Surrey County Council election, 1970, Guildford

In April 1970 elections were held for County Councils in England, including Surrey County Council.^[1]

Nine of the electoral divisions in the 1970 Surrey County Council elections were in the Guildford area. Five of those electoral divisions were in the Guildford Rural District Council area. Guildford Rural District Council was the local authority, at the time, for the villages in the area surrounding the town of Guildford. The other four electoral divisions were in the Guildford Municipal Borough Council area. Guildford Municipal Borough Council was the local authority, at the time, for the town of Guildford itself.

All five of the rural electoral divisions returned Conservative councillors unopposed.

By contrast, the four electoral divisions in the town of Guildford itself produced contests. Three of the four town contests were straight Conservative versus Labour votes. The exception was that of Guildford East electoral division which had four candidates contesting it. Those candidates were the official Conservative candidate who won, the unofficial Conservative candidate who was the sitting county councillor for that division who finished second, a Liberal candidate who was third and the Labour candidate in fourth.

Former Labour County Councillor Mrs Doreen Bellerby gained Guildford West from the Conservatives; the seat she had lost to them in the April 1967 elections. That was the only gain which Labour made from the Conservatives, not merely in Guildford, but overall throughout the 72 seats which were contested in the April 1970 Surrey County Council elections.

The overall results from the Guildford area of Surrey County Council in 1970 were - 8 Conservative, 1 Labour.

An election summary is listed below. However, in 1970, only 4 of the 9 electoral divisions involved a contest.

The figure of only 4 contested Guildford electoral divisions, in the 1970 election, was a low point for that era. The 1965 election had seen contests in 8 of the 9 Guildford divisions, the 1967 election had seen contests in 6 of the 9 divisions and the 1973 election would see 7 of the 9 Guildford divisions on Surrey County Council contested.

Surrey County Council election results, 1970, Guildford
Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	8	0	1	-1	89	55.5	9,173	-9.4
	Labour	1	1	0	1	11	32.2	5,320	-1.3
	Liberal	0	0	0	0	0	5.5	916	3.9
	Independent	0	0	0	0	0	6.8	1,124	6.8

Ash

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	RF Tolley	unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

Guildford East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	AMC Williams	1,718	40.6	-42.3
	Independent Conservative	HH Kimber	1,124	26.6	26.6
	Liberal	Mrs MA Walton	916	21.7	21.7
	Labour	Mrs EC Matthews	472	11.2	-5.9
Majority			594	14.0	-51.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

Guildford North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	DC Inman	2,960	65.8	12.6
	Labour	Mrs GE Pullman	1,541	34.2	-12.6
Majority			1,419	31.5	25.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Guildford South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	RG Reekie	2,254	70.5	-3.9
	Labour	GR Bellerby	943	29.5	3.9
Majority			1,311	41.0	-7.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

Guildford West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Mrs DW Bellerby	2,364	51.3	3.9
	Conservative	Mrs SM Crabtree	2,241	48.7	-3.9
Majority			123	2.6	-3.8
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Horsleys

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	GP Sanger	unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

Shalford

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Mrs FCC Gates	unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

Shere

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	W Whiting	unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

Worplesdon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	CC Dingle	unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

1. Surrey Advertiser 17 April 1970