| Election Name: | 2010 Exeter City Council election[1] [2] [3] |
| Type: | Parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Party Colour: | yes |
| Previous Election: | 2008 Exeter City Council election |
| Previous Year: | 2008 |
| Next Election: | 2011 Exeter City Council election |
| Next Year: | 2011 |
| Seats For Election: | 14 of the 40 seats to Exeter City Council |
| Majority Seats: | 21 |
| Election Date: | 9 September 2010 |
| Turnout: | 28.44 % |
| Party1: | Labour Party (UK) |
| Last Election1: | 11 |
| Seats Before1: | 13 |
| Seats1: | 7 |
| Seat Change1: | 2 |
| Popular Vote1: | 7,619 |
| Percentage1: | 35.3% |
| Seats After1: | 15 |
| Party2: | Conservative Party (UK) |
| Last Election2: | 12 |
| Seats Before2: | 12 |
| Seats2: | 4 |
| Seat Change2: | 1 |
| Popular Vote2: | 7,060 |
| Percentage2: | 32.7% |
| Seats After2: | 11 |
| Party4: | Liberal Democrats (UK) |
| Last Election4: | 13 |
| Seats Before4: | 11 |
| Seats4: | 3 |
| Popular Vote4: | 4,333 |
| Percentage4: | 20.1% |
| Seats After4: | 9 |
| Party5: | Liberal Party (UK, 1989) |
| Last Election5: | 4 |
| Seats Before5: | 4 |
| Seats5: | 0 |
| Seat Change5: | 1 |
| Popular Vote5: | 348 |
| Percentage5: | 1.6% |
| Seats After5: | 3 |
| Map Size: | 300px |
| Council control | |
| Posttitle: | Council control after election |
| Before Election: | No overall control |
| After Election: | No overall control |
The 2010 Exeter City Council election took place on 9 September 2010 to elect members of Exeter City Council in England. One third of seats were up for election.[4] The elections took place later in the year than other local elections. Exeter had previously been granted permission to become a unitary authority, with local elections postponed until 2011.[5] When the Coalition Government won the general election earlier that year, Exeter's permission to form a unitary authority was overturned. Because of this, the High Court ruled that those councillors who had stayed on beyond their four-year term were no longer constitutionally elected, and would need to seek re-election. This resulted in there being an election in every ward in September to renew the mandate for the wards.[6]
However, no election was needed in Pennsylvania ward, as a by-election had been held on 6 May, the day on which the local elections would ordinarily have taken place, to fill a vacancy for the seat that would have been due for re-election in 2010 in any case. Therefore, the winner of the May by-election was deemed to be elected to represent the ward for a full four-year term.[1] The result of the May by-election is included in the results given.
The previous election in 2008 had left the council under no overall control with the Liberal Democrats as the largest party on 13 seats, followed by the Conservatives on 12, Labour on 11 and the Liberal Party on four. However, the week before the election, two Liberal Democrat councillors defected to Labour in protest against the party's coalition with the Conservatives.[7] This meant that Labour were the largest party going into the election, on 13 seats to the Conservatives' 12 and the Liberal Democrats' 11.