Elections were held on 5th May 2005 to all county councils in England and three unitary authorities in England.
As had happened at the two previous county council elections in 1997 and 2001, a general election was held on the same day. The results of the general election are available from many sources and are not covered here.
The voting system used for all elections covered here was first-past-the-post, with multi-member FPTP being used where more than one seat was up for election.
New boundaries were introduced in many counties, with in many counties multi-member divisions introduced for the first time — previously every county had used single-member divisions. While most divisions remain single-member, there are now a significant number of two-member divisions and three divisions electing three members (Penzance in Cornwall, Hucknall in Nottinghamshire and Bicester in Oxfordshire). Elections to the county councils are covered in Part I.
The three unitary authorities which held elections were Bristol, the Isle of Wight, and Stockton-on-Tees. The Isle of Wight Council has the status of a county council and has 48 single-member divisions. One-third of Bristol City Council was up for election, with one councillor up for election in two-thirds of the wards, the remaining wards not holding an election this year. The election in Stockton-on-Tees was hastily arranged in order to introduce new ward boundaries, which could not be agreed in time for the scheduled election in May 2003; Stockton-on-Tees will revert to its normal four-year cycle from May 2007. Elections to these bodies are covered in Part II.
Finally, at the back you will find an Index of Wards.
Where a candidate in an election dies, the election in that ward or division is cancelled and rearranged for a later date. This happened in the following wards or divisions at this election:
and also in the general election in the Staffordshire South constituency.
Here is a list of abbreviations used in this book for major parties and selected other parties which fought several councils. This list is not exhaustive; parties which put up only a few candidates will generally have their abbreviation listed at the head of the entry for the relevant council. Please note that the “Lab” label includes candidates who were jointly sponsored by the Labour and Co-operative Parties.
BNP - British National Party C - Conservative Party Grn - Green Party Ind - Independent Lab - Labour Party LD - Liberal Democrat Lib - Liberal Party Loony - Monster Raving Loony Party PC - Plaid Cymru Respect - Respect, the Unity Coalition Soc All - Socialist Alliance Soc Lab - Socialist Labour Party UKIP - UK Independence Party
I would like to close this section by thanking all those who have supplied me with results, and particularly those dozens of council webpages without which this work would not have been possible.