2019 Guildford Borough Council election

The 2019 Guildford Borough Council election were held on 2 May 2019, to elect all 48 seats to the Guildford Borough Council in Surrey, England as part of the 2019 local elections.

2019 Guildford Borough Council election

2 May 2019
All 48 seats to Guildford Borough Council 25 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Caroline Reeves Joss Bigmore Paul Spooner Party Liberal Democrats R4GV Conservative Leader's seat Friary & St Nicolas Christchurch Ash South & Tongham Last election 9 seats, 22.32% New party 35 seats, 46.77% Seats won 17 15 9 Seat change 8 15 26 Popular vote 24,786 20,488 26,047 Percentage 28.1% 23.2% 29.6% Swing 5.8 New party 17.2   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Susan Parker Angela Gunning Diana Jones Party GGG Labour Green Leader's seat Send Stoke Tillingbourne Last election 3 seats, 13.02% 1 seats, 11.08% 0 seats, 2.83% Seats won 4 2 1 Seat change 1 1 1 Popular vote 6,917 8,713 1,229 Percentage 7.8% 9.9% 1.4% Swing 5.2 1.2 1.4
Map showing the results of the 2019 Guildford Borough Council elections. Numbers indicate the number of councillors elected by each ward. Yellow showing Liberal Democrats, Magenta showing R4GV, blue showing Conservative, dark green showing Guildford Greenbelt Group, red showing Labour and light green showing Green. Striped wards have mixed representation.
Council control before election Conservative Council control after election No Overall Control

The Liberal Democrats won the most seats (17), the Residents for Guildford and Villages, a new political party formed in early 2019, came second with 15 seats, while the ruling Conservatives lost their majority coming third with 9 seats. Other parties such as the Guildford Greenbelt Group (4), the Labour Party (2) and the Green Party (1) won seats.

Background

Since the 2015 local election, there had been changes to the political make up of the council. Prior to the election Labour had gained one seat from the Conservatives in the Stoke by-election in May 2016, and a total of four councillors had defected from their parties to sit as an Independent Alliance group. Two Conservative councillors, Tony Rooth (a former council leader) and Bob McShee, defected to sit as independents in May 2018 and were joined by Colin Cross from the Liberal Democrats in November 2018. All of them cited dissatisfaction with their group leaderships as reasons for defection, particularly in relation to issues around Guildford's draft Local Plan In February 2019 a further Conservative councillor, Nils Christiansen, defected to the independent group.

In the run up to the election the Independent Alliance councillors were involved in the creation of a new party, Residents for Guildford and Villages (R4GV), to contest the borough elections on a platform of changing the Local Plan. The creation of the new party was supported by individuals who had been active within the Guildford Society and the Guildford Vision Group (a civic society group campaigning for alternative planning policies within Guildford town), and was led by a local investor, Joss Bigmore. Three of the four independent councillors were involved in the creation of R4GV and joined it to stand for re-election under the party label.

The Local Plan proved a controversial topic in the run-up to the election, having already provided an impetus for the creation of the Guildford Greenbelt Group (GGG) party prior to the 2015 election (where it had won three seats).The draft Local Plan set out plans for the building 10,678 new houses by 2034, including three major 'strategic sites' located on green belt land, and became one of the main issues of the 2019 election campaign. A vote on adopting the Local Plan was scheduled by the Conservative administration for 25 April 2019, just one week before the election, attracting criticism from opposition parties who claimed this was a violation of the pre-election "purdah" period. Despite public protests, and attempts by opposition parties to defer the vote until after the local election, the vote went ahead as scheduled with a majority of councillors voting to adopt the Local Plan.

During the election campaign the parties contesting the election set out their positions on a range of issues. The Conservatives, as the incumbent administration, defended the Local Plan and their record of running Guildford Borough Council, especially in the area of arts and culture, arguing that a re-elected Conservative administration would "enhance" the borough's sporting, community and recreational facilities. The Liberal Democrats, as the main opposition group, outlined plans to protect the environment, take action on climate change and build more social housing. R4GV and GGG both campaigned on making changes to the Local Plan and on the basis that they would be an improvement over the presence of national political parties in local government. Labour argued that they were the only party offering real change in Guildford and advocated investment in public services.

At the election R4GV and GGG co-operated, standing candidates together in two wards and not standing against each other in other wards, but only stood a total of 21 candidates between them. The Liberal Democrats stood 32 candidates, not contesting some wards, whilst the Conservatives contested every ward. In the run up to the election there was media speculation and analysis suggesting that R4GV and the Liberal Democrats had been selective in where they had stood candidates in order to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.

