret James	1,549
	Labour	Ann Shackleton	1,397
	Labour	Glenis Webb	1,277
	Conservative	Liz Bowler	1,115
	Conservative	Ronald Griffiths	918
	BNP	Stuart Deeley	850
	Conservative	Michael Hardy	840
Turnout			7,946

Friar Park (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Geoffrey Lewis	1,463
	Labour	Joyce Edis	1,190
	Labour	Simon Hackett	1,179
	Conservative	Raymond Webb	880
	Conservative	Barry Nelson	820
	Liberal Democrats	Dorothy Brayshaw	651
Turnout			6,183

Great Barr with Yew Tree(3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Sadie Smith	1,612
	Liberal Democrats	Margaret Macklin	1,221
	Liberal Democrats	Mary Wilson	1,009
	Conservative	Robert Lawrence	886
	Labour	Harbinder Deol	850
	Labour	Janet Bott-Obi	811
	BNP	Derrick Dale	798
	Labour	Michael Shackleton	767
	BNP	Scott Dale	757
Turnout			8,711

Great Bridge (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Derek Rowley	1,115
	Labour	Peter Allen	1,081
	Labour	Maureen Whitehouse	983
	BNP	Arthur Copson	880
	2003 Community Party	Fred Perry	770
	BNP	Simon Smith	767
	2003 Community Party	Robert Roper	506
	2003 Community Party	Malcolm Beckley	483
	Conservative	Philip Mansell	366
	Liberal Democrats	Philip Roberts	213
	Conservative	Onkar Badial	212
	Independent	Naranjan Khag	207
	Conservative	Avtar Sandhu	190
Turnout			7,773

Greets Green and Lyng (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Edwards	1,360
	Labour	Gurchuran Sidhu	1,345
	Labour	Robert Badham	1,284
	Liberal Democrats	Dorothy Jones	768
	Liberal Democrats	Mazar Hussain	732
	Liberal Democrats	Darren Saxon	707
	Conservative	Rosemarie Campbell	664
	Conservative	Mohammed Ahmed	616
Turnout			7,476

Hateley Heath (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joanna Watson	1,480
	Labour	John Blyth	1,443
	Labour	Terry Williams	1,404
	Liberal Democrats	Reg Hackett	744
	Conservative	Kathleen Ryan	614
	Conservative	Gaynor Skeldon	582
	Liberal Democrats	Jarnail Sandhu	494
	Liberal Democrats	Shaju Islam	437
Turnout			7,198

Langley (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Pauline Hinton	1,493
	Labour	Martin Prestidge	1,485
	Labour	Michael Davies	1,381
	Conservative	Robert Unitt	994
	Conservative	Arthur Worley	898
Turnout			6,251

Newton (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Joyce Underhill	1,928
	Liberal Democrats	Martyn Smith	1,795
	Liberal Democrats	Anthony Underhill	1,761
	Labour	David Hosell	992
	Labour	Delia Edwards	882
	Labour	Ravi Kumar	785
	Conservative	Valerie Ward	693
Turnout			8,836

Oldbury (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Babu Bawa	1,823
	Labour	Elaine Giles	1,686
	Labour	Mahboob Hussain	1,612
	Conservative	David Hadley	1,233
	Conservative	Abdul Qayyum	959
	Conservative	Harbhajan Mann	859
	Liberal Democrats	Tofayal Ahmed	371
Turnout			8,543

Old Warley (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Karen Bissell	1,822
	Conservative	Nicholas Meacham	1,669
	Conservative	John McHard	1,667
	Labour	Trevor Crompton	1,439
	Labour	Gordon McKenzie	1,372
	Labour	Janice Whitehead	1,326
Turnout			9,295

Princes End (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	BNP	James Lloyd	987
	Labour	Raymond Howes	947
	Labour	June Newell	939
	BNP	John Savage	886
	Labour	Andrew Millard	866
	UKIP	Kevin Walker	588
	Conservative	Mark Nelson	423
Turnout			5,636

