2008 Pendle Borough Council election

Outcome and key events of the 2008 Pendle Borough Council general election

Main article: Pendle Borough Council elections

The 2008 Pendle Borough Council election took place on 1 May 2008 to elect members of Pendle Borough Council in Lancashire, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Liberal Democrats lost overall control of the council to no overall control.

After the election, the composition of the council was

Background

Before the election the Liberal Democrats held control of the council with 28 seats, but a loss of 4 seats would mean they lost their majority. 17 seats were contested in the election, with the Liberal Democrats defending 12, the Conservatives 4 and Labour 1 seat.

5 councillors stood down at the election, 2 Liberal Democrats from Bradley and Walverden wards, 2 Conservatives from Earby and Reedley and Labour's David Whalley from Vivary Bridge ward. Councillors who were defending seats included the leader of the council, Liberal Democrat Alan Davies, in Boulsworth, deputy mayor Marjorie Adams in Coates ward and the chairman of the Nelson committee David Foster in Clover Hill. The only candidates standing in the election not from the 3 main parties, were 4 from the British National Party and 2 independents.

Campaign

The election saw complaints of voting fraud involving postal voting, leading to a police investigation and the matter being raised in Parliament by the local Member of Parliament Gordon Prentice. These allegations involved both the Liberal Democrat parliament candidate for Pendle constituency Afzal Anwar and Labour councillor Mohammed Tariq, after multiple postal votes were registered at their addresses. Both men denied doing anything and were supported by their parties, saying everyone registered at the addresses were entitled to vote. The police dropped the enquiry after concluding that there had been no wrongdoing.

During the campaign the national Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg visited Pendle to support his party.

Election result

The results saw the Liberal Democrats lost their majority on the council after suffering a net loss of 8 seats. Defeated councillors for the Liberal Democrats included the leader of the council Alan Davies in Boulsworth, Nelson Committee chairman David Foster in Clover Hill, Shelley Franklin in Craven, Frank Wren in Brierfield and Judith Robinson in Southfield. The Liberal Democrats blamed their defeats on a targeted campaign by the Conservatives, while the Conservatives said the "tide is now turning towards us".

The Labour and Conservative parties both made significant gains from the Liberal Democrats. However Labour did lose one seat back to the Liberal Democrats in Vivary Bridge and the Conservatives lost a seat in Marsden to the British National Party. There was also a success for an independent candidate, with Glenn Whittaker taking Craven from the Liberal Democrats. These results meant the Liberal Democrats held 20 seats, the Conservatives 16, Labour 10, British National Party 2 as well as 1 independent. Overall turnout in the election was 41.58%.

Following the election the parties held talks on control of the council with reports that an agreement between the Conservative and Labour parties to take over from the Liberal Democrats was possible. However these were not successful and the new leader of the Liberal Democrats group, John David, became leader of the council at the head of a minority administration, after an 18-17 vote at the council meeting.

Pendle local election result 2008
	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
Conservative	6	3	1	+2	35.3	40.5	10,911	+5.9%
Labour	5	5	1	+4	29.4	23.0	6,183	+5.3%
Liberal Democrats	4	1	9	-8	23.5	29.5	7,954	-5.3%
BNP	1	1	0	+1	5.9	4.8	1,289	-2.2%
Independent	1	1	0	+1	5.9	2.2	602	-2.1%

Ward results

Barrowford
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Anthony Beckett	1,136	67.3	+0.4
	Labour	Susan Nike	411	24.4	−0.9
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Bradshaw	140	8.3	+0.5
Majority			725	43.0	+1.4
Turnout			1,687	42.4	+0.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

Boulsworth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Michael Calvert	1,189
	Conservative	George Askew	1,006
	Liberal Democrats	Alan Davies	663
	Liberal Democrats	David Robertson	618
	Labour	Gerard McCabe	133
	Labour	John Pope	69
Turnout			3,678	48.4
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Bradley
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Mohammad Sakib	946	54.1	+10.1
	Liberal Democrats	Jamil Mohammed	474	27.1	−7.2
	Conservative	Zahid Chaudry	329	18.8	+4.1
Majority			472	27.0	+17.3
Turnout			1,749	39.3	−11.8
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Brierfield
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Naeem Ashraf	863	47.2	+25.3
	Conservative	Ann Jackson	632	34.6	+6.3
	Liberal Democrats	Francis Wren	332	18.2	−31.5
Majority			231	12.6
Turnout			1,827	49.7	−0.9
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Clover Hill
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Eileen Ansar	624	37.7	+13.8
	Liberal Democrats	David Foster	533	32.2	−0.6
	Conservative	Timothy Eyre	496	30.0	+18.0
Majority			91	5.5
Turnout			1,653	43.4	−2.1
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Coates
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Marjorie Adams	665	45.5	−4.2
	Conservative	Keith Bailey	637	43.6	+29.9
	Labour	William Skinner	158	10.8	+1.5
Majority			28	1.9	−20.4
Turnout			1,460	35.7	−1.8
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Craven
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Glenn Whittaker	559	32.6	+5.3
	Liberal Democrats	Shelley Franklin	437	25.5	−21.4
	Conservative	Sandra Bunn	427	24.9	−0.9
	BNP	Geoffrey Whitehead	235	13.7	+13.7
	Labour	Robert Oliver	56	3.3	+3.3
Majority			122	7.1
Turnout			1,714	48.9	+10.9
	Independent gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Earby
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Valerie Langtree	1,248	69.5	+0.4
	Liberal Democrats	Jacqueline Taylforth	325	18.1	+0.4
	Labour	David Foat	223	12.4	−0.7
Majority			923	51.4	+0.0
Turnout			1,796	39.0	−1.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

