| Election Name: | 1985 Essex County Council election |
| Country: | Essex |
| Type: | Parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Party Colour: | yes |
| Previous Election: | 1981 Essex County Council election |
| Previous Year: | 1981 |
| Next Election: | 1989 Essex County Council election |
| Next Year: | 1989 |
| Seats For Election: | All 98 seats to Essex County Council |
| Majority Seats: | 49 |
| Election Date: | 2 May 1985 |
| Party1: | Conservative Party (UK) |
| Last Election1: | 51 seats, 42.5% |
| Seats Before1: | 50 |
| Seats1: | 45 |
| Seat Change1: | 6 |
| Popular Vote1: | 176,168 |
| Percentage1: | 39.8% |
| Swing1: | 2.7% |
| Party2: | Labour Party (UK) |
| Last Election2: | 32 seats, 34.1% |
| Seats Before2: | 31 |
| Seats2: | 29 |
| Seat Change2: | 3 |
| Popular Vote2: | 131,019 |
| Percentage2: | 29.6% |
| Swing2: | 4.5% |
| Party3: | SDP-Liberal Alliance |
| Last Election3: | 13 seats, 19.7% |
| Seats Before3: | 14 |
| Seats3: | 23 |
| Seat Change3: | 10 |
| Popular Vote3: | 129,371 |
| Percentage3: | 29.2% |
| Swing3: | 8.1% |
| Party4: | Loughton Residents Association |
| Last Election4: | 1 seats, 0.4% |
| Seats Before4: | 1 |
| Seats4: | 1 |
| Seat Change4: | 0 |
| Popular Vote4: | 2,399 |
| Percentage4: | 0.5% |
| Swing4: | 0.1% |
| Majority party | |
| Posttitle: | Majority party after election |
| Before Election: | Conservative |
| After Election: | No overall control |
An election to Essex County Council took place on 2 May 1985 as part of the 1985 United Kingdom local elections. 98 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.
|-bgcolor=#F6F6F6| colspan=2 style="text-align: right; margin-right: 1em" | Total| style="text-align: right;" | 98| colspan=5 || style="text-align: right;" | 442547| style="text-align: right;" | |-|}
District Summary
| Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 0 | 18,235 | 40.3 | -2.6 | |||
| 3 | 0 | 14,386 | 31.8 | +1.2 | |||
| 1 | 1 | 11,830 | 26.1 | +10.3 | |||
| 0 | 1 | 816 | 1.8 | style="color:red" | -6.6 | ||
Division Results
District Summary
| Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 | 14,923 | 40.8 | -4.3 | |||
| 2 | 1 | 11,376 | 31.1 | style="color:red" | -6.5 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 10,273 | 28.1 | +10.8 | |||
Division Results
District Summary
| Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 | 11,520 | 46.0 | -5.8 | |||
| 1 | 1 | 8,807 | 35.2 | +11.6 | |||
| 0 | 0 | 4,717 | 18.8 | style="color:red" | -5.8 | ||
Division Results
District Summary
| Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 | 11,398 | 50.1 | +3.3 | |||
| 1 | 1 | 7,216 | 31.7 | style="color:red" | -1.2 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 4,157 | 18.3 | +3.9 | |||
Division Results
District Summary
| Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 0 | 19,957 | 43.6 | +0.7 | |||
| 4 | 0 | 18,749 | 41.0 | style="color:red" | -0.1 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 7,037 | 15.4 | style="color:red" | -0.6 | ||
Division Results
District Summary
| Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 0 | 16,855 | 39.8 | -10.0 | |||
| 3 | 3 | 14,369 | 33.9 | +27.1 | |||
| 1 | 3 | 11,121 | 26.3 | style="color:red" | -15.7 | ||
Division Results
No Ecology candidate as previous (-6.4).
No Ecology candidate as previous (-6.0).
District Summary
| Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 0 | 15,017 | 44.0 | -7.1 | |||
| 2 | 0 | 9,425 | 27.6 | style="color:red" | -4.4 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 2,399 | 7.0 | +2.5 | |||
| 0 | 0 | 7,039 | 20.6 | +8.6 | |||
| 0 | 0 | 212 | 0.6 | N/A | |||
Division Results
District Summary
| Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 0 | 13,343 | 59.0 | +0.5 | |||
| 0 | 0 | 4,110 | 18.2 | style="color:red" | -2.6 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 5,158 | 22.8 | +3.7 | |||
Division Results
District Summary
| Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | 7,239 | 46.6 | +2.6 | |||
| 1 | 1 | 5,692 | 36.7 | +0.1 | |||
| 0 | 0 | 2,590 | 16.7 | style="color:red" | -2.6 | ||
Division Results
District Summary
| Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | 8,980 | 42.5 | -9.3 | |||
| 2 | 1 | 5,645 | 26.7 | +14.2 | |||
| 1 | 0 | 5,811 | 27.5 | style="color:red" | -3.9 | ||
Division Results