The 1998 Tunbridge Wells Borough Council election took place on 7 May 1998 to elect members of
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in
Kent,
England. One third of the council was up for election and the
Conservative Party gained overall control of the council from
no overall control.
After the election, the composition of the council was:
*
Conservative 27
*
Liberal Democrat 12
*
Labour 7
*
Independent 2
[
]
Campaign
Before the election the council was run by the Liberal Democrats after depriving the Conservatives of a majority in 1995 and winning majority control in 1996.[ The Liberal Democrats however were confident of continuing to run the council, with the national party leader Paddy Ashdown visiting the area to campaign for the party.][ Meanwhile, Labour were not seen as being important in the election, with the party not contesting all of the ]wards
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...
.[
Issues in the election included plans for traffic calming and to widen the A21.][ The Liberal Democrat council's plans to create cycle and ]bus lane
A bus lane or bus-only lane is a lane restricted to buses, often on certain days and times, and generally used to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion. The related term busway describes a roadway ...
s by using part of the common
Common may refer to:
Places
* Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts
* Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts
* Clapham Common, originally com ...
were attacked by the Conservatives.
Results
The results saw the Conservatives win control of the council after winning all 12 seats that the Liberal Democrats had been defending.[ The victory was seen as being symbolic for the Conservatives in the 1998 local elections as an area which they had lost at the height of unpopularity in the mid 1990s.]
References
{{United Kingdom local elections, 1998
1998 English local elections
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
1990s in Kent