Election Name: | 1997 Essex County Council election |
Country: | Essex |
Type: | Parliamentary |
Ongoing: | no |
Party Colour: | yes |
Previous Election: | 1993 Essex County Council election |
Previous Year: | 1993 |
Next Election: | 2001 Essex County Council election |
Next Year: | 2001 |
Seats For Election: | All 79 seats to Essex County Council |
Majority Seats: | 40 |
Election Date: | 1 May 1997 |
Party1: | Conservative Party (UK) |
Last Election1: | 32 seats, 35.3% |
Seats Before1: | 26 |
Seats1: | 40 |
Seat Change1: | 13 |
Popular Vote1: | 281,074 |
Percentage1: | 38.9% |
Swing1: | 3.1% |
Party2: | Labour Party (UK) |
Last Election2: | 33 seats, 30.7% |
Seats Before2: | 25 |
Seats2: | 23 |
Seat Change2: | 1 |
Popular Vote2: | 229,181 |
Percentage2: | 31.7% |
Swing2: | 1.3% |
Party3: | Liberal Democrats (UK) |
Last Election3: | 32 seats, 31.9% |
Seats Before3: | 27 |
Seats3: | 15 |
Seat Change3: | 12 |
Popular Vote3: | 192,520 |
Percentage3: | 26.6% |
Swing3: | 5.3% |
Party4: | Loughton Residents Association |
Last Election4: | Did Not Stand |
Seats Before4: | 0 |
Seats4: | 1 |
Seat Change4: | 1 |
Popular Vote4: | 5,040 |
Percentage4: | 0.7% |
Swing4: | 0.7% |
Majority party | |
Posttitle: | Majority party after election |
Before Election: | No Overall Control |
After Election: | No Overall Control |
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.
Party | Seats | ||
---|---|---|---|
33 | |||
32 | |||
32 | |||
1 | |||
Total | 79 |
Party | Seats | ||
---|---|---|---|
34 | |||
32 | |||
31 | |||
1 | |||
Total | 79 |
|-bgcolor=#F6F6F6| colspan=2 style="text-align: right; margin-right: 1em" | Total| style="text-align: right;" | 79| colspan=5 || style="text-align: right;" | 723,320| style="text-align: right;" | |-|}
Paul White (Stock) was elected leader of the Conservative Group, Mervyn Juliff (Great Parndon) was elected leader of the Labour Group and Kenneth Jones (Park) was elected leader of the Liberal Democratic Group.
Despite winning less than half the seats contested, the incumbent Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition continued in government because the members from Southend and Thurrock (whose 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]
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | 0 | 35,336 | 39.9 | −1.0 | ||
5 | 1 | 33,144 | 37.4 | −0.1 | ||
0 | 1 | 20,021 | 22.6 | +1.5 | ||
Socialist Alliance | 0 | 0 | 120 | 0.1 | New | |
Division Results
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4 | 0 | 26,705 | 37.2 | −3.0 | ||
2 | 0 | 26,812 | 37.3 | +2.1 | ||
1 | 0 | 15,388 | 21.4 | −0.7 | ||
0 | 0 | 2,909 | 4.1 | +1.5 | ||
Division Results
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4 | 4 | 18,258 | 43.8 | +7.9 | ||
1 | 4 | 15,046 | 36.1 | −15.5 | ||
0 | 0 | 7,965 | 19.1 | +9.4 | ||
0 | 0 | 400 | 1.0 | −1.9 | ||
Division Results
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4 | 2 | 21,761 | 45.1 | +11.8 | ||
2 | 1 | 19,413 | 40.3 | +6.1 | ||
0 | 1 | 6,957 | 14.4 | −18.0 | ||
Socialist Alliance | 0 | 0 | 100 | 0.2 | New | |
Division Results
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4 | 1 | 35,355 | 39.0 | +1.8 | ||
4 | 1 | 31,366 | 34.6 | −8.6 | ||
1 | 0 | 20,208 | 22.3 | +3.5 | ||
0 | 0 | 2,320 | 2.6 | +1.8 | ||
0 | 0 | 1,383 | 1.5 | N/A | ||
Division Results
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | 0 | 27,697 | 33.7 | −10.6 | ||
3 | 0 | 28,144 | 34.2 | +2.2 | ||
1 | 0 | 23,875 | 29.0 | +6.7 | ||
0 | 0 | 2,147 | 2.6 | N/A | ||
0 | 0 | 367 | 0.4 | −1.0 | ||
Division Results
No Green candidate as previous (−2.8).
No Green candidate as previous (−2.6).
No Liberal Democrat candidate as previous (−25.2).
No Green candidate as previous (−3.7).
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | 1 | 29,056 | 43.3 | +2.6 | ||
1 | 2 | 19,769 | 29.4 | −2.1 | ||
1 | 0 | 13,296 | 19.8 | −7.2 | ||
1 | 1 | 5,040 | 7.5 | New | ||
Division Results
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | 0 | 22,591 | 53.9 | +2.0 | ||
0 | 0 | 12,189 | 29.1 | −2.0 | ||
0 | 0 | 6,696 | 16.0 | −1.0 | ||
0 | 0 | 434 | 1.0 | New | ||
Division Results
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3 | 0 | 13,532 | 42.5 | −5.1 | ||
0 | 0 | 7,856 | 24.7 | −1.4 | ||
0 | 0 | 7,531 | 23.6 | +12.9 | ||
0 | 0 | 1,597 | 5.0 | +1.0 | ||
0 | 0 | 1,351 | 4.2 | −7.4 | ||
Division Results
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 | 1 | 18,023 | 40.8 | +8.2 | ||
2 | 1 | 13,756 | 31.1 | −15.2 | ||
1 | 0 | 12,425 | 28.1 | +7.1 | ||
Division Results
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4 | 0 | 26,250 | 35.7 | +1.9 | ||
3 | 2 | 27,694 | 37.6 | +5.2 | ||
1 | 1 | 18,048 | 24.5 | −2.1 | ||
0 | 1 | 1,598 | 2.2 | −5.0 | ||
Division Results
District Summary
Party | Seats | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4 | 3 | 17,507 | 44.8 | +4.0 | ||
0 | 3 | 13,380 | 34.2 | −9.5 | ||
0 | 0 | 8,211 | 21.0 | +5.4 | ||
Division Results