2007 Basildon District Council election

2007 Basildon District Council election^[1]^[2]^[3]
14 of the 42 seats to Basildon District Council; 22 seats needed for a majority
	Map of the results of the 2007 Basildon council election. Conservatives in blue, Labour in red and Liberal Democrats in yellow. Wards in grey were not contested in 2007.
Council control before election; Conservative Party;	Council control after election ; Conservative Party;

The 2007 Basildon District Council election took place on 3 May 2007 to elect members of Basildon District Council in Essex, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Conservative party stayed in overall control of the council.^[4]

After the election, the composition of the council was

Campaign

The election saw the British National Party stand in 11 of the 14 wards being contested,^[6] an increase from 6 in 2006 and more than the Liberal Democrats who only stood in 9 seats.^[7]

There was controversy during the election over comments by the Conservative candidate in Vange, Luke Mackenzie, in an election leaflet where he called for voters who did not want asylum seekers to get council houses to vote Conservative.^[6] Other parties called on the Conservatives to disown Mackenzie, who was standing against the only ethnic minority councillor in Basildon, saying he was "peddling scare stories" and that the comments were "inflammatory".^[6] However Mackenzie denied increasing racial tension, saying voters felt immigration was "entirely out of control" and that a shortage of housing was caused by people from outside of Basildon,^[6] and was defended by the leaders of the Conservative group in Basildon.^[8]

Election result

The results saw the Conservative hold control of the council after gaining one seat from Labour.^[9] The Conservatives took Laindon Park, but narrowly failed to take the targeted wards of Pitsea North West and Vange from Labour, by 19 and 68 votes respectively.^[10] The Conservative share of the vote was down on the 2006 election at 43%, while Labour won 22%.^[10] Overall turnout in the election was 30%, a decline from the 33.5% recorded in 2006.^[10]

2007 Basildon Local Election Result^[11]^[10]
	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
Conservative	8	1	0	1	57.1	43.2	14,823	2.1
Labour	5	0	1	1	35.7	22.3	7,656	5.6
Liberal Democrats	1	0	0	0	7.1	12.9	4,411	6.8
BNP	0	0	0	0	0	12.0	4,114	7.9
Independent	0	0	0	0	0	7.8	2,661	5.9
UKIP	0	0	0	0	0	1.2	397	New
Green	0	0	0	0	0	0.6	211	0.5

All comparisons in vote share are to the corresponding 2003 election.

Ward results

Billericay East

Location of Billericay East ward

Billericay East^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Dadds	1,373	44.2	−28.3
	Liberal Democrats	John James	1,095	35.3	+16.7
	BNP	Laurence Long	377	12.1	+12.1
	Labour	Patricia Reid	259	8.3	−0.6
Majority			278	9.0	−44.9
Turnout			3,104	34.2	−3.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

Billericay West

Location of Billericay West ward

Billericay West^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Stephen Horgan	2,017	65.7	+1.6
	Liberal Democrats	Geoffrey Taylor	473	15.4	+0.3
	BNP	Michael Bateman	337	11.0	−1.9
	Labour	Margaret Viney	244	7.9	+0.1
Majority			1,544	50.3	+1.2
Turnout			3,071	32.7	−3.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

Burstead

Location of Burstead ward

Burstead^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Kevin Blake	1,886	62.9	−6.9
	Liberal Democrats	Susan Haeger	455	15.2	−4.4
	BNP	Linda Henry	334	11.1	+11.1
	Labour	Santa Bennett	325	10.8	+0.2
Majority			1,431	47.7	−2.5
Turnout			3,000	36.2	−3.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

Fryerns

Location of Fryerns ward

Fryerns^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Allan Davies	1,092	42.1	−1.6
	Conservative	Mark Coker	603	23.2	+4.2
	BNP	Leonard Heather	595	22.9	−2.4
	Liberal Democrats	John Lutton	305	11.8	−0.2
Majority			489	18.8	+0.3
Turnout			2,595	28.3	−3.3
	Labour hold		Swing

Laindon Park

Location of Laindon Park ward

Laindon Park^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Jilly Hyde	850	33.3	−11.2
	Labour	Barbara Croft	624	24.5	−11.3
	Independent	Victor York	613	24.0	+24.0
	BNP	David King	295	11.6	−8.1
	Liberal Democrats	Jon Myall	91	3.6	+3.6
	Green	Annie Humphries	77	3.0	+3.0
Majority			226	8.9	+0.2
Turnout			2,550	30.8	−0.7
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Lee Chapel North

Lee Chapel North ward in Basildon 2002

Lee Chapel North^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Richard Rackham	875	39.5	−0.2
	Conservative	Peter Morris	627	28.3	+4.3
	BNP	Jay Slaven	361	16.3	−5.7
	Liberal Democrats	Steve Nice	218	9.8	+1.5
	Green	Ernest Humphries	134	6.0	+0.0
Majority			248	11.2	−4.5
Turnout			2,215	25.4	−4.6
	Labour hold		Swing

