Map of the results of the 2006 Woking council election. Liberal Democrats in yellow and Conservatives in blue. Wards in grey were not contested in 2006.

The 2006 Woking Council election took place on 4 May 2006 to elect members of Woking Borough Council in Surrey, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.[1]

After the election, the composition of the council was:

Campaign

6 sitting councillors stood down at the election including the former Conservative leader of the council Jim Armitage and the independent Mike Copham who had resigned from the Conservatives.[3]

Housing and development was a contentious issue during the campaign, with the council being required to build 240 houses a year for the next 20 years under the South East Plan. Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats fought the election on a platform of opposing overdevelopment and protecting the green belt.[4]

The campaign saw allegations of electoral fraud in Woking, which were investigated by the police.[5][6] These included claims of multiple voter registrations at 6 addresses in Maybury and Sheerwater, intimidation and that blank postal votes had been given community leaders.[5][6] The investigation saw one man arrested on suspicion of impersonating another voter.[7]

Election result

The results saw the Liberal Democrats become the largest party on the council with 18 seats as compared to 15 for the Conservatives.[8] The Conservatives failed to take any seats from the Liberal Democrats, who gained 3 seats in Horsell West, Knaphill and Mount Hermon East wards and almost won a majority on the council for the first time since 1998 after losing by just 2 votes in Byfleet after 4 recounts.[8][9] Despite this the Conservatives took more votes across the council than the Liberal Democrats and made a gain from Labour in Maybury and Sheerwater.[8] Labour was reduced to only 3 seats on the council after losing in Maybury and Sheerwater, which was the only ward where they won more than 200 votes.[8] Overall turnout in the election was 42.17%.[10]

Woking Local Election Result 2006[2][10]
Party Seats Gains Losses Net gain/loss Seats % Votes % Votes +/−
  Liberal Democrats 8 3 0 +3 61.5 41.0 10,450 +1.4%
  Conservative 5 2 3 -1 38.5 45.2 11,527 +4.4%
  Labour 0 0 1 -1 0 8.1 2,063 -2.1%
  UKIP 0 0 0 0 0 3.4 865 -3.4%
  Independent 0 0 1 -1 0 1.5 384 -0.1%
  UK Community Issues Party 0 0 0 0 0 0.9 229 +0.0%

