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.
Contents
- Recent political history of Slough
- Summary of Council composition 2006 2007
- List of Councillors whose terms expired in 2007
- Election result summary
- Members of Slough Borough Council 2007 2008
- References
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 Slough Council election 2001. 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:-
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.
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):
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
Election result summary
Members of Slough Borough Council 2007-2008
Notes:-