| Election Name: | 2011 South Norfolk District Council election |
| Country: | England |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2007 South Norfolk District Council election |
| Previous Year: | 2007 |
| Next Election: | 2015 South Norfolk District Council election |
| Next Year: | 2015 |
| Seats For Election: | All 46 seats |
| Majority Seats: | 24 |
| Election Date: | 5 May 2011 |
| Party1: | Conservative Party (UK) |
| Last Election1: | 39 56.0% |
| Seats1: | 38 |
| Seat Change1: | 1 |
| Percentage1: | 57.2% |
| Swing1: | 2.1% |
| Party2: | Liberal Democrats (UK) |
| Last Election2: | 7 37.0% |
| Seats2: | 8 |
| Seat Change2: | 1 |
| Percentage2: | 29.3% |
| Swing2: | 9.9% |
| Map Size: | 400px |
| Party | |
| Before Election: | Conservative |
| After Election: | Conservative |
The elections to South Norfolk District Council were held on Thursday 5 May 2011 along with various other local elections around England, elections to the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly of Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly, and a referendum on whether to adopt the Alternative Vote electoral system for elections to the House of Commons.[1] All 46 council seats were up for election. The previous council was controlled by the Conservatives, with the Liberal Democrats being the only opposition.
Both main parties had websites detailing their local manifesto pledges: Conservative pledges and record; Liberal Democrat manifesto and candidates.
| Party | Seats (2007 election) | Seats (March 2011) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39 | 37 | |||
| 7 | 7 | |||
| Vacant | - | 2 | ||
In this election, there were a total of 117 candidates contesting the 46 council seats.[2] 25 Conservative councillors and 6 Liberal Democrat councillors were standing in the seats they held before the election. Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats fielded candidates in every ward, but the Liberal Democrats were unable to nominate candidates for every vacancy - a total of 46 Conservatives and 42 Liberal Democrats.
Out of the parties which are not represented on the district council, Labour stood 14 candidates, the Green Party 9 and UKIP 4. There were two independent candidates: Ingo Wagenknecht in Rockland ward and Jessica Austin in Wicklewood ward.
In 17 seats there was a straight fight between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
|-bgcolor=#F6F6F6| colspan=2 style="text-align: right; margin-right: 1em" | Total| style="text-align: right;" | 46| colspan=5 || style="text-align: right;" | 58,837| style="text-align: right;" | |-|}
The election saw 38 seats won by the Conservatives and 8 won by the Liberal Democrats - a gain of one seat for the Liberal Democrats. They won the seat for Forncett Ward, which had been vacant since the death of the Conservative councillor Hedley Smith in January 2011.[3] The successful Liberal Democrat was previously the member for the ward from 2003 to 2007 defeated in 2007. Overall the Liberal Democrats polled a lower vote-share in South Norfolk overall. Their vote-share dropped by almost 10%, with half of the votes going to Labour and the rest to the Conservatives, the Green Party and UKIP.
Labour and the Greens attained a higher vote-share, with Labour overtaking the Greens as the third-largest party in terms of votes, but were unable to win any seats. Labour became the second-largest party in 8 wards: Bunwell, Cringleford, Dickleburgh, Rockland, Wymondham Northfields, Wymondham Rustens and Wymondham Town and Wicklewood - their best performance being 27.7% in Bunwell. The Greens came second in three wards Mulbarton, Hingham & Deopham and Thurlton pushing the Lib Dems into third place in those wards (all wards held by the Lib Dems in 2003). In Cringleford and Wymondham Rustens the Lib Dems finished in 4th place behind Labour and the Greens. UKIP managed to come second in Scole ward, with 17.41%.
Candidates in bold were elected. Candidates marked with an asterisk were councillors in the same ward from 2007-2011.[4]