Nethermayne

Location of Nethermayne ward

Nethermayne^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Ben Williams	1,451	51.0	+9.0
	Conservative	Steve Foster	874	30.7	−3.3
	Labour	Julian Ware-Lane	520	18.3	−5.7
Majority			577	20.3	+12.3
Turnout			2,845	33.0	−2.0
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Pitsea North West

Location of Pitsea North West ward

Pitsea North West^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Keith Bobbin	734	34.3	−4.3
	Conservative	Mark Coxshall	714	33.4	−11.0
	BNP	Geoffrey McCarthy	362	16.9	+16.9
	UKIP	Terry McBride	167	7.8	+7.8
	Liberal Democrats	Martin Howard	162	7.6	−9.4
Majority			20	0.9
Turnout			2,139	23.2	−2.0
	Labour hold		Swing

Pitsea South East

Location of Pitsea South East ward

Pitsea South East^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Maureen Larkin	1,151	46.7	−12.4
	Labour	Emma Collins	767	31.1	−9.8
	BNP	Sidney Chaney	375	15.2	+15.2
	UKIP	Imelda Clancy	174	7.1	+7.1
Majority			384	15.6	−2.5
Turnout			2,467	28.4	−2.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

St Martin's

Location of St Martin's ward

St Martin's^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patricia Rackley	625	41.3	+4.7
	Conservative	James Devlin	346	22.9	−0.5
	BNP	Philip Howell	325	21.5	−5.3
	Liberal Democrats	Mike Dickinson	161	10.6	−2.6
	UKIP	Terry Wood	56	3.7	+3.7
Majority			279	18.4	+8.6
Turnout			1,513	26.6	−1.3
	Labour hold		Swing

Vange

Location of Vange ward

Vange^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Danny Nandanwar	704	38.7	+3.4
	Conservative	Luke MacKenzie	636	34.9	+5.9
	BNP	Rodney Leveridge	481	26.4	+3.7
Majority			68	3.7	−2.7
Turnout			1,821	27.9	+1.4
	Labour hold		Swing

Wickford Castledon

Location of Wickford Castleton ward

Wickford Castledon^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sylvia Buckley	1,058	47.3	−8.9
	Independent	Alan Ball	677	30.3	+6.2
	BNP	Anthony Gladwin	272	12.2	+12.2
	Labour	Leonard Wilkins	229	10.2	−1.5
Majority			381	17.0	−15.1
Turnout			2,236	36.9	−1.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Wickford North

Location of Wickford North ward

Wickford North^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Mowe	1,592	52.7	−23.9
	Independent	David Harrison	1,021	33.8	+33.8
	Labour	Christopher Wilson	409	13.5	−9.9
Majority			571	18.9	−34.4
Turnout			3,022	32.6	−1.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

Wickford Park

Location of Wickford Park ward

Wickford Park^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Christopher Jackman	1,096	64.7	−3.7
	Independent	Derek Paffett	350	20.6	+20.6
	Labour	Anthony Borlase	249	14.7	+1.4
Majority			746	44.0	−6.1
Turnout			1,695	24.9	−2.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

^ "Council compositions by year". The Elections Centre.
^ "Local Election Summaries 2007". The Elections Centre.
^ "English local elections 2007". BBC News.
^ "Basildon". BBC News Online. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
^ "Local and Mayoral elections 2007" (PDF). House of Commons Library. 19 July 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Coates, Sam (9 April 2007). "Tory candidate accused of echoing the BNP message". The Times. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
^ Austin, Jon (6 April 2007). "BNP candidates will outnumber Lib Dems". Southend Standard. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
^ Austin, Jon (11 April 2007). "Race-hate row over election leaflet". Southend Standard. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
^ "Councillor, 18, 'youngest in UK'". BBC News Online. 4 May 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Austin, Jon (4 May 2007). "Tories fail to make clean sweep". Southend Standard. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o "District Council election". Basildon District Council. Archived from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2011.

[1] "Council compositions by year". The Elections Centre.

[2] "Local Election Summaries 2007". The Elections Centre.

[3] "English local elections 2007". BBC News.

[hold-4] "Basildon". BBC News Online. Retrieved 30 June 2011.

[mayoral-5] "Local and Mayoral elections 2007" (PDF). House of Commons Library. 19 July 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2011.

[echoing-6] Coates, Sam (9 April 2007). "Tory candidate accused of echoing the BNP message". The Times. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2011.

[outnumber-7] Austin, Jon (6 April 2007). "BNP candidates will outnumber Lib Dems". Southend Standard. Retrieved 1 July 2011.

[hate-8] Austin, Jon (11 April 2007). "Race-hate row over election leaflet". Southend Standard. Retrieved 1 July 2011.

[youngest-9] "Councillor, 18, 'youngest in UK'". BBC News Online. 4 May 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2011.

[sweep-10] Austin, Jon (4 May 2007). "Tories fail to make clean sweep". Southend Standard. Retrieved 1 July 2011.

[results-11] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o "District Council election". Basildon District Council. Archived from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2011.

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