South Kesteven UK local election 2003 map

The 2003 South Kesteven District Council election took place on 1 May 2003 to elect members of South Kesteven

District A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

Council in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

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. The whole council was up for election and the Conservative party gained control of the council from no overall control.

Background

Before the election the Conservatives had half of the seats on the council with 29

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 14 independents, 12

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 3 Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives ran the council in alliance with the Liberal Democrats, with Linda Neal taking over as leader of the council from Phil Taylor in 2002. 96 candidates stood for the 58 seats on the council over 34 wards, 15 fewer candidates than at the 1999 election. In 11 wards there was no election as the candidates for those seats were elected without opposition. The Conservatives stood 42 candidates, compared to 20 for Labour, 19 independents, 13 Liberal Democrats and 2 candidates for the

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Election result

The Conservatives gained two seats to take an overall majority on the council with 31 councillors. This came at the expense of the independents and Labour, who both lost two seats to have 12 and 10 councillors respectively. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats picked up two seats to have 5 councillors. Overall turnout at the election was 29.65%, around 3% less than in 1999. The successful candidates included five married couples, Labour's Dorrien and Neil Dexter, Fereshteh and John Hurst and Avril and Mike Williams, as well as Conservatives Margery and Norman Radley and Graham and Mary Wheat. Conservative gains included picking up a seat in Bourne East, but they did lose three seats to the Liberal Democrats in Stamford St John's. In Stamford St George's the second seat for the ward was decided by the toss of a coin and had Conservative Bob Sandall defeat Liberal Democrat Ray Lee.

Ward results

By-elections between 2003 and 2007

Greyfriars

All Saints

Earlesfield

St Anne's

Labour won a

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 ...

in St Anne's

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 ...

after the death of

Fred Burrows. Labour candidate Lee Steptoe was unopposed after the Conservative candidates papers were found to be invalid, while the Liberal Democrats were unable to find the required 10 seconders.

Market and West Deeping

Truesdale

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2003 South Kesteven District Council elections 2003 English local elections