Surrey County Council election, 1997, Guildford

In May 1997 county council elections were held in England, including those for Surrey County Council. Shown below are the results for the Guildford electoral districts on Surrey County Council.^[1]

The county council elections in 1997 were held on the same day as the United Kingdom General Election. This resulted in a higher than normal turnout for a county council election. In 1997, turnout in the Guildford electoral divisions ranged from 67.2% in both the Guildford West and the Horsleys electoral divisions, to 78.7% in the Shere electoral division, whereas in the previous election, in 1993, the lowest turnout had been 33.5% in the Guildford West electoral division and the highest had been 42.3% in the Worplesdon electoral division.

One electoral division changed hands in these elections. The Conservatives gained the Ash electoral division from the Liberal Democrats.

The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats each contested all nine electoral divisions. For the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives that was the same number of electoral divisions they had contested in 1993. For Labour that was one more seat than it had contested in 1993. There were two other candidates. A Green Party candidate contested the Guildford North electoral division. An independent, who, at that point in time, was one of the sitting Guildford Borough Council councillors for Ash Vale, contested the Ash electoral division, which included the Ash Vale area.

Surrey County Council election results, 1997, Guildford
Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	5	1	0	1	56	42.1	29,862	5.1%
	Liberal Democrat	3	0	1	-1	33	37.1	26,335	-9.6%
	Labour	1	0	0	0	11	17.9	12,714	1.6%
	Independent	0	0	0	0	0	2.4	1,714	2.4%
	Green	0	0	0	0	0	0.4	289	0.4%

Ash

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Jennifer Cassar	3,052	35.4	-4.2
	Liberal Democrat	Peter Morgan	2,476	28.8	-23.3
	Independent PAF	David Evans	1,714	19.9	19.9
	Labour	Peter Anderson	1,370	15.9	7.6
Majority			576	6.7	-5.8
Turnout				71.73
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrat		Swing

Guildford East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Nicholas Brougham	4,448	47.2	1.6
	Liberal Democrat	Pamela Palmer	3,828	40.6	-2.0
	Labour	William Scott	1,151	12.2	-0.4
Majority			620	6.6	3.6
Turnout				78.25
	Conservative hold		Swing

Guildford North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	John Hobrough[2]	3,680	37.7	-7.3
	Conservative	Daniel Crawshaw	2,970	30.4	11.8
	Labour	Keith Chesterton	2,819	28.9	-7.5
	Green	Isobel Hamblett	289	3.0	3.0
Majority			710	7.3	-1.4
Turnout				73.21
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing

Guildford South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	Tom Sharp	3,938	50.0	-13.0
	Conservative	Michael Dale	2,832	35.9	8.5
	Labour	Angela Gunning	1,108	14.1	4.5
Majority			1,106	14.0	-21.6
Turnout				72.6
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing

Guildford West

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Joseph Bullock	3,091	37.6	-6.3
	Liberal Democrat	David Goodwin	2,753	33.5	-0.9
	Conservative	Pamela Parke	2,372	28.9	7.2
Majority			338	4.1	-5.4
Turnout				67.2
	Labour hold		Swing

Horsleys

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	William Barker	4,437	62.9	4.8
	Liberal Democrat	Elizabeth Hogger	1,899	26.9	-8.0
	Labour	Moira Noble	717	10.1	3.2
Majority			2,538	36.0	12.8
Turnout				67.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

Shalford

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Veronica Stiastny	2,813	49.2	4.1
	Liberal Democrat	Philip Mellor	2,011	35.2	-8.1
	Labour	Gary Hills	894	15.6	4.0
Majority			802	14.0	12.2
Turnout				75.44
	Conservative hold		Swing

Shere

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	David Davis	3,750	57.2	9.3
	Liberal Democrat	Charles Thorne	2,074	31.6	-8.7
	Labour	Sheila Bean	732	11.2	-0.6
Majority			1,676	25.6	18.1
Turnout				78.71
	Conservative hold		Swing

Worplesdon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	Mary Laker	3,676	47.8	-11.0
	Conservative	Sheridan Westlake	3,188	41.4	0.2
	Labour	Alan Ritchie	832	10.8	10.8
Majority			488	6.3	-11.3
Turnout				73.37
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing

References

1. Surrey Advertiser 9 May 1997
2. The 9 May 1997 Surrey Advertiser omitted the final digit from Mr Hobrough's vote. This digit has been obtained by taking the total number of valid votes, in the 1997 election, for this electoral division (9758) and subtracting the vote figures for the other three candidates leaving a figure of "3,680" as opposed to the figure of "368" shown in the Surrey Advertiser. The "9758" figure for the total number of valid votes was displayed on the www.surrey.gov.uk results page for the Guildford North electoral division in the 2005 elections. The turnout figures for 1997 and 2001 were displayed alongside the 2005 turnout figures. A comparison with other ward's turnout figures for 1997 indicates that the figure being listed under "1997 turnout" could more precisely be described as "1997 votes" ie it did not include spoilt ballot papers.