The 2004 Sunderland City Council election took place on 10 June 2004 to elect members of

Sunderland City Council Sunderland City Council is the local authority of the City of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in Tyne and Wear and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the major ...

Council in

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...

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 ...

. The whole council was up for election following boundary changes since the last election in 2003. The

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 ...

Party stayed in overall control of the council.

Campaign

Every seat was contested in the election for the first time since 1982. Labour held a big majority before the election with 63 seats, but almost a quarter of Labour's

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 stood down at the election. Labour was the only party to field a full 75 candidates, while the next largest number of candidates was from 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 ...

who fielded 54 candidates. Candidates in the election also included 25 from the

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

after the party failed to win any seats in the 2003 election but came second in 6

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 ...

. Labour described their record in control of the council as being positive and that they were making progress, but the Conservatives described Labour as being "arrogant and remote". The Conservatives targeted wards in the town of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

as well as Millfield, St Chad's and St Peters, while Barnes ward was seen as being a three-way battle between Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. At the election count anti-Nazi demonstrators had a scuffle with British National Party supporters when the candidates entered the building, with one British National Party candidate being arrested on suspicion of assault.

Election result

The results saw Labour hold control of the council with a large majority, but the Conservatives made some gains in Barnes, Fulwell and St Michael's. This meant Labour ended with 61 seats, while the Conservatives were up three on 12 seats. The Liberal Democrats took two seats, while the British National Party failed to win any seats. Overall turnout was 40.26%, down on the 47.47% in 2003 but up on the 22% at the 2002 election before all postal voting was used. This resulted in the following composition of the council:

Ward by ward results

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2004 2004 English local elections

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

21st century in Tyne and Wear