The 2000 Southend-on-Sea Council election took place on 4 May 2000 to elect members of

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

Unitary Unitary may refer to: Mathematics * Unitary divisor * Unitary element * Unitary group * Unitary matrix * Unitary morphism * Unitary operator * Unitary transformation * Unitary representation * Unitarity (physics) * ''E''-unitary inverse semigrou ...

Council in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. One third of the council was up for election and the

Conservative party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

gained overall control of the council from no overall control. After the election, the composition of the council was *

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

25 *

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

9 *

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Campaign

Before the election the council was run by a coalition between the

and

parties, but the election was expected to see the Conservatives take control from them. 14 of the 39 seats were being contested, with the Conservatives only needing to gain one seat in order to have a majority. They only required a tiny swing to achieve this, which would give the Conservatives control of the council for the first time in 8 years. The election was a high-profile one with the Conservative leader,

William Hague William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, campaigning in the area on the Monday before the election. A major issue in the election was the number of refugees in the town, which was estimated at up to 2,000. The Conservatives said that the area had become a "dumping ground" and called on all asylum seekers to be detained upon entry into the country. However Labour accused the Conservatives of "playing the

race card Playing the race card is an idiomatic phrase that refers to the exploitation by someone of either racist or anti-racist attitudes in the audience in order to gain an advantage. It constitutes an accusation of bad faith directed at the person or ...

" and reported a Conservative leaflet to the

Commission for Racial Equality The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom which aimed to address racial discrimination and promote racial equality. The commission was established in 1976, and disbanded in 2007 when its ...

. Other issues included Conservative plans to build a new bypass to ease traffic within the town. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat and Labour parties defended their record of investing £50 million in the town during their period in control of the council, while keeping

council tax Council Tax is a local taxation system used in England, Scotland and Wales. It is a tax on domestic property, which was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, replacing the short-lived Community Charge, which in turn re ...

rises down, with the latest council tax level the second lowest in Essex.

Election result

The results saw the Conservatives gain control of the council with an 11-seat majority after winning over 57% of the vote. They gained 3 seats each from both Labour and the Liberal Democrats with defeated

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

s including 3 members of the executive, Nigel Baker, Stephen George and Chris Mallam. These defeats meant that Labour failed to hold any of the seats they had been defending, while the Liberal Democrats only managed to hold on to 2 seats. Overall turnout in the election was just above the national average at 30%. Following the election Charles Latham became the new Conservative leader of the council and announced they would scrap planned bus lanes and abolish charges for social care services.

Ward results

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2000

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

2000 English local elections 2000s in Essex