The 2004 Walsall Council election took place on 10 June 2004 to elect members of Walsall

Metropolitan Borough of Walsall

The Metropolitan Borough of Walsall is a local government district in the Black Country part of the West Midlands, England, with the status of a metropolitan borough. It is named after its largest settlement, Walsall, but covers a larger area which also includes the towns of Aldridge, Brownhills,...

 Metropolitan Borough

Metropolitan borough

A metropolitan borough is a type of local government district in England, and is a subdivision of a metropolitan county. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts, however all of them have been granted or regranted...

 Council in the West Midlands

West Midlands (county)

The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...

, 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 last election in 2003

Walsall Council election, 2003

The 2003 Walsall Council election took place on 1 May 2003 to elect members of Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council in the West Midlands, 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

Before the election the council was run by a coalition between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

 parties, with 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...

 holding 27 seats, the Conservatives 24, Liberal Democrats 7 and UK Independence Party 2. 60 seats were contested with the candidates including 7 from the British National Party

British National Party

The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...

.

Election result

The results saw the Conservatives win a majority on the council with 35 of the 60 seats. Labour were reduced to 16 seats, with the chairs of the West Midlands Police Authority

West Midlands Police Authority

West Midlands Police Authority, a police authority, is the governing body of the West Midlands Police force in the English county of the West Midlands; encompassing Birmingham and Coventry.-Constitution:...

 and West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive

West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive

The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive , sometimes known as Centro, is a local government organisation responsible for certain transport services in the West Midlands county in England....

, Mohammed Nazir and Richard Worrell, among those to lose at the election. Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats won 6 seats and there was 1 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...

, while the 2 UK Independence Party 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 both lost their seats.

After results were declared, a box with 200 ballot papers in it was discovered underneath a table. These were then counted, but the returning officer

Returning Officer

In various parliamentary systems, a returning officer is responsible for overseeing elections in one or more constituencies.-Australia:In Australia a returning officer is an employee of the Australian Electoral Commission or a State Electoral Commission who heads the local divisional office...

 did not include them in the declarations, as they said it would not have affected the results.

Ward results