Summary

Election result

2019 Guildford Borough Council election
Party		Candidates	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Liberal Democrats	32	17	9	1	8	35.4	28.1	24,786
	R4GV	17	15	15	0	15	31.3	23.2	20,488
	Conservative	48	9	0	26	26	18.8	29.6	26,047
	GGG	6	4	1	0	1	8.3	7.8	6,917
	Labour	28	2	1	0	1	4.2	9.9	8,713
	Green	2	1	1	0	1	2.1	1.4	1,229
	Peace Party (UK)	3	0	0	0		0.0	0.5	459
	Independent	1	0	0	0		0.0	0.1	128

Number of councillors per ward is shown in brackets after the ward name.

Wards won solely by the Liberal Democrats – Burpham (2); Friary & St Nicolas (3); Effingham (1); Onslow (3); Stoughton (3); Westborough (3)

Wards won solely by Residents for Guildford and Villages (R4GV) – Christchurch (3); Holy Trinity (3); Lovelace (1); Pilgrims (1); Worplesdon (3)

Wards won solely by the Conservatives – Ash Vale (2); Ash Wharf (2); Pirbright (1); Normandy (1)

Wards won solely by Guildford Greenbelt Group – Send (2)

Wards won solely by Labour – Stoke (2)

Wards electing councillors of more than one party – Ash South & Tongham (3 – 2 Con, 1 R4GV); Clandon & Horsley (3 – 2 R4GV, 1 Guildford Greenbelt); Merrow (3 - 1 R4GV, 2 Lib Dem); Shalford (2 - 1 R4GV, 1 Guildford Greenbelt), Tillingbourne (2 - 1 Con, 1 Green)

The results saw the Conservatives lose control of Guildford Borough Council, falling from 31 seats to 9, making the Liberal Democrats the largest party on 17 seats.

Prior to the election, 3 councillors had defected from the Conservatives and 1 had defected from the Liberal Democrats to form the Independent Alliance on the council. The Independent Alliance registered Residents for Guildford and Villages as a political party to contest the 2019 elections and proceeded to win 15 seats.

The Guildford Greenbelt Group increased their representation to 4 seats whilst Labour maintained a by-election gain from the Conservatives to emerge with 2 seats.

The Green party also won their first seat on Guildford Borough Council in Tillingbourne ward.

Aftermath

Following the election the Green councillor chose to sit on the council as part of the R4GV group.

On 15 May 2019 councillors voted by 23 to 19 to elect the Liberal Democrat group leader, Caroline Reeves, as Leader of Guildford Borough Council over the leader of the R4GV group, Joss Bigmore. On 20 May 2019 Caroline Reeves announced that (including herself) the council's Cabinet would consist of 8 Liberal Democrats, 1 R4GV and 1 GGG councillor with an additional R4GV councillor attending cabinet as a non-voting deputy. However, on 27 August 2019 the GGG member of the Cabinet resigned and was subsequently replaced by an additional R4GV councillor (the formerly non-voting deputy member of the Cabinet).

In May 2020 it was announced that an agreement had been reached between the Liberal Democrats and R4GV to rotate the council leadership between them as part of a coalition arrangement which saw four Liberal Democrat councillors leave the council's Cabinet and be replaced by two R4GV councillors to create an evenly split cabinet of four Liberal Democrat and four R4GV councillors.

Ward by Ward

In each of the wards indicated with an *, one of the R4GV gains is a notional one due to one councillor elected in the ward in 2015 having already defected to R4GV prior to the 2019 election being called. In all wards a 'gain' is defined as a seat gained from the party who won it at the most recent election even if the party who won it in 2015 no longer held it going in to the 2019 election.

Ash South & Tongham (top 3 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Graham Eyre	973	51.6
	R4GV	Paul Abbey	961	51.0
	Conservative	Paul Spooner	853	45.3
	Conservative	Nigel Kearse	817	43.3
	Liberal Democrats	Philip Buckley	519	27.5
	Liberal Democrats	Sinclair Webster	484	25.7
Turnout			1,885	30.45
	Conservative hold		Swing
	R4GV gain from Conservative		Swing
	Conservative hold		Swing

Ash Vale (top 2 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Nigel Manning	631	57.9
	Conservative	Marsha Moseley	619	56.8
	Liberal Democrats	Miranda Hoegen	477	43.8
Turnout			1,089	25.6
	Conservative hold		Swing
	Conservative hold		Swing

Ash Wharf (top 2 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Jo Randall	763	58.4
	Conservative	Andrew Gomm	756	57.9
	Green	Sam Richards	484	37.1
	Liberal Democrats	Roslyn McMillan	294	22.5
Turnout			1,306	28.34
	Conservative hold		Swing
	Conservative hold		Swing

