Elections to the Borough Council in Slough, England, were held on 3 May 2007. One third of the council was up for election. This was the 122nd Slough general local authority election (including both whole Council elections and elections by thirds) since Slough became a local government unit in 1863.

The 2007 election was to fill fourteen seats for the 2007–2011 term. The remaining twenty-seven Slough Councillors continued in office. The fourteen seats were previously contested in the whole Council election of 2004 following the redrawing of the ward boundaries in the Borough.

In the last election in 2006, the Labour Party gained three seats, the Conservative Party lost two and the Liberal Democrats lost one. This result was slightly unusual compared with the other UK local elections on the same day in which the Conservative Party generally gained seats at the expense of the Labour Party.

The counter cyclical changes continued in the 2007 election. The Labour Party gained another seat from the Conservatives and one from the Liberal Democrats. However the Conservative Party unseated the longest serving Labour Councillor and former Mayor, Lydia Simmons. Labour finished the count with a net gain of one, which leaves Slough in no overall control. The existing coalition administration (broadly supported by all Councillors not in the Labour group) is likely to continue in office for the next year.

The turnout for the whole borough, as announced at the count on 4 May 2007, was 35.32% of the registered electors.

The result in the Central ward was overturned, on 18 March 2008, at the hearing of an election petition (see the Central ward sub-section below for more details). This was the first time since the nineteenth century that a Slough local election result was overturned by the courts.

Recent political history of Slough Slough has an unusual balance of political forces. The council has, since 2004, had no party in overall control. A coalition of the Britwellian, Independent, Liberal and Liberal Democrat Group (BILLD) and the Conservative Group form the current administration, with the Labour Group in opposition. There was (in April 2007) one non-Group affiliated member, an Independent Conservative (who was elected in 2004 as an official Conservative and has been nominated for re-election in 2007 as an official candidate).

The BILLD Group is itself a local coalition, containing members from six parties or groups of independents. The organisations represented in the group before the election are the Slough Liberal Democrats, the Slough Liberals, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and a representative or representatives from three groups of independents active in one ward each (the Independent Britwellian Residents in Britwell, Independent Langley Residents in Langley St Mary's and Independents in Wexham Lea wards). The existing members of the Group (excluding UKIP) have an electoral pact for the current election, continuing electoral arrangements which started with the 2001 Slough Council election. The Independent Langley Residents Councillor joined The Slough Party, just before the 2007 election.

A number of Independents and others, not affiliated to BILLD, contested the 2007 election.

During the 2006–2007 term the Conservative Party gained one seat from Independent Langley Residents in a by-election. The Independent Conservative councillor for Upton (Balwinder Singh Dhillon) received the official Conservative nomination for 2007, thus giving the Tories a notional gain. In April 2007, the composition of the 41 member council was:- Labour 18 BILLD 16 (Slough Liberal Democrats 5, Slough Liberals 3, (Wexham Lea) Independents 3, Independent Britwellian Residents 3, Independent Langley Residents 1, United Kingdom Independence Party 1) Conservative 7

In the 2007 election 50 candidates were nominated for the 14 seats up for election. One Independent candidate (Dominic Ashford in Wexham Lea) was nominated but withdrew before the poll. The list below is broken down by Party or group of Independents, with a residual category of Others who have no party label or are standing as Independents who are not affiliated to BILLD. The Independent Langley Residents have not nominated an official BILLD candidate in their ward, but their incumbent Councillor has proposed the nominee of The Slough Party in the area who would presumably join the BILLD Group if elected.

Labour 14 Conservative 12 (not contesting Foxborough or Wexham Lea wards) BILLD 12 (Slough Liberal Democrats 9, Independent 1, Independent Britwellian Residents 1, Slough Liberals 1) (not contesting Colnbrook with Poyle and Langley St Mary's wards) The Slough Party (a new local political party) 5 Others 7 (Independent 4 (including the one who withdrew); no party label 3)

Summary of Council composition 2006–2007 Before the elections held on 3 May 2007, the composition of Slough Borough Council was as follows (the Conservatives made two gains from Others compared with the 2006 election, as a result of the Langley St Mary's by-election of 2006 and the Independent Conservative councillor from Upton being nominated as an official Conservative candidate): Composition Table (as of April 2007)PartyGroup LeaderSeats 06% SeatsChange (on 2006)Seats 07 Robert Anderson1843.90018Richard Stokes1331.71-211 Dexter Smith512.20+27John Edwards512.2005Total Seats41

No overall Majority

Note: The Others category in this table includes all non-Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat Councillors. Richard Stokes (Liberal-Haymill) is the BILLD Group Leader, which group includes the Liberal Democrats and all but one of the Others category Councillors in 2006. The Independent Conservative councillor was not a member of any group in 2006–07, until he was nominated as an official Conservative for the 2007 election.

