The 2014 Castle Point Borough Council election took place on 22 May 2014 to elect members of

Castle Point Castle Point is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south Essex, east of central London. The borough comprises the towns and villages of Canvey Island, Hadleigh, Ess ...

Borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

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 G ...

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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 ...

lost overall control of the council to 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 i ...

20 * Canvey Island Independent Party 16 *

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

Background

At the last election in 2012 the Conservatives held control of the council with 25

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, compared to 15 for the Canvey Island Independent Party and 1

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

. However, since then the

had won 2 Castle Point seats at the 2013 Essex County Council election and planned to stand 8 candidates at the 2014 Borough Council election. 14 of the 41 seats on the council were contested at the 2014 election.

Election result

The Conservatives lost their majority on the council after the UK Independence Party gained 5 seats. The UK Independence Party gains came in Appleton, Cedar Hall, St George's, St Peter's and Victoria

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 ...

, with 87-year-old UK Independence Party candidate Ron Hurrell defeating the Conservative leader of the council, Pam Challis, in St Peter's ward. Meanwhile, in the

European elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until ...

that were held at the same time the UK Independence Party won 48% of the vote in Castle Point, almost double that of the Conservatives. On

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office ...

the Canvey Island Independent Party regained a seat in Canvey Island South, which they had lost to a defection. The results left the Conservatives as the largest party on the council with 20 seats, while the Canvey Island Independent Party had 16 seats and the UK Independence Party had 5 seats. Following the election the Conservative group on the council chose Colin Riley as their new leader defeating the former deputy leader of the council Jeffrey Stanley by 2 votes, while Alan Bayley became the leader of the UK Independence Party group. Both the Canvey Island Independent Party and UK Independence Party initially proposed a coalition between all 3 parties to run the council, but following the Conservative leadership election decided against coalition and Colin Riley became the new leader of the council at the head of a Conservative

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Ward results

By-elections between 2014 and 2015

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

was held in

East on 30 October 2014 after Canvey Island Independent Party councillor Gail Barton was removed from the council for not attending any council meetings for 8 months. The UK Independence Party did not put up a candidate for the by-election, instead supporting the Canvey Island Independent Party candidate, while the Canvey Island Independents agreed to support the UK Independence Party at the 2015 general election. However the seat was gained by

candidate Colin Letchford with a majority of 66 votes over the Canvey Island Independent Party. Meanwhile, following the by-election, councillor Stephen Cole

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

from the Canvey Island Independent Party to the Conservatives, with the agreement between the Canvey Island Independent Party and the UK Independence Party being cited as a factor in his decision. This meant following the by-election and defection the Conservatives regained a one-seat majority on the council with 21 seats, compared to 14 for the Canvey Island Independent Party, 5 for the UK Independence Party and 1 independent.

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2014 Castle Point Borough Council elections 2014 English local elections 2010s in Essex