County Council Elections

[Filuwaúrdjan]

As well as the biggy, there are council council elections tomorrow.
Top Tory target is Northants IIRC.

A lot of people who have been on Shropshire County Council since about 1066 are in tight races apparently.

[Rural Radical]

Shropshire CC :

Who do you think IS GOING TO GO.

I think Gerald Dakin (Con) Prees will go. It is my ward and the independent Mike Barker already beat him on North Shropshire DC (the official worst run council in England) 1in 2003.

Also I think the Major in Sutton & Reabrook will go as well (Con)

Aside from that Chris Mellings (Lib Dem) Wem might well get 85% of the vote in the new very urban left of centre wem division.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Sutton & Reabrook will go Labour methinks; Shrewsbury's souther suburbs seem to be swing Labourwards on a long term basis.

Is anyone challenging Coles in Clee Hill? He lost his district seat IIRC, so it could be interesting.

I'd love to see that crooked bastard Bodenham lose (ever had a look at some of SSDC's planning documents? Jesus...) but he won't.

[Peter]

The Boundary Commission have compeletely redrawn the County Council seats since 01, so basically we can't work out who the incumbent party is meant to be. Interestingly, my seat will have two Councillors under the Oxford re-organisation.

[Rural Radical]

Coles is standing as a Lib Dem and he is challenged by a con so he wont lose.  Bodenham is challenged by a Con so there is no point in voting.

Labour could also pick up Shifnal and Weston Rhyn. With The Lib Dems picking up One of the Oswestry seats plus Ellesmere and Bagley (Plus Copthone) if the tories are doing well.

[Rural Radical]

These are my predictions for aShropshire CC. See if I am right on Friday.

Oswestry Borough :

Oswestry : Lab x1 LD x1
Weston Rhyn : Lab
Whittington :Prog Ind (Lloyd)
St Oswald : Con
Ruyton : Prog Ind (Gaskill)

North Shropshire District :

Baschurch : Con unnoposed (would be Con anyway)
Ellesmere : LD
Shawbury : Prog Ind (Jones)
Wem : LD (bY A BIG MARGIN)
Wem Rural : Con
Prees : Prog Ind (Barker)
Whitchurch : Con
Market Drayton : Lab x2
Market Drayton Rural : Con

Bridgnorth District :

Albrighton : Con
Shifnal : Lab
Broseley : Lab
Bridgnorth Rural : Con
Bridgnorth East : LD
Bridgnorth West : Con
Morfe : Con
Much Wenlock : Con
Stottesdon : Con

South Shropshire District :

Ludlow : LD
Ludlow Rural : LD
Clun : LD
Clee : LD
Bishops Castle : LD
Church Stretton : LD
Corvedale : Ind (Bodenham)

Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough :

Harlescott : Lab
Bagley : LD
Sundorne : Lab
Castlefields & Ditherington : Lab
Belle Vue : Lab
Underdale : LD
Monkmoor : Lab
Sutton & Reabrook : Lab
Meole Brace : Lab
Copthorne : LD
Porthill : LD
Bayston Hill : Lab
Haughmond : Con
Rea Valley : Ind
Burnell : Con
Bowbrook (I think) : Con

Totals

Lab : 14
LD : 14
Progressive Independent : 4

Conservative : 14
Independent : 2

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Mixed fortunes for all the parties;

Labour had a lot of sucess in the Mayoral elections, ousting Independent Mike Wolfe in Stoke and the Tories in North Tyneside while holding onto Doncaster.
The only exception was Hartlepool, where H'Angus the Monkey (Stuart Drummond) won a landslide.

In the County Council elections the Tories gained Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire (only just though), Suffolk, Worcestershire and there top target, Northants.
Labour held all their County Councils (despite predictions of losing overall control in Northumberland, Lancashire and Staffordshire) while the LibDems swept the West Country to pick up Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Some results summaries:

Northumberland

Lab gain: Hexham Central with Acomb
LD gain: Berwick North, Cramlington South East, Ponteland East, Ponteland North, Ulgham, Hexham West, Bedlington Central
Con gain: Cramlington North, Chevington with Longhorsley
Ind gain: Alnwick, Amble West with Warkworth

Durham

Lab gain: Ouston, Durham South
LD gain: Gilesgate

I also recommend Cumbria's results site: http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/election2005/results/frame.htm

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In case no one believes me when I say the Forest of Dean constituency is polarised... this is a map of the results for Gloucestershire CC:



Case closed. Free the Forest!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A quick check of Norfolk CC results shows that there's still a small but sizeable Labour base with some of the agricultural workers

25% in the most rural district in Norfolk North (Melton Constable). The Labour vote across that seat seems to have been much higher in the county council elections (didn't win any seats o/c) than the Westminster election. Which means that Lamb is either a brilliant constituency M.P or they really, really didn't like the idea of being represented by someone who's openly homosexual.

[Peter]

I suppose I best do Surrey and Oxfordshire:

Oxfordshire was an unsurprising Tory gain, though I was somewhat surprised by the margain as the number of Labour councillors collapsed. The Greens once again made breakthroughs to add to their gains on Oxford City Council last year. I think I am one of the few people in the country with the pleasure of having both my County Councillors and one of my two City Councillors as Greens, and they'll probably be able to pick up the other City Council seat here next year.

I can't find a nice map unfortunately.

Surrey continued its era of Conservative domination, with 58 out of 80 Councillors. Interesting factoid is that whilst the Guildford MP is now a Tory, the County Council seats for the town have gone more Lib Dem. There were a couple of notional Tory gains in the area around where I used to live, though I'm not entirely sure how the local boundary changes panned out.

Those of you who feel compelled to see a map, click here

I reckon Surrey will see a Labour wipe-out by next time.

[minionofmidas]

Interesting - it's on single member districts.
Chertsey looks safe-ish for Labour, though the other one is highly marginal.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I'm suprised there's any Labour county councillers left in Surrey as it is...

[minionofmidas]

I'm sort of surprised there ever were any!