Ward results

Byfleet[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Irene Watson Green 1,049 45.7 +10.3
Liberal Democrats Suzanne Kittelsen 1,047 45.6 +7.6
Labour David Mitchell 113 4.9 +1.1
UKIP Marion Free 88 3.8 -3.3
Majority 2 0.1
Turnout 2,297 41.9 -1.4
Conservative hold Swing
Goldsworth East[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Bryan Cross 1,062 50.6
Conservative Hilary Addison 840 40.4
Labour Chanchal Kapoor 198 9.4
Majority 222 10.2
Turnout 2,100 39.3
Liberal Democrats hold Swing
Goldsworth West[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Denzil Coulson 810 64.2 +12.0
Conservative Manish Gajjar 368 29.2 +1.6
Labour John Bramall 83 6.6 -0.2
Majority 442 35.0 +10.4
Turnout 1,261 32.9 +4.9
Liberal Democrats hold Swing
Hermitage and Knaphill South[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Kenneth Howard 760 54.0 +1.4
Conservative Valerian Hopkins 535 38.0 +4.0
Labour Graeme Carman 112 8.0 -5.4
Majority 225 16.0 -2.6
Turnout 1,407 35.5 +9.9
Liberal Democrats hold Swing
Horsell West (2)[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Richard Sanderson 1,297
Liberal Democrats Gareth Davies 1,242
Conservative Anthony Branagan 1,163
Conservative Roger Wiltshire 1,027
UKIP Timothy Shaw 172
Labour Audrey Worgan 119
UKIP Richard Squire 107
Labour Christopher Lowe 88
UK Community Issues Party Michael Osman 79
Turnout 5,294 51.4 +4.0
Liberal Democrats hold Swing
Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative Swing
Knaphill[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Richard Sharp 1,302 49.4 +8.3
Conservative Anthony Hayes-Allen 978 37.1 -15.5
UKIP Matthew Davies 198 7.5 +7.5
Labour Linda Kendall 157 6.0 -0.3
Majority 324 12.3
Turnout 2,635 38.1 +3.6
Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative Swing
Maybury and Sheerwater[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Mohammed Iqbal 1,357 48.6 +9.2
Labour Mohammed Khan 896 32.1 -2.3
Liberal Democrats Peter Hough 389 13.9 -8.9
UK Community Issues Party Katrina Osman 150 5.4 +2.0
Majority 461 16.5 +11.5
Turnout 2,792 42.2 -1.2
Conservative gain from Labour Swing
Mayford and Sutton Green[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Simon Bellord 675 71.0 -4.0
Liberal Democrats Malcolm Randall 191 20.1 +2.8
UKIP Dennis Davey 45 4.7 +0.8
Labour Christopher Martin 40 4.2 +0.4
Majority 484 50.9 -6.8
Turnout 951 50.4 +5.5
Conservative hold Swing
Mount Hermon East[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Norman Johns 860 48.4 +20.7
Conservative David Bittleston 786 44.2 -12.2
UKIP Judith Squire 69 3.9 -5.6
Labour Michael Kelly 62 3.5 -2.9
Majority 74 4.2
Turnout 1,777 48.7 +9.0
Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative Swing
Mount Hermon West[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrats Susan Smith 970 56.7 +2.6
Conservative Carl Thomson 603 35.2 +3.9
UKIP Mary Kingston 77 4.5 -5.2
Labour John Pitt 62 3.6 -1.3
Majority 367 21.5 -1.3
Turnout 1,712 43.3 +3.0
Liberal Democrats hold Swing
St Johns and Hook Heath[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative John Kingsbury 963 63.4 -9.5
Liberal Democrats Andrew Larkham 271 17.8 -3.8
Independent Adrian Gray 188 12.4 +12.4
UKIP Marcia Taylor 52 3.4 +3.4
Labour Colin Bright 46 3.0 -2.6
Majority 692 45.6 -5.7
Turnout 1,520 43.3 +8.1
Conservative hold Swing
West Byfleet[10][11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Frederick Webber-Taylor 1,183 66.8 +8.1
Liberal Democrats Michael Wilson 249 14.1 +0.1
Independent Richard Wilson 196 11.1 -10.5
Labour Louise Every 87 4.9 -0.7
UKIP Robin Milner 57 3.2 +3.2
Majority 934 52.7 +15.6
Turnout 1,772 44.6 +10.8
Conservative gain from Independent Swing

References

  1. ^ "Local elections: Woking". BBC News Online. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  2. ^ a b Wilson, Graeme (5 May 2006). "Conservatives Cameron's crusade puts Tories back on victory trail". The Daily Telegraph. p. 4.
  3. ^ "Release of nomination papers kicks off election fever". getsurrey. 6 April 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  4. ^ "Development at the price of green belt?". getsurrey. 20 April 2006. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
  5. ^ a b "Politics: Labour braced for heavy blow and 400 losses in local elections: Bad publicity blamed as party's forecasts worsen: Big changeover expected in London boroughs". The Guardian. 4 May 2006. p. 15.
  6. ^ a b "New fraud fears hit polling". getsurrey. 4 May 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  7. ^ "Arrest at polling station". getsurrey. 11 May 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  8. ^ a b c d "Lib Dems triumph in polls". getsurrey. 12 May 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  9. ^ "Jubilation and shock as the voters make their feelings clear". getsurrey. 11 May 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Election of Borough Councillors for the Wards of Woking Borouhg Council: Summary of Results" (PDF). Woking Borough Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 January 2011. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Results for the borough's elections". getsurrey. 11 May 2006. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
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