2004 St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council election

The 2004 St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council election took place on 10 June 2004 to elect members of St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council in Merseyside, England. The whole council was up for election with boundary changes since the last election in 2003 reducing the number of seats by six.^[1] The Labour Party lost overall control of the council to no overall control.^[2]

Background

Since the 2003 election boundary changes reduced the number of councillors from 54 to 48, while also reducing the number of wards from 18 to 16.^[3]

Election result

Labour lost their majority of the council, after losing 9 seats to take exactly half of the seats on the council, with 24 councillors.^[4]^[5] The Labour leader of the council, Marie Rimmer held her seat in West Park after 3 recounts, while Labour councillors Terry Hanley, Jeff Molyneux and Marlene Quinn were among those to be defeated.^[3] Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats gained 3 seats to have 18 councillors and the Conservatives won 6 seats.^[5]^[6] Overall turnout at the election dropped to 40% from 48% in 2003,^[5] despite the election being held with all postal voting as in 2003.^[7]

Following the election Labour continued to run the council with all of the executive being Labour councillors,^[8] after an agreement between the Labour and Conservative group leaders.^[9] This saw Conservative Betty Lowe becoming the new mayor, but only after agreeing not to use her vote at full council meetings.^[9]

St Helens local election result 2004^[2]^[10]
	Seats	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
Labour	24	-9	50.0	42.3	55,950	-6.2%
Liberal Democrats	18	+3	37.5	40.0	52,918	+6.6%
Conservative	6	0	12.5	15.6	20,614	-1.4%
Independent	0	0	0	1.5	2,021	+0.6%
UKIP	0	0	0	0.3	429	+0.3%
BNP	0	0	0	0.2	328	+0.2%

Ward results

Billinge and Seneley Green (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Bessie Griffin	1,503
	Labour	Alma Atherton	1,492
	Labour	Susan Murphy	1,229
	Independent	James Stevenson	917
	Conservative	David Davies	905
	Conservative	Michael Hodgson	893
	Conservative	James Spanner	878
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Bagot	651
	Liberal Democrats	Gail Mills	454
	Liberal Democrats	Katrina Young	409
Turnout			9,331	41.7

Blackbrook (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Andrew Bowden	1,352
	Labour	Linda Maloney	1,310
	Labour	Albert Smith	1,305
	Liberal Democrats	Ruth Smith	1,156
	Liberal Democrats	Joanne Hankinson	884
	Liberal Democrats	Vivienne Lavery	883
	Conservative	Joan Foster	416
Turnout			7,256	35.9

Bold (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Thomas Hargreaves	1,107
	Liberal Democrats	Stephen Topping	1,052
	Liberal Democrats	Matthew Dunn	1,019
	Liberal Democrats	Thomas King	955
	Labour	John Wiseman	951
	Labour	Paul Pritchard	926
	Conservative	Jill Jones	244
Turnout			6,254	34.1

Earlestown (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Leon McGuire	1,214
	Labour	Keith Deakin	1,106
	Labour	Charles Banks	1,078
	Liberal Democrats	Virginia Taylor	795
	Liberal Democrats	David Smith	783
	Liberal Democrats	David Crowther	775
	Conservative	Catherine Perks	359
Turnout			6,110	33.5

Eccleston (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	Teresa Sims	3,317
	Liberal Democrats	Shirley Evans	3,030
	Liberal Democrats	Geoffrey Pearl	2,718
	Conservative	Kathleen Barton	867
	Conservative	Michael Marriott	687
	Labour	Ellen Glover	645
	Labour	Keith Cottom	617
	Labour	Patricia Ireland	517
Turnout			12,398	49.6

Haydock (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	James Caunce	1,564
	Labour	William Swift	1,400
	Liberal Democrats	Eric Sheldon	1,219
	Labour	Janet Richardson	1,177
	Liberal Democrats	Thomas Duffy	1,148
	Liberal Democrats	Janet Sheldon	1,129
	Conservative	Anthony Rigby	378
Turnout			8,015	37.7

