The 2008 Derby City Council election took place on 1 May 2008 to elect members of Derby City Council in England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control. Overall turnout was 34.6%. After the election, the composition of the council was: * Liberal Democrat 18 *

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 ...

17 * Conservative 14 * Independent 2

Campaign

Since the 2006 election the Labour Party had been running the council in an agreement with the Conservatives and both parties did not rule out continuing this arrangement after the election. However, a major issue in the election was a proposal by the Labour party to close 10 play areas across Derby in order to save money, which were opposed by the Conservatives. The arrangement was also strained by the defection of 2 Labour councillors, Hardial Dhamrait and Amar Nath, to the Conservatives since the 2007 election. Other changes since 2007 included Labour councillor Prem Chera becoming an independent, and independent Frank Leeming joining the Conservatives. This meant that before the election there were 21 Labour, 14 Conservative, 13 Liberal Democrat and 2 independent councillors. In all 61 candidates stood in the election, with 17 seats being contested. Of those 17 seats Labour were defending 8, the Conservatives 6 and the Liberal Democrats 3. The leader of the Conservative party,

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

, visited Derby to support the local party on 3 April and described it as a "key battleground".

Election result

The Liberal Democrats gained 5 seats to move from third largest group on the council to become the largest party, overtaking the Labour and Conservative parties. Liberal Democrat gains were recorded in Abbey, Arboretum and Mackworth

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 ...

from Labour, and in Blagreaves and Oakwood wards from the Conservatives. Meanwhile, Labour recovered a seat in

Sinfin Sinfin is a suburb of Derby, England, southwest of the city centre on its southern outskirts. The ward, which includes Osmaston as well as Sinfin itself, had a population of 15,128 in 2011. Historically, Sinfin and Osmaston were separate vill ...

which they had lost when Hardial Dhamrait had defected to the Conservatives. However, Labour also two seats in

Chaddesden Chaddesden, also known locally as Chadd, is a large residential suburb of Derby, United Kingdom. Historically a separate village centred on Chaddesden Hall and the 14th century St. Mary's Church, Chaddesden, St Mary's Church, the area was signif ...

and

Chellaston Chellaston is a suburban village on the southern outskirts of Derby, in Derbyshire, England. History An early mention of Chellaston is thought to be a reference to Ceolarde's hill. This is mentioned in a 1009 charter when nearby lan ...

to the Conservatives. Following the elections the three parties held discussions to decide who would run the council for the next two years. On 6 May the Conservatives decided that they would not agree any deal with the other two parties and would sit in opposition, with Conservative councillors feeling that the previous agreement with Labour had meant they did not make gains as the party had done nationally. The Liberal Democrats and Labour then planned to hold talks, with Labour abandoning their previous proposals to introduce congestion charging in Derby, and

parking meter A parking meter is a device used to collect money in exchange for the right to park a vehicle in a particular place for a limited amount of time. Parking meters can be used by municipalities as a tool for enforcing their integrated on-street par ...

s in Littleover. However, the Liberal Democrats decided they would prefer to run the council as a minority rather than reach an agreement with Labour. At the council meeting on 21 May the Liberal Democrat leader, Hilary Jones, was elected leader of the council by 19 votes to 17 after the Conservatives

abstain Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with ...

ed.

Ward results

Abbey

Allestree

Alvaston

Arboretum

Blagreaves

Boulton

Chaddesden

Chellaston

Darley

Derwent

Littleover

Mackworth

Mickleover

Normanton

Oakwood

Sinfin

Spondon

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2008 2008 English local elections

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2000s in Derby