The 2008 Colchester Borough Council election took place on 1 May 2008 to elect members of

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

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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 Grea ...

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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 in ...

27 * Liberal Democrats 23 *

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 ...

7 *

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Background

After the last election in 2007 the Conservatives held half of the seats on the council with 30

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, while the Liberal Democrats had 21 seats,

6 seats and there were 3 independents. However, in July 2007, 2 Liberal Democrat councilors, Craig and Terry Sutton, defected to the Conservatives after falling out with the local Liberal Democrat

Member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

Bob Russell over a new community stadium. This gave the Conservatives a majority on the council with 32 of the 60 seats. 20 seats were contested at the election, with the Conservatives defending 12 of the seats. A total of 82 candidates stood at the election, including full slates from the Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green parties, along with one candidate from the

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Election result

The Conservatives lost their majority on the council after losing 5 seats, 4 to the Liberal Democrats and 1 to Labour. Among those who lost seats were 2 members of the Conservative council cabinet, while Craig Sutton in Berechurch lost his seat to Labour after having defected to the Conservatives from the Liberal Democrats in 2007. Conservative defeats were attributed to high levels of housebuilding in the area, with the Conservatives dropping to 27 seats, while the Liberal Democrats rose to 23 seats and Labour went up to 7 seats. Meanwhile, the British National Party came fourth in High Woods

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 ...

with 131 votes after putting up the party's first candidate for Colchester council. Overall turnout at the election was 34.5%. Following the election the Liberal Democrat, Labour and independent groups made a deal to take control over the council from the Conservatives, with Liberal Democrat Anne Turrell becoming the new leader of the council.

Ward results

Berechurch

Castle

Dedham & Langham

East Donyland

No Independent candidate as previous (16.3%).

Harbour

Highwoods

Lexden

Marks Tey

Mile End

New Town

Prettygate

St. Andrew's

St. Anne's

St. John's

Shrub End

Stanway

Tiptree

West Mersea

Wivenhoe Cross

Wivenhoe Quay

By-elections

Birch and Winstree

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 ...

took place in

Birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...

and Winstree ward on 4 December 2008 after the death of the Conservative councillor Peter Crowe. Andrew Ellis retained the seat for the Conservatives by a majority of 322 votes.

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 Essex