Moss Bank (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	Carole Kavanagh	2,077
	Liberal Democrats	Eric Simpson	1,685
	Liberal Democrats	Richard Ferry	1,566
	Labour	Barbara Jakubiak	1,327
	Labour	Brian Hart	1,188
	Labour	Sandra Banawich	1,047
	Conservative	William Highcock	353
Turnout			9,243	42.7

Newton (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	Suzanne Knight	2,034
	Liberal Democrats	Peter Astbury	1,783
	Liberal Democrats	Neil Taylor	1,654
	Labour	Jeanette Banks	810
	Labour	Mark Rahaman	803
	Labour	Stuart Hughes	758
	Conservative	Brian Honey	355
	Conservative	Margaret Harvey	298
Turnout			8,495	40.6

Parr (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	John Pinder	1,604
	Labour	Keith Roberts	1,236
	Labour	Terence Shields	1,217
	Liberal Democrats	Paul Brown	684
	Liberal Democrats	Ethel Clarke	409
	Liberal Democrats	Stephen Knowles	381
	Conservative	Madeleine Wilcock	215
Turnout			5,746	30.2

Rainford (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Betty Lowe	2,131
	Conservative	John Brown	2,021
	Conservative	John Parr	1,900
	Labour	David Wood	955
	Labour	Keith Aspinall	898
	Labour	Mary Newby	886
	Liberal Democrats	Frederick Barrett	342
	Liberal Democrats	Malcolm Dunn	310
	Liberal Democrats	Gary Pulfer	277
Turnout			9,720	51.0

Rainhill (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Michael Doyle	2,372
	Labour	Joseph De Asha	2,153
	Labour	Stephen Glover	1,433
	Independent	Neil Thompson	908
	Conservative	Gaynor Parr	793
	Conservative	Henry Spriggs	763
	Liberal Democrats	Christina Duncan	735
	Liberal Democrats	Darren Makin	622
	Liberal Democrats	Majorie Beirne	524
Turnout			10,303	42.1

Sutton (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	Brian Spencer	1,917
	Liberal Democrats	Stephanie Topping	1,821
	Liberal Democrats	Julie Jones	1,756
	Labour	Derek Maylor	983
	Labour	Philip Wiseman	941
	Labour	Michael Glover	935
	Conservative	Pauline Wilcock	234
	Independent	Alan Brooks	196
Turnout			8,783	37.8

Thatto Heath (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Sheila Seddon	1,406
	Labour	Patricia Robinson	1,351
	Labour	Richard McCauley	1,139
	Liberal Democrats	Carol Pearl	713
	Liberal Democrats	Noreen Knowles	502
	UKIP	Ann Fleetwood	429
	Liberal Democrats	Sandra Ferry	380
	Conservative	Barbara Woodcock	326
Turnout			6,246	34.2

Town Centre (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	John Beirne	1,173
	Labour	John Fletcher	1,099
	Labour	Margaret McLachlan	1,027
	Labour	Jeffrey Molyneux	1,024
	Liberal Democrats	Mandy Stanley	992
	Liberal Democrats	Alec Mills	958
	BNP	Michael Pearcey	328
	Conservative	Richard Seddon	195
Turnout			6,796	32.8

West Park (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	Lesley Ronan	1,395
	Liberal Democrats	David Evans	1,391
	Labour	Marie Rimmer	1,374
	Labour	Marlene Quinn	1,312
	Labour	Terence Hanley	1,278
	Liberal Democrats	Stephen Broughton	1,265
	Conservative	Charmian Pyke	451
Turnout			8,466	38.7

Windle (3 seats)^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Wallace Ashcroft	1,757
	Conservative	Nancy Ashcroft	1,682
	Conservative	Kenneth Roughley	1,513
	Labour	Geoffrey Almond	1,160
	Labour	Jean West	871
	Labour	Mark Arnold	870
	Liberal Democrats	Kenneth Knowles	484
	Liberal Democrats	Darren Jackson	381
	Liberal Democrats	Marise Roberts	330
Turnout			9,048	42.5

References

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2004 St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council election

Contents

Background

Election result

Ward results

References