2015 Cheshire West and Chester Council election

The 2015 Cheshire West and Chester Council election took place on 7 May 2015, electing members of Cheshire West and Chester Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections across the country as well as the general election.

All 75 seats were contested. Labour won a small majority with a total of 38 seats on a 3.2% swing from the Conservatives, meaning that the council moved from Conservative control to Labour control.

Cheshire West and Chester was the only council to change hands in this way in the 2015 elections, and this unique result has been variously attributed to public dissatisfaction with fracking in the area, local planning issues, the organisation and leadership of the local parties, and to a generally difficult climate for Conservatives in the area. In addition, the only Liberal Democrat (Lib Dem) seat on the council was lost, while an independent was elected to the Parkgate ward. No other minor party won a seat, but both the Green Party and United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) fielded large numbers of candidates and saw significant positive swings. Labour's Samantha Dixon became the first woman to lead the council, while the previous leader Mike Jones survived a Conservative leadership challenge and became Leader of the Opposition.

Background

Cheshire West and Chester (CWaC) had been governed since its formation in 2009 by the Conservative Party. However, the Conservatives lost seats in CWaC against the national trend at the 2011 local election, and the Chester area was identified by The Economist before the election as a challenging area for the party. The election also took place at an especially bad period nationally for the Liberal Democrats, who lost 310 councillors in England at the previous local elections, and at a period of growth for other minor parties – especially UKIP, who won the CWaC council area in the 2014 European Parliament elections and were identified by the BBC as potential spoiler candidates. Although there were several by-elections in the 2011–2015 term, the number of councillors representing each party did not change over the course of the council.

In total, there were 75 Conservative candidates, 75 Labour candidates, 45 Green candidates, 43 Liberal Democrat candidates, 33 UKIP candidates, 4 TUSC candidates, 1 Socialist Labour candidate and 9 candidates running as independents. Of the incumbents, 14 did not seek re-election, including several parliamentary candidates: Bob Thompson, formerly the only Lib Dem on the council, stood for Parliament in City of Chester; the former Labour councillor Julia Tickridge stood in Weaver Vale; and Justin Madders, previous leader of the Labour group, stood in and was elected to Ellesmere Port and Neston.

Election proceedings

The Statement of Persons Nominated was published on Friday 10 April 2015. The election took place on 7 May 2015, on the same day as the general election, various parish council elections, town council elections in Frodsham, Neston, Northwich and Winsford, and a referendum on town planning in Malpas. As is standard for council elections in England, first-past-the-post voting was used in single seat wards, and block voting was used in multi-seat wards. All 75 seats on the CWaC council were up for election. Of around 34,000 postal ballots issued, about 1,300 papers for Frodsham and the Garden Quarter district of Chester were voided and re-issued due to a printing error that removed the party emblems of some candidates, and 284 were not delivered in time for the election. An attack leaflet targeted at Labour leader Samantha Dixon was distributed to Chester city centre residents on the day of the election which lacked printing details and may have contained "incorrect information", in violation of the Representation of the People Act 1983. Cheshire Police confirmed that they were investigating the leaflet.

The count for the parliamentary election to City of Chester took priority, and so the count for CWaC began on at 2 PM, 8 May. The count took place at Northgate Arena, and ended up running through the whole of the allotted 9-hour day without a decisive result. The count was suspended on a "cliffhanger", with Labour and the Conservatives tied at 36 seats each after a recount was called on the two decisive two-seat ward of Newton. The count resumed on 9 May, and after a quick "bundle recount" suggested a Labour lead, the Conservative Party asked for a full recount, lasting another three and a half hours. The second recount revealed that Labour's Gill Watson led by 34 votes over the incumbent Adrian Walmsley in the final seat. The final result was delivered at 5.30 PM on 9 May 2015 after 14 hours of counting.

The final results saw the Conservatives retain the largest share of the popular vote, but with a smaller proportion than at the previous election. Labour gained 6 seats (5 from Conservative, 1 from Lib Dem), the Conservatives lost 6 seats (5 to Labour, 1 to independent) and the Lib Dems lost their only seat in Hoole to Labour. Labour therefore won an absolute majority, with 38 seats to the Conservatives 36 on the 75 seat council. This made CWaC the only council in the entire country to transfer from Conservative to Labour control at the 2015 elections, a result that was described by ConservativeHome as a "catastrophic loss" and by the Chester Chronicle as "deeply embarrassing" for the local Conservative Party.

No minor parties won any seats, but UKIP and the Greens saw large positive swings both across the borough and in individual wards, including a 9% swing to UKIP in Blacon and a 17.5% swing to the Greens in Garden Quarter, where they finished second.

Seat composition between 2011 (top) and 2015 (bottom): 42 32 1

38 36 1

In all, there were 22 new councillors to CWaC council – 12 from Labour, 9 from the Conservatives and one independent. Local Labour leader Samantha Dixon became the council leader, making her the first woman to hold the role, while former council leader Mike Jones remained leader of the Conservative group despite a leadership challenge.

2015 Cheshire West and Chester Council election

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