The 2003 Craven District Council election took place on 1 May 2003 to elect members of Craven District Council in North Yorkshire, 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:
Before the election the Conservatives were the largest group with 13 seats, while there 9 Liberal Democrats and 8 independents.[3] However the council was controlled by an alliance between independents and Liberal Democrats.[3]
10 of the 30 seats on the council were elected in 2003, with the Conservatives defending 6, independents 3 and the Liberal Democrats defended 1 seat.[3] Two of the three independents were re-elected without opposition.[3]
Independents gained 2 seats from the Conservatives to mean there were 10 independent councillors on the council.[4] The independent gains from the Conservatives came in Skipton East where Mike Hill was elected, and in West Craven where Robert Mason gained a seat.[5] Meanwhile, another independent, Robert Heseltine, regained a seat on the council 3 years after having been forced to resign his seat due to being convicted of falsifying accounts, after defeating the sitting independent councillor Frances Cook by 217 votes in Skipton South.[5]
Despite losing 2 seats the Conservatives remained the largest group on the council with 11 councillors, after holding another 4 seats.[5] Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats stayed on 9 seats, after holding the only seat they had been defending in Skipton West.[5]
A by-election was held in Bentham on 13 November 2003 after the resignation of Liberal Democrat councillor John Pilkington on his being charged by police with child pornography.[6] [7] The seat was gained by an independent Manuel Camacho with a majority of 107 votes over Conservative John Jackson.[6] [7]