1997 Essex County Council election

An election to Essex County Council took place on 1 May 1997 as part of the 1997 United Kingdom local elections. 79 councillors were elected from various electoral divisions, which returned either one or two county councillors each by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office. With the creation of Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and Thurrock Council in 1998 the number of seats contested at this election was reduced by 19. In 1993 the breakdown of these seats were, Lab 9 Con 5 LD 5.

1997 Essex County Council election
1 May 1997
All 79 seats to Essex County Council
40 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats
Last election 32 seats, 35.3% 33 seats, 30.7% 32 seats, 31.9%
Seats before 26 25 27
Seats won 40 23 15
Seat change 13 1 12
Popular vote 281,074 229,181 192,520
Percentage 38.9% 31.7% 26.6%
Swing 3.1% 1.3% 5.3%
  Fourth party
 
Party Loughton Residents
Last election Did Not Stand
Seats before 0
Seats won 1
Seat change 1
Popular vote 5,040
Percentage 0.7%
Swing 0.7%
Majority party before election

No Overall Control

 Majority party after election

No Overall Control

Government Formation

Despite winning less than half the seats contested, the incumbent Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition continued in government because the members from Southend and Thurrock (who's seats had not been contested at the election) gave them a 52 to 45 majority over the Conservatives until April 1998 when those seats would be abolished.[1] After council leader Chris Pearson (Tendring Rural West), wasn't reelected in Maypole, Mervyn Juliff (Great Parndon) became council leader until the departure of the 19 Southend and Thurrock councilors, at which point Conservative group leader Paul White became leader.[2] However in May 1999 Alison Enkel (Brentwood Rural) resigned from the Conservatives.[3] This following a by election loss to Labour a year before gave control of the council back to the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition.[4] This proved unworkable as with further resignations leading to a power struggle before defeat in budget vote which caused the coalition to resign and the Conservatives to return.[5][6]

Results
Essex County Council election, 1997[7][8]
Party Seats Gains Losses Net gain/loss Seats % Votes % Votes +/−
  Conservative 40 14 1 13 50.6 38.9 281,074 +3.6
  Labour 23 2 3 1 29.1 31.7 229,181 +1.0
  Liberal Democrats 15 1 13 12 19.0 26.6 192,520 −5.3
  Loughton Residents 1 1 1 1.3 0.7 5,040 +0.7
  Green 0 1.1 7,907 +0.1
  Independent 0 1 1 1.0 7,378 +0.2
  Socialist Alliance 0 >0.1 220 N/A
Total 79 723,320

Results by Electoral Divisions

Colchester
Constable division
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Anthony Clover * 3,916 45.8 −2.3
Liberal Democrats Andrew Phillips 2,844 33.3 −6.5
Labour Julie Young 1,783 20.9 +8.8
Majority 1,072 12.5 +4.1
Turnout 8,543 76.8 +37.1
Conservative hold Swing +2.1
Drury division
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Robert Yates * 3,945 39.8 −14.7
Conservative Jeremy Lucas 3,865 38.9 +2.8
Labour Roy Moules 2,115 21.3 +11.8
Majority 80 0.8 −17.5
Turnout 9,925 74.4 +29.5
Liberal Democrats hold Swing −8.7
Maypole division
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Patricia Pascoe * 3,149 41.5 −14.8
Labour Christopher Pearson * 2,654 35.0 +7.7
Conservative Richard Lamberth 1,783 23.5 +7.1
Majority 495 6.5 −22.5
Turnout 7,586 63.9 +36.8
Liberal Democrats hold Swing −11.3
Mersea and Stanway division
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Christopher Manning-Press * 5,193 44.3 +0.1
Liberal Democrats Terence Brady 3,973 33.9 −6.5
Labour Ian Yates 2,556 21.8 +9.2
Majority 1,220 10.4 +6.6
Turnout 11,722 74.7 +39.9
Conservative hold Swing +3.3

No Green candidate as previous (−2.8).

Old Heath division
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Margaret Fisher * 3,806 43.4 −7.8
Labour Sally Pygott 3,092 35.2 +1.0
Conservative Ian McCord 1,879 21.4 +9.4
Majority 714 8.1 −8.8
Turnout 8,777 67.5 +29.4
Liberal Democrats hold Swing −4.4

No Green candidate as previous (−2.6).

Park division
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Kenneth Jones * 3,141 36.4 −10.4
Conservative Nigel Chapman 2,876 33.3 −1.0
Labour Kim Naish 2,611 30.3 +11.4
Majority 265 3.1 −13.8
Turnout 8,628 66.6 +28.5
Liberal Democrats hold Swing −4.7
Parsons Heath division
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Edward Crunden * 4,413 42.1 −11.1
Conservative Derek Smith 3,062 29.2 +6.9
Labour Anthony Constable 3,005 28.7 +4.2
Majority 1,351 12.9 −15.8
Turnout 10,480 69.3 +32.5
Liberal Democrats hold Swing −9.0
Tiptree division
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Edmund Peel * 3,526 40.0 −4.0
Labour Tania Rogers 2,783 31.5 +5.6
Independent Stuart Beckwith 2,147 24.3 New
Green Cheryl Gerrard 367 4.2 −0.5
Majority 743 8.5 −9.5
Turnout 8,823 73.1 +43.6
Conservative hold Swing −4.8

No Liberal Democrat candidate as previous (−25.2).

Wivenhoe St Andrew division
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Brian Stapleton * 3,276 42.3 −7.8
Liberal Democrats John Gray 2,426 31.3 +14.0
Conservative Jane Girdlestone 2,044 26.4 −2.5
Majority 850 11.0 −10.2
Turnout 7,746 63.4 +37.2
Labour hold Swing −10.9

No Green candidate as previous (−3.7).

Epping Forest
Loughton St Johns
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Gillian Huckle 2,570 37.0 −18.4
Loughton Residents Dorothy Paddon 2,146 30.9 +30.9
Conservative Stephen Metcalfe 1,772 25.5 −4.5
Liberal Democrats Christopher Spence 452 6.5 −8.1
Majority 424 6.1 −19.2
Turnout 6,940 69.7 +41.6
Labour hold Swing −24.7
Loughton St. Marys
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Loughton Residents Christopher Harper 2,894 36.9 +36.9
Labour Stanley Goodwin * 2,552 32.5 −12.6
Conservative James Brokenshire 1,952 24.9 −10.7
Liberal Democrats Lucille Thompson 446 5.7 −13.6
Majority 342 4.4
Turnout 7,844 73.6 +39.5
Loughton Residents gain from Labour Swing +24.8

Tendring
Clacton West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Roy Smith * 5,008 54.8
Conservative M Hughes 2,756 30.2
Liberal Democrats P Miller 1,375 15.0
Majority 2,252 24.6
Turnout 9,139 64.2
Labour hold Swing

References
  1. "Southend Unitary Authority (Hansard, 28 November 1997)". api.parliament.uk.
  2. "Essex County Council - Councillors, Chelmsford Borough". essexcc.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 23 April 2003.
  3. "Essex Tories lose control". Gazette.
  4. "Essex: Council tax may rise by 9 per cent". Gazette.
  5. "Breakaways cause county council power struggle". Gazette.
  6. "Essex: Chaos over county's 'envelope' budget". Gazette.
  7. "Elections". Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  8. "Results from the County Election on 1 May 1997". whatdotheyknow.com. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
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