An election to

Essex County Council Essex County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Essex in England. It has 75 councillors, elected from 70 divisions, and is currently controlled by the Conservative Party. The council meets at County Hall ...

took place on 7 June 2001 as part of the

2001 United Kingdom local elections Local elections took place in some parts of the UK on 7 June 2001. Elections took place for all of the English shire counties, some English unitary authorities and all of the Northern Ireland districts. The elections were delayed from the ...

. 79 councillors were elected from various electoral divisions, which returned either one or two county councillors each by

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

for a four-year term of office. The electoral divisions were the same as those used at the previous election in 1997. 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 ...

retained control of

in the 2001 local elections, with an increased majority.

Summary

Going in to the election the Conservatives had run the Council in a minority government since 2000.

Previous composition

1997 election

Composition of council seats before election

Results

, -bgcolor=#F6F6F6 , colspan=2 style="text-align: right; margin-right: 1em" , Total , style="text-align: right;" , 79 , colspan=5 , , style="text-align: right;" , 618,785 , style="text-align: right;" , , -

Election of Group Leaders

Paul White (Stock) was re elected leader of the Conservative Group, Paul Sztumpf (Harlow North) was elected leader of the Labour Group and Kenneth Jones (Park) was re elected leader of the Liberal Democratic Group.

Election of Leader of the Council

Paul White the leader of the

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 i ...

group was duly elected leader of the council and formed a conservative administration.

Results by Electoral Divisions

Basildon

District summary Division results Between 1997 and 2001, the seat was won by Labour in a by-election, however it is shown as a Conservative hold as it is compared to the previous full council election.