2003 Colchester Borough Council election

2003 Colchester Borough Council election

← 2002 1 May 2003 (2003-05-01) 2004 →
20 seats (out of 60 seats) 31 seats seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Party Liberal Democrats Conservative Last election 26 seats, 36.4% 24 seats, 39.5% Seats before 23 24 Seats after 25 24 Seat change 2 Popular vote 8,740 11,108 Percentage 32.0 40.0 Swing 4.4 1.1   Third party Fourth party   Party Independent Labour Last election 4 seats, 3.7% 6 seats, 19.1% Seats before 8 5 Seats after 6 5 Seat change 2 Popular vote 1,563 5,467 Percentage 5.7 20.0 Swing 2.0 0.9

Map of the results of the 2003 Colchester council election. Conservatives in blue, Liberal Democrats in yellow, Labour in red and independents in light grey. Wards in dark grey were not contested in 2003.

The 2003 Colchester Borough Council election took place on 1 May 2003 to elect members of Colchester Borough Council in Essex, England. This was the same day as the other 2003 United Kingdom local elections. One third of the seats were up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.^[1]

Background[]

Before the election the Conservatives were the largest party with 24 seats, the Liberal Democrats had 23 seats, Labour had 4 seats, there were 8 independents and 1 seat was vacant after the sitting Labour councillor moved to Scotland.^[2] The council was run by a cabinet comprising 3 Conservatives, 3 Liberal Democrats and 1 Labour members.^[3]

21 seats were being contested, with 2 seats available in Wivenhoe Cross due to the vacancy.^[2] The remaining 20 seats all had the sitting councillors defending their seats and included the Labour group leader Tim Young in St Andrew's and the Conservative mayor Nigel Chapman in Fordham and Stour.^[2] Meanwhile, in High Woods, Ian Ringer, defended the seat as an independent after leaving the Liberal Democrats earlier in 2003.^[2]

Election result[]

Prior to the election, 3 Liberal Democrat councillors from Highwoods ward defected and sat as Independents, reducing the Liberal Democrat group to 23 councillors.

Following the election Bob Newman left the Labour group to sit as an independent, reducing Labour to 4 councillors.^[3][4] Labour then went into opposition after refusing to work with the Conservatives and a new cabinet was formed with 4 Conservative and 4 Liberal Democrat members.^[3]

2003 Colchester Borough Council election[5][6]
Party		This election			Full council			This election
		Seats	Net	Seats %	Other	Total	Total %	Votes	Votes %	+/−
	Conservative	10		47.6	14	24	40.0	11,108	40.6	+1.1
	Liberal Democrats	8	2	38.1	17	25	41.7	8,740	32.0	–4.4
	Independent	1	2	4.8	5	6	10.0	1,563	5.7	+2.0
	Labour	2		9.5	3	5	8.3	5,467	20.0	+0.9
	Green	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	370	1.4	+0.2
	Socialist Alliance	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	96	0.4	+0.3

Ward results[]

Shown below are ward results according to the council's election results archive.^[6][7][8]

Three of the single-seat wards (Dedham & Langham, East Donyland, Marks Tey) were not up for election this year. Neither were three of the two-seat wards (Harbour, Lexden, St John's).

Berechurch[]

Birch & Winstree[]

Castle[]

Christ Church[]

Copford & West Stanway[]

Fordham & Stour[]

Great Tey[]

Highwoods[]

Highwoods

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Maris Fuller	417	32.3	6.4
	Liberal Democrats	Alan Hayman	408	31.6	25.0
	Independent	Ian Ringer[a]	339	26.3	New
	Labour	Edmund Chinnery	121	9.4	10.7
Majority			9	0.7
Turnout			1,290	22.0	2.0
	Conservative gain from Independent		Swing	15.7

Mile End[]

New Town[]

Prettygate[]

St. Andrew's[]

St. Anne's[]

Shrub End[]

Stanway[]

Tiptree[]

West Bergholt & Eight Ash Green[]

West Mersea[]

Wivenhoe Cross[]

Wivenhoe Quay[]

By-elections between 2003 and 2004[]

A by-election took place on 22 April 2004 after the death of the independent councillor Richard Davies.^[9]

References[]