The 2010 Southampton Council election took place on 6 May 2010 to elect members of

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

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Council in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

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. 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 ...

stayed in overall control of the council.

Background

Before the election the Conservatives ran the council with 26 seats, compared to 14 for

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 ...

and 8 for the Liberal Democrats. With the Conservatives defending just 4 of the 16 seats being contested they were almost certain to retain control of the council. Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat group leader Jill Baston was among those who stood down at the election, with former Liberal Democrat leader of the council Adrian Vinson attempting to return to the council in the seat she was leaving.

Election result

The results saw the Conservatives keep a majority on the council after gaining 2 seats to hold 28 of the 48 seats. Labour made a net gain of the 1 seat to move to 15 seats, while the Liberal Democrats lost 3 to be reduced to 5

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. With the election taking place at the same time as the 2010 general election overall turnout was higher than usual at 59%. Both unsuccessful Conservative candidates for

Southampton Itchen Southampton, Itchen is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Royston Smith, a Conservative member of parliament. Discounting the Speaker (of the House of Commons) returned in the early 1970s in two ...

and

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in the 2010 general election were among those re-elected to the council. The former Liberal Democrat leader of the council Adrian Vinson, regained a seat on the council in

Portswood Portswood is a suburb and Electoral Ward of Southampton, England. The suburb lies to the north-north-east of the city centre and is bounded by (clockwise from west) Freemantle, Highfield, Swaythling, St. Denys and Bevois Valley. Portswood Wa ...

, 2 years after being voted off the council, while Gerry Drake held Peartree for the Liberal Democrats by 30 votes after 3 recounts. However Labour candidates Keith Morrell and David Furnell gained the seats of Coxford and Millbrook respectively from the Liberal Democrats.

Ward results

Bargate

Bassett

Bevois

Bitterne

Bitterne Park

Coxford

Freemantle

Harefield

Millbrook

Peartree

Portswood

Redbridge

Shirley

Sholing

Swaythling

Woolston

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2010

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2010s in Southampton