Southampton City Council election, 2007

Map of the results of the 2007 Southampton council election. Conservatives in blue, Labour in red and Liberal Democrats in yellow.

The 2007 Southampton Council election took place on 3 May 2007 to elect members of Southampton Unitary Council in Hampshire, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.^[1]

After the election, the composition of the council was

• Conservative 18
• Labour 18
• Liberal Democrat 12^[2]

Campaign

Before the election the Conservative and Labour parties both had 16 seats, while the Liberal Democrats who formed the administration had 15 seats, with one seat, formerly Liberal Democrat, being vacant.^[3] 17 seats were being contested in the election, with 2 seats up in Millbrook after Liberal Democrat Virginia Moore resigned from the council.^[3]

In total 69 candidates were standing^[3] and as well as candidates from the national political parties, a couple of candidates stood for local parties called Southampton First and Southampton Save Our Services.^[4] They campaigned on local issues, with Southampton Save Our Services running on a platform calling for improved conditions for public sector workers in Southampton.^[4] Candidates also included a 20-year-old Conservative, Vince Capozzoli in Portswood, after the age for councillors was reduced from 21 to 18.^[5]

National politicians including Conservative leader David Cameron and Labour cabinet minister Peter Hain visited Southampton to campaign for their parties.^[6][7]

The council used an electronic system to check postal votes, but had to check them by hand after the system failed to read up to 40% of them.^[8][9]

Election result

The results saw no party win a majority, but the Liberal Democrats lost 4 seats, 2 each to the Conservative and Labour parties.^[10] The Conservatives won 9 of the 17 seats contested, to move to 18 seats, level with Labour, while the Liberal Democrats fell to 12 seats.^[11] One of the Conservative gains from the Liberal Democrats came in Swaythling and was put down to plans for a travellers' camp in the area, which had been opposed by the Conservative candidate.^[12] Overall turnout in the election was 30.2%.^[12]

Following the election Conservative group leader Alec Samuels was elected leader of the council.^[13] This came after one Liberal Democrat councillor, Norah Goss, voted in favour of a Conservative administration, breaking from the rest of the party who abstained.^[13]

Ward results

References

(2006 ←)   United Kingdom local elections, 2007   (→ 2008) Metropolitan boroughs Barnsley Birmingham Bolton Bradford Bury Calderdale Coventry Doncaster Dudley Gateshead Kirklees Knowsley Leeds Liverpool Manchester Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside Oldham Rochdale Rotherham Salford Sandwell Sefton Sheffield Solihull South Tyneside St Helens Stockport Sunderland Tameside Trafford Wakefield Walsall Wigan Wirral Wolverhampton Unitary authorities Bath and North East Somerset Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool Bournemouth Bracknell Forest Brighton & Hove Bristol Darlington Derby East Riding of Yorkshire Halton Hartlepool Herefordshire Kingston upon Hull Leicester Luton Medway Middlesbrough Milton Keynes North East Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire North Somerset Nottingham Peterborough Plymouth Poole Portsmouth Reading Redcar and Cleveland Rutland Slough South Gloucestershire Southampton Southend-on-Sea Stockton-on-Tees Stoke-on-Trent Swindon Telford and Wrekin Thurrock Torbay Warrington West Berkshire Windsor and Maidenhead Wokingham York District councils (England) Allerdale Alnwick Amber Valley Arun Ashfield Ashford Aylesbury Vale Babergh Barrow-in-Furness Basildon Basingstoke and Deane Bassetlaw Bedford Berwick-upon-Tweed Blaby Blyth Valley Bolsover Boston Braintree Breckland Brentwood Bridgnorth Broadland Bromsgrove Broxbourne Broxtowe Burnley Cambridge Cannock Chase Canterbury Caradon Carlisle Carrick Castle Point Castle Morpeth Charnwood Chelmsford Cherwell Chester Chester-le-Street Chesterfield Chichester Chiltern Christchurch Chorley Colchester Congleton Copeland Corby Cotswold Craven Crawley Crewe and Nantwich Dacorum Dartford Daventry Derbyshire Dales Derwentside Dover Easington Eastbourne East Cambridgeshire East Devon East Dorset East Hampshire East Hertfordshire Eastleigh East Lindsey East Northamptonshire East Staffordshire Eden Ellesmere Port and Neston Elmbridge Epping Forest Epsom and Ewell Erewash Exeter Fenland Forest Heath Forest of Dean Fylde Gedling Gloucester Gravesham Great Yarmouth Guildford Hambleton Harborough Harlow Harrogate Hart Havant Hertsmere High Peak Hinckley and Bosworth Horsham Huntingdonshire Hyndburn Ipswich Kennet Kerrier Kettering King's Lynn and West Norfolk Lancaster Lewes Lichfield Lincoln Macclesfield Maidstone Maldon Malvern Hills Mansfield Melton Mendip Mid Bedfordshire Mid Devon Mid Suffolk Mid Sussex Mole Valley New Forest Newark and Sherwood Newcastle-under-Lyme North Cornwall North Devon North Dorset North East Derbyshire North Hertfordshire North Kesteven North Norfolk North Shropshire North Warwickshire North West Leicestershire North Wiltshire Northampton Norwich Nuneaton and Bedworth Oadby and Wigston Oswestry Pendle Penwith Preston Purbeck Redditch Reigate and Banstead Restormel Ribble Valley Richmondshire Rochford Rossendale Rother Rugby Runnymede Rushcliffe Rushmoor Ryedale Salisbury Scarborough Sedgefield Sedgemoor Selby Sevenoaks Shepway Shrewsbury and Atcham South Bedfordshire South Bucks South Cambridgeshire South Derbyshire South Hams South Holland South Kesteven South Lakeland South Norfolk South Northamptonshire South Oxfordshire South Ribble South Shropshire South Somerset South Staffordshire Spelthorne St Albans St Edmundsbury Stafford Staffordshire Moorlands Stevenage Stratford-on-Avon Stroud Suffolk Coastal Surrey Heath Swale Tamworth Tandridge Taunton Deane Teesdale Teignbridge Tendring Test Valley Tewkesbury Thanet Three Rivers Tonbridge and Malling Torridge Tunbridge Wells Tynedale Uttlesford Vale of White Horse Vale Royal Wansbeck Warwick Watford Waveney Waverley Wealden Wear Valley Wellingborough Welwyn Hatfield West Devon West Dorset West Lancashire West Lindsey West Oxfordshire West Somerset West Wiltshire Weymouth and Portland Winchester Woking Worcester Worthing Wychavon Wycombe Wyre Wyre Forest Scottish councils Aberdeen Aberdeenshire Angus Argyll and Bute Clackmannanshire Dumfries and Galloway Dundee City East Ayrshire East Dunbartonshire East Lothian East Renfrewshire Edinburgh Falkirk Fife Glasgow Highland Inverclyde Midlothian Moray Comhairle nan Eilean Siar North Ayrshire North Lanarkshire Orkney Perth and Kinross Renfrewshire Scottish Borders Shetland South Ayrshire South Lanarkshire Stirling West Dunbartonshire West Lothian National Assembly elections Scotland Wales Northern Ireland