The 2015 Christchurch Borough Council election took place on 7 May 2015 to elect members of

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

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

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

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 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

After the last election in 2011 the Conservatives had a majority on the council with 21 seats, while independents had two seats and there was one

Liberal Democrat Several political party, political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democracy, liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties ...

. However the only Liberal Democrat

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 ...

, Peter Hall of Town Cente

ward 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 pris ...

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 ...

to the Conservatives in June 2011. 69 candidates stood in 2015 for the 24 seats on the council, including a full slate of 24 from the Conservatives.

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 ...

had 20 candidates and the

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 ...

16, up from 11 and 6 respectively in 2011. Other candidates were six from the

Green party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

and three independents, including the two sitting councillors in Jumpers ward, Colin Bungey and Fred Neale. After the Liberal Democrats stood 11 candidates in 2011 they had no candidates in 2015, with the party's candidate for the Christchurch parliamentary constituency saying that the local party "wanted to concentrate on the general election campaign". Three Conservative councillors, Mike Duckworth, Gillian Geary and Myra Mawbey, stood down at the election. Meanwhile, the election in North Highcliffe and Walkford ward was delayed until June 2015 after the death of one of the candidates.

Election result

The Conservatives remained in control of the council after winning 19 of the 22 seats contested in May. They lost one seat to the UK Independence Party, but retained all of the other seats they had been defending, including both seats in Town Centre ward where Peter Hall held his seat as a Conservative after his defection from the Liberal Democrats in 2011. The UK Independence Party gain came in Grange ward where Janet Abbott was elected and the party got an increased vote share across the council. Meanwhile, the only other seats not won by the Conservatives came in Jumpers where the two independent councillors, Colin Bungey and Fred Neale, held their seats. The Conservatives also won both seats at the June delayed election in North Highcliffe and Walkford ward. The above totals include the delayed election in North Highcliffe and Walkford.

Ward results

North Highcliffe and Walkford delayed election

The election in North Highcliffe and Walkford ward take place on 18 June 2015, delayed from 7 May when the rest of the council voted, after the death of Labour candidate Richard Walls. The two seats were won by Conservatives Sally Derham Wilkes and Nick Geary.

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2015

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2015 English local elections May 2015 events in the United Kingdom