The 2006 Winchester Council election took place on 4 May 2006 to elect members of Winchester

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

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

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. One third of the council was up for election and the Conservative Party gained overall control of the council from 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 ...

29 *

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

21 *

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 ...

4 *

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 ...

Campaign

Before the election the Liberal Democrats had 26 seats, the Conservatives 22, independents 5 and

4. 19 seats were being contested with 4 Liberal Democrat and 1 independent

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 standing down at the election, while the council leader Sheila Campbell and 2 other cabinet members were defending seats. Issues in the election included

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, rural transportation and planning policy.

Election result

The count was disrupted delaying the last result after some of the

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s were set on fire meaning water had to be poured into the ballot box. The results saw the Conservatives take control of the council for the first time since the early 1990s. They gained 7 seats included 5 from the Liberal Democrats and 1 each from Labour and the independents. Conservatives defeated both the Liberal Democrat council leader Sheila Campbell and the Labour leader Patrick Davies. The widespread press coverage earlier in the year about the local Liberal Democrat MP

Mark Oaten Mark Oaten (born 8 March 1964) is a British politician who was a senior member of the Liberal Democrats. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Winchester from 1997 to 2010. Born in Watford, Hertfordshire, Oaten became a councillor in ...

having had sex with

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was seen as having damaged the Liberal Democrats and benefited the Conservatives. In the July after the election Oaten announced that he would be standing down from parliament at the next general election. Following the election George Beckett became the new Conservative leader of the council.

Ward results

Bishop's Waltham

Cheriton & Bishops Sutton

Colden Common and Twyford

Denmead

Droxford, Soberton and Hambledon

Kings Worthy

Olivers Battery & Badger Farm

Owslebury & Curdridge

Shedfield

Sparsholt

St. Barnabas

St. Bartholomew

St. John and All Saints

St. Luke

St. Michael

St. Paul

Swanmore and Newton

The Alresfords

Wonston and Micheldever

References

{{Hampshire elections 2006 2006 English local elections 2000s in Hampshire