Rowley (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Iris Boucher	1,667
	Labour	Barbara Price	1,638
	Labour	William Thomas	1,613
	Conservative	Joanne Hadley	1,075
	Conservative	Jonathan Millward	1,040
	Conservative	Donald O'Connor	1,011
Turnout			8,044

St Paul's (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Mohammed Sakhi	1,873
	Conservative	Mohammed Zaheer	1,861
	Labour	Gurinder Josan	1,855
	Labour	Bawa Dhallu	1,760
	Labour	Jagwant Gill	1,746
	Liberal Democrats	Sahbud Ullah	1,621
	Conservative	Manjit Lall	682
	Socialist Labour	Ranjit Tagger	462
Turnout			11,860

Smethwick (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Linda Horton	1,707
	Labour	Keith Davies	1,602
	Labour	Victor Silvester	1,363
	Conservative	Beryl Hickman	892
	Socialist Labour	Balkar Sandhu	495
	Liberal Democrats	Mohammed Majied	423
Turnout			6,482

Soho and Victoria (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Darren Cooper	1,852
	Labour	Roger Horton	1,736
	Labour	Mohammad Rouf	1,679
	Liberal Democrats	Shamin Ahmed	888
	Liberal Democrats	Wasim Abbas	829
	Liberal Democrats	Christopher Reed	703
	Conservative	Salahadin Adrwish	354
	Conservative	David Dixon	353
	Socialist Labour	Malcolm Connigale	213
Turnout			8,607

Tipton Green (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ian Jones	1,591
	Labour	Syeda Khatun	1,506
	Labour	Stephen Edwards	1,460
	Freedom Party	Stephen Edwards	1,178
	Freedom Party	Alison Aitken-Jones	859
	Freedom Party	William Aitken-Jones	835
	Conservative	Basharat Khan	686
	Conservative	Lorraine Nelson	657
	BNP	Terence Taylor	651
	Conservative	Montaj Ali	541
	Liberal Democrats	Yvonne Reed	305
	Liberal Democrats	Ansar Hussain	258
Turnout			10,527

Tividale (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Maria Crompton	1,735
	Labour	David Hinton	1,539
	Labour	Douglas Parish	1,438
	BNP	Carl Butler	1,174
Turnout			5,886

Wednesbury North (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Archer	1,954
	Conservative	Elaine Costigan	1,739
	Conservative	Mavis Hughes	1,537
	Labour	Roy Melia	739
	Labour	Lorraine Ashman	643
	Labour	Gulshan Chowdhury	592
Turnout			7,204

Wednesbury South (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Evans	1,522
	Labour	George Turton	1,327
	Labour	Susan Downing	1,301
	Conservative	Alan Nugent	1,096
	Conservative	Jean Nugent	1,015
	Conservative	Atma Matharu	841
	Liberal Democrats	Richard Mitchener	493
Turnout			7,595

West Bromwich Central (3) ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Linda Turton	1,796
	Labour	Tarsem King	1,766
	Labour	Mohinder Tagger	1,559
	Conservative	Norman Lawley	973
	Liberal Democrats	Sandra Beriford	870
	Liberal Democrats	Bertram Richards	787
	Liberal Democrats	Mohammed Ashgar	653
	Socialist Labour	Ranjit Powar	508
Turnout			8,912

References

1. "Sandwell council". BBC News Online . Retrieved 17 February 2011.
2. "Local councils". Financial Times . 12 June 2004. p. 7.
3. Johnson, Steve (14 May 2004). "Row on BNP vote push; Party branded 'Nazis in sharp suits'". Birmingham Mail . p. 2.
4. Naqvi, Shahid (27 May 2004). "Chancellor in Brum to rally voters to Labour". Birmingham Post . p. 6.
5. "Election 2004: Sandwell: Joy in the face of losses". Birmingham Mail . 12 June 2004. p. 7.
6. "9.4 Sandwell". Local Elections Archive Project. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
7. "Ballot box". The Times . 12 June 2004. p. 26.