The 2008 Basingstoke and Deane Council election took place on 1 May 2008 to elect members of Basingstoke and Deane

Basingstoke and Deane

Basingstoke and Deane is a local government district and borough in Hampshire, England. Its primary settlement is Basingstoke. Other settlements include Bramley, Tadley, Kingsclere, Overton, Oakley, Whitchurch and the hamlet of Deane, some from Basingstoke....

 Borough

Borough status in the United Kingdom

Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district...

 Council in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The whole council was up for election with boundary changes since the 2007 election

Basingstoke and Deane Council election, 2007

The 2007 Basingstoke and Deane Council election took place on 3 May 2007 to elect members of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council in Hampshire, England...

. The Conservative party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 gained overall control of the council from no overall control

No overall control

Within the context of local councils of the United Kingdom, the term No Overall Control refers to a situation in which no single party achieves a majority of seats and is analogous to a hung parliament...

.

Background

After the last election in 2007 the Conservatives had a majority on the council with 31 of the 60 seats. However the Conservatives would lose their majority after defeat by the Liberal Democrats in a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 in Baughurst

Baughurst

Baughurst is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. It is located west of the town of Tadley, north of Basingstoke. In the 2001 census it had a population of 2,473....

 in January 2008 left the Conservatives ith exactly half o the seats.

The whole council was contested in 2008 instead of the usual third, after changes were made to the boundaries. The changes included abolishing Calleva ward

Wards of the United Kingdom

A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...

 and creating a Bramley

Bramley, Hampshire

Bramley is a village and parish in Hampshire, UK. In the 2001 census it had a population of 3,348. It has a village shop, bakery, estate agency, pub and a railway station...

 and Sherfield ward. Tadley

Tadley

Tadley is a town and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire.During the 1950s and 1960s, the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment , now known as AWE, became the area's largest employer, and a large number of houses were built during this period to accommodate AWRE workers...

 North was split in two, Burghclere

Burghclere

Burghclere is a village and civil parish in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,138...

 was merged with Highclere

Highclere

Highclere is a village and civil parish situated in the North Wessex Downs in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. It lies in the northern part of the county, near the Berkshire border. It is most famous for being the location of Highclere Castle....

 and St Mary Bourne

St Mary Bourne

St Mary Bourne is small village and civil parish in northwest Hampshire. It lies in the valley of the Bourne Rivulet, a tributary of the River Test 5 miles northeast of the town of Andover.-Governance:...

 and the number of seats in Winklebury

Winklebury

Winklebury is a large suburb located two miles north-west of central Basingstoke in the UK. Up until the late 1960s Winklebury was a collection of small holdings but Basingstoke's growth as a London Overspill town saw the area developed for housing.-History:...

 ward was reduced by one.

Councillor

Councillor

A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...

s standing down at the election included Gwen Richardson and Erica Shaw, while former Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 group leader David Potter and the former Conservative council leader from the 1980s and 1990s, Stephen Reid, attempted to return to the council. Meanwhile independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 councillor David Leeks, stood for the Conservatives after joining the party.

Election result

The results saw the Conservatives gain a 10 seat majority on the council after winning 35 of the 60 seats. This was compared to 14 Liberal Democrat, 9 Labour and 2 independent councillors. Among those defeated in the election was the leader of the Labour group on the council, Gary Watts, who lost in South Ham

South Ham

South Ham is an district and ward of Basingstoke, to the west of the town centre.It takes its name from what was once the major farm in the area, South Ham farm, which was demolished in the early 1960s. Parts of the area were developed for Council Housing in both the 1930s and 1950s when Western...

 and the mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 Warwick Lovegrove. The former leader of the council Stephen Reid returned to the council in Buckskin, defeating a former mayor Tony Jones. Overall turnout

Voter turnout

Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

in the election was 37%.

Following the election Conservative Andrew Finney became the new leader of the council succeeding John Leek.

Ward results