List of Councillors whose terms expired in 2007 Ward Party Elected Incumbent Cand.? Re-elected? Baylis & Stoke Liberal Democrats 2004 Mushtaq Ahmed Hayat * No N/A Britwell Ind. Britwellian Res. 2002 Patrick Shine * Yes Yes Central Labour 1999 Lydia Emelda Simmons (a) Yes No Chalvey Labour 2001 Raja Mohammed Zarait Yes Yes Cippenham Green Labour 2004 Michael John Holledge No N/A Cippenham Meadows Labour 2001 Sat Pal Singh Parmar (b) Yes Yes Colnbrook with Poyle Conservative 1997 Steve Burkmar Yes No Farnham Labour 2001 Joginder Singh Bal Yes Yes Foxborough Liberal Democrats 2004 Sonja Anne Jenkins * Yes Yes Haymill Liberal 1990 David John Munkley * Yes Yes Kedermister Labour 1988 Mewa Singh Mann Yes Yes Langley St Mary's Conservative 2006 Diana Victoria Coad Yes Yes Upton Conservative 2004 Balwinder Singh Dhillon (c) Yes Yes Wexham Lea Independent 2002 David MacIsaac * Yes Yes

* Member of the BILLD Group Notes: (a) Simmons previously served as a Councillor 1979–1994. (b) Parmar previously served as a Councillor 1995–2000. (c) Dhillon was elected as an official Conservative candidate in 2004, but served as an Independent Conservative Councillor from 2004 to 2007. He was re-elected as an official Conservative in 2007.

Election result summary

Note: The figures in brackets, in the seats column, are for the overall Councillors after the election.

Ward notes and 2007 results Slough was first warded in 1930. The town was re-warded 1950, 1983 and 2004.

Britwell and Wexham Court were added to Slough in 1973 (when the two new wards and eleven existing wards were allocated between two and nine seats, instead of the three per ward which had existed previously).

Colnbrook & Poyle was added to Slough in 1995 and became a fourteenth ward, with one member 1995–1996 and two from 1997.

For 2004 Slough Council election the Borough was re-warded. There were still fourteen wards, but only Colnbrook with Poyle (formerly Colnbrook & Poyle) and Haymill had unchanged boundaries.

For brief notes on the individual wards used since 2004, see the individual ward sections below.

The turnout box figures given below include a number of spoilt ballots – see the official results on the Slough Borough Council website for further details.

As the 2004 Slough Council election was for the whole Council, with each ward returning multiple Councillors, no plus or minus percentages are given for individual candidates or majorities nor a swing figure.

Baylis & Stoke Baylis & Stoke (born 2004) is a three-member ward in the north of the Borough, to the west of Central ward and to the east of Haymill. It broadly combined the former Baylis and Stoke wards. Baylis was named after Baylis House and the estate of Baylis, which from the sixteenth century was a sub-division of the parish of Stoke Poges. Stoke ward was named after the parish, southern parts of which were included in Slough, as part of the 1900 and 1930–1931 extensions of the district boundaries. The Liberal Democrats, (building on the Liberal tradition of the Liberal-Labour marginal Stoke ward) overcame the Labour leanings of the former Baylis ward, to win all three seats in 2004. In 2006 and 2007, with new Liberal Democrat candidates, two of the seats were lost to Labour.

Votes and turnout percentage include 16 spoilt ballot papers. The registered electorate, estimated from the above vote totals and turnout announced at the count, is 6,608. The turnout, based on valid votes only, is therefore 42.21%.

Votes and percentage turnout include 18 spoilt ballot papers. The registered electorate, estimated from the above vote totals and turnout announced at the count, is 6,936. The turnout, based on valid votes only, is therefore 37.57%.

Britwell Britwell (born 1973) is a three-member ward in the north-west of the Borough. It includes Britwell parish, although since 1983 some unparished territory was added. Britwell elected some Liberal Councillors in the 1980s but was otherwise safely Labour until 2000. Since then Britwellian and Independent Britwellian Residents Councillors have become increasingly successful. In 1997 Labour won all three seats, but in 2004 the Residents took the three seats. Patl Janik, the incumbent IBR Councillor, stood for re-election in 2006 as a Slough Independents candidate in opposition to a new IBR nominee, who was elected. The IBR councillor up for election in 2007 was re-elected.

The 2007 Borough election is being held at the same time as the vote to fill the thirteen seats on Britwell Parish Council. The Independent Britwellian Residents nominated eleven candidates (including their three Borough Councillors), whereas The Slough Party nominated four (including the Borough Council candidate). Eleven IBR and two TSP parish councillors were elected. The Labour Party, which before the rise of the IBR had dominated the Parish Council, has not nominated any candidates.

Note: The incumbent Independent Britwellian Residents Councillor was Paul Janik, who stood for re-election as a Slough Independents candidate against a new IBR nominee. The result is categorised as an IBR hold.

10 spoilt ballots

Central