Horsfield
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Smith Benson	670	49.2	+28.1
	Liberal Democrats	Dorothy Lord	507	37.2	−6.5
	Labour	Anthony Hargreaves	185	13.6	−1.9
Majority			163	12.0
Turnout			1,362	34.3	−3.3
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Marsden
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	BNP	Adam Grant	412	39.1	+0.8
	Conservative	Gary Rowland	339	32.2	+16.0
	Labour	Dorothy Ormrod	221	21.0	−10.0
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Upward	82	7.8	−6.7
Majority			73	6.9	−0.5
Turnout			1,054	41.1	−1.6
	BNP gain from Conservative		Swing

Reedley
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Blomeley	1,250	71.1	+7.5
	Labour	Robert Allen	285	16.2	−3.6
	Liberal Democrats	Mubashir Ali	224	12.7	−3.9
Majority			965	54.9	+11.1
Turnout			1,759	42.8	−4.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

Southfield
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Sheila Wicks	547	36.6	+13.3
	Conservative	Paul McKenna	487	32.6	+14.5
	Liberal Democrats	Judith Robinson	462	30.9	−9.7
Majority			60	4.0
Turnout			1,496	37.1	−1.6
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Vivary Bridge
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Glennda Clegg	490	35.6	−10.3
	Conservative	Geoffrey Riley	393	28.5	+8.9
	BNP	Veronica Cullen	305	22.1	+2.6
	Labour	Ian Tweedie	189	13.7	−1.4
Majority			97	7.0	−19.3
Turnout			1,377	33.8	−1.0
	Liberal Democrats gain from Labour		Swing

Walverden
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Mohammed Khalid	610	44.0	−6.9
	Liberal Democrats	Asghar Ali	400	28.9	−8.3
	Conservative	Barbara King	376	27.1	+15.3
Majority			210	15.2	+1.5
Turnout			1,386	51.6	+0.9
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Waterside
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Anthony Greaves	492	39.9	−2.2
	BNP	Helen Mulligan	337	27.3	+7.4
	Conservative	James Ilott	211	17.1	+5.1
	Labour	Anthony Martin	151	12.2	−4.8
	Independent	Ian Robinson	43	3.5	−1.0
Majority			155	12.6	−9.6
Turnout			1,234	33.1	−5.1
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Whitefield
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Nadeem Ahmed	1,110	65.0	+21.3
	Labour	Mohammad Tariq	512	30.0	−21.7
	Conservative	Victoria Landriau	85	5.0	+0.4
Majority			598	35.0
Turnout			1,707	64.9	−6.8
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

References

"Pendle". BBC News Online. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
"National: Full election results". The Guardian. 3 May 2008. p. 45.
^ "May local elections - candidates announced". Burnley Express. 7 April 2008.
Moseley, Tom (25 April 2008). "Pendle council elections preview". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
"Police probe into Pendle vote fraud allegations". Burnley and Pendle Citizen. 9 April 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
Turner, Kate (23 April 2008). "Nelson house 'with 27 voters' brought up in Parliament". Burnley and Pendle Citizen. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
^ Magill, Peter (11 April 2008). "27 voters at would-be MP's home". Burnley and Pendle Citizen. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
Magill, Peter (28 April 2008). "Pendle Lib Dem MP candidate police probe dropped". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
MAgill, Peter (16 April 2008). "Lib Dem leader visiting Burnley and Pendle". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
Jenkins, Russell (2 May 2008). "Lib Dems refuse to admit defeat in Liverpool after Clegg's first ballot test". The Times. p. 27.
^ "Pendle 'hung council' - local election results". Burnley Express. 2 May 2008.
Hussain, Samrana (2 May 2008). "Pendle election results: Lib Dems lose overall control". Burnley and Pendle Citizen. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
^ "Liberal Democrats to continue running Pendle Council". Burnley Express. 16 May 2008.
^ "Election Results". Pendle Borough Council. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
"Labour and Conservatives in talks over Pendle power-sharing". Lancashire Telegraph. 2 May 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
Hussain, Samrana (17 May 2008). "Lib Dems hang on to Pendle thanks to majority of one". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
"Results". The Times. 3 May 2008. p. 14.

v t e Council elections in Lancashire
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See also: Wards Boundary changes

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