Croydon Local Elections

Croydon Local Elections

Elections for the Council in the London Borough of Croydon are held every four years to elect 70 councillors. At the last elections, which were held in May 2010, 37 Conservative councillors and 33 Labour councillors, providing a Conservative majority of 4 seats.

At the 2002 local elections, 37 Labour councillors, 32 Conservative councillors and 1 Liberal Democrat councillor were elected, maintaining Labour control of the Council. Subsequently one Conservative councillor defected to Labour, defected back to the Conservatives, became an independent and then a Liberal Democrat. Following the death of one Labour councillor and the resignation of two councillors, three by-elections were won by the incumbent party in each case. A 6% swing from Labour to Conservative was seen in the last two in the run-up to the 2006 elections. However, following the Conservatives' victory in 2006, a February 2007 by-election saw a large swing back to Labour.

In 2002, Labour held Croydon with a tiny majority of votes in its marginal wards - one councillor won by just eight votes - and it was inevitable that in the 2006 election the fight would be keenly fought and closely observed. In the end, the Conservatives won 43 seats on the Council, defeating the lone Liberal Democrat and taking ten Labour seats in Waddon, Addiscombe, South Norwood and Upper Norwood.

In 2010, Labour gained 6 seats (net) from the Conservatives, reducing the Conservative majority on the Council to 4 seats.