The 1997 United Kingdom local elections took place on Thursday 1 May 1997 in England, and Wednesday 21 May 1997 in Northern Ireland. Elections took place for all of the English country councils, some English unitary authorities and all of the Northern Ireland districts. The local elections were held on the same day as the 1997 general election.
Results Party Councils Councillors Gain Loss Change Total Gain Loss Change Total 11,299 177741 1931,121 Other17131 ————
While the results were overshadowed by the landslide election of a Labour government, they did provide some comfort to the Conservative Party. The Conservatives made some gains and were the largest party in the county council elections. It is likely that what helped the Conservatives gain some councils (Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Essex and Kent) was the creation of unitary authorities and thus the abolition of county council divisions in these areas (in this case unitaries in Peterborough, Luton, Thurrock and Medway), in predominantly urbanised areas which are usually strong for the Labour Party in elections and indeed all four of those unitaries (and all of the parliamentary seats that they cover) were won/held by Labour at the point these elections took place. Buckinghamshire, the only county council that the Conservatives actually had a majority for the four years prior to these elections, will have also been helped by the creation of a unitary authority for Milton Keynes in 1996.
The gains for the Conservatives in Lincolnshire, Surrey and West Sussex will likely have been helped by the fact that most parliamentary seats in these counties were seriously strong Conservative areas (indeed, every parliamentary seat in Surrey was retained by the Conservatives in the general election) and thus saw some genuine ground recovered compared with the 1993 local elections. The only seats that the Conservatives lost in the general election in these areas were Lincoln and Crawley, both of which were very easy seats for Labour to gain in the general election, while they came close to losing Boston & Skegness to Labour too, though this was far from enough to have made a difference to council control in their respective counties.
England
Non-metropolitan county councils In 34 non-metropolitan counties the whole council was up for election.
Council Previous control Result DetailsBedfordshire County Council gainDetailsBuckinghamshire Council holdDetailsCambridgeshire County Council ‡ gainDetailsCheshire County Council ‡ holdDetailsCornwall Council gainDetailsCumbria County Council gainDetailsDerbyshire County Council holdDetailsDevon County Council ‡ gainDetailsDorset County Council holdDetailsDurham holdDetailsEast Sussex County Council holdDetailsEssex County Council ‡ gainDetailsGloucestershire County Council holdDetailsHampshire County Council holdDetailsHertfordshire County Council holdDetailsKent County Council ‡ gainDetailsLancashire County Council ‡ holdDetailsLeicestershire County Council holdDetailsLincolnshire County Council gainDetailsNorfolk County Council holdDetailsNorth Yorkshire Council holdDetailsNorthamptonshire County Council holdDetailsNorthumberland County Council holdDetailsNottinghamshire County Council ‡ holdDetailsOxfordshire County Council holdDetailsShropshire Council ‡ holdDetailsSomerset Council holdDetailsStaffordshire County Council ‡ holdDetailsSuffolk County Council holdDetailsSurrey County Council gainDetailsWarwickshire County Council holdDetailsWest Sussex County Council gainDetailsWiltshire Council ‡ holdDetailsWorcestershire County Council † holdDetails
† Elected as a "shadow authority" until 1 April 1998.
‡ Because areas of the county were due to become unitary authorities on 1 April 1998, the county councillors representing those areas had their terms extended by one year and no election was held.
Unitary authorities
Whole council These were the first elections to 19 more unitary authorities established by the Local Government Commission for England (1992). They acted as "shadow authorities" until 1 April 1998.
Council Previous control Result DetailsBlackburn with Darwen ‡ New Council DetailsBlackpool Council ‡ New Council DetailsBracknell Forest Council New Council DetailsHalton Borough Council ‡ New Council DetailsHerefordshire Council ‡ New Council DetailsMedway Council ‡ New Council DetailsNottingham City Council New Council DetailsPeterborough City Council ‡ New Council DetailsPlymouth City Council New Council DetailsReading Borough Council New Council DetailsSlough Borough Council New Council DetailsSouthend-on-Sea City Council New Council DetailsTelford and Wrekin Council ‡ New Council DetailsThurrock Council ‡ New Council DetailsTorbay Council New Council DetailsWarrington Borough Council ‡ New Council DetailsWest Berkshire Council ‡ New Council DetailsWindsor and Maidenhead Borough Council New Council DetailsWokingham Borough Council New Council Details ‡ New ward boundaries from predecessor authorities
Third of council In 2 unitary authorities one third of the council was up for election.
Council Previous control Result DetailsBristol City Council holdDetailsKingston upon Hull holdDetails
District council In 1 district the whole council was up for election.
Council Previous control Result DetailsMalvern Hills District Council ‡ holdDetails
‡ New ward boundaries
Sui generis
Council Previous control Result DetailsCouncil of the Isles of Scilly holdDetails
Northern Ireland
Council Previous control Result DetailsAntrim Borough Council DetailsArds DetailsArmagh DetailsBallymena DetailsBallymoney DetailsBanbridge DetailsBelfast DetailsCarrickfergus DetailsCastlereagh DetailsColeraine DetailsCookstown DetailsCraigavon DetailsDerry DetailsDown DetailsDungannon DetailsFermanagh DetailsLarne DetailsLimavady DetailsLisburn DetailsMagherafelt DetailsMoyle DetailsNewry and Mourne DetailsNewtownabbey DetailsNorth Down DetailsOmagh DetailsStrabane Details
Notes
References
External links Local election results 1997 The local elections of 1 May 1997. House of Commons Library Research Paper 97/82. Vote 1999 BBC News Vote 2001 BBC News