Burpham (top 2 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Ted Mayne	972	53.8
	Liberal Democrats	George Potter	922	51.0
	Conservative	Christian Holliday	610	33.7
	Conservative	Mike Piper	568	31.4
	Labour	Sue Hackman	242	13.4
	Labour	Poppy Ni Bhroithe-Barnett	180	10.0
Majority
Turnout			1,808	42.67
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

Christchurch (top 2 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	R4GV	Joss Bigmore	1,042	50.5
	R4GV	Dennis Booth	845	40.9
	Conservative	Matt Furniss	673	32.6
	Conservative	Nikki Nelson-Smith	608	29.4
	Liberal Democrats	Paul Hienkens	450	21.8
	Labour	Joan O'Byrne	193	9.3
	Labour	Mark Redhead	143	6.9
Majority
Turnout			2,065	47.86
	R4GV gain from Conservative		Swing
	R4GV gain from Conservative		Swing

Clandon & Horsley (top 3 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	GGG	Catherine-Anne Young	2,907	76.7
	R4GV	Tim Anderson	2,726	71.9
	R4GV	Christopher Barrass	2,666	70.3
	Conservative	Jonathan Rogerson	947	25.0
	Conservative	Caroline Heath-Taylor	704	18.6
	Conservative	Alex Fiuza	532	14.0
Majority
Turnout			3,790	55
	GGG hold		Swing
	R4GV gain from Conservative		Swing
	R4GV gain from Conservative		Swing

Effingham (top 1 candidate elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Liz Hogger	529	56.8
	GGG	Ben Paton	245	26.3
	Conservative	Christopher Jay	147	15.8
Majority			284	30.5
Turnout			931	44.93
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Friary & St Nicolas (top 3 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Caroline Reeves	1,371	58.9
	Liberal Democrats	Angela Goodwin	1,332	52.4
	Liberal Democrats	Tom Hunt	1,134	44.6
	R4GV	Fiona Davidson	907	35.7
	Conservative	John De Wit	409	16.1
	Conservative	Bill Stokoe	405	15.9
	Labour	Elizabeth Mpyisi	381	15.0
	Labour	Brian Creese	336	13.2
	Conservative	Vaibhav Pant	331	13.0
	Labour	Matthew Smith	311	12.2
Majority
Turnout			2,541	37.6
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Holy Trinity Ward (top 3 candidates elected) *

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	R4GV	Maddy Redpath	968	37.9
	R4GV	John Redpath	932	36.5
	R4GV	John Rigg	911	35.7
	Liberal Democrats	Ciarán Doran	860	33.7
	Liberal Democrats	Jennifer Gale	834	32.7
	Liberal Democrats	Stephen Mallet	644	25.2
	Conservative	Alexandra Chesterfield	617	24.2
	Conservative	Geoff Davis	615	24.1
	Conservative	Gerry Lytle	559	21.9
	Labour	Gregory Clack	211	8.3
	Labour	Chris Pegman	184	7.2
	Labour	Alexander Scott	154	6.0
Majority
Turnout			2,551	42.04
	R4GV gain from Conservative		Swing
	R4GV gain from Conservative		Swing
	R4GV gain from Conservative		Swing

Lovelace (top 1 candidate elected) *

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	R4GV	Colin Cross	789	90.5
	Conservative	Julie Iles	83	9.5
Majority			707
Turnout			882	45.56
	R4GV gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Merrow (top 3 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	R4GV	Deborah Seabrook	1,731	62.9
	Liberal Democrats	Steven Lee	1,047	38.1
	Liberal Democrats	Jan Harwood	976	35.5
	Conservative	Jennifer Jordan	856	31.1
	Conservative	Philip Brooker	789	28.7
	Conservative	Graham Ellwood	656	23.9
	Labour	John Hawthorne	345	12.5
	Labour	Michael Hill	327	11.9
	Labour	Michael Hassell	294	10.7
Majority
Turnout			2,750	45.9
	R4GV gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

Normandy (top 1 candidate elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Bilbé	451	41.7
	Liberal Democrats	Henry Kay	382	35.3
	GGG	Peter Elliott	248	22.9
Majority
Turnout			1094	44.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

Onslow (top 3 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	David Goodwin	891	47.5
	Liberal Democrats	Jon Askew	819	43.6
	Liberal Democrats	Will Salmon	815	43.4
	R4GV	Howard Moss	775	41.3
	Conservative	Adrian Chandler	419	22.3
	Conservative	Helen Harris	399	21.3
	Labour	Jacob Allen	336	17.9
	Labour	Richard Mithen	301	16.0
	Conservative	Neil Ward	187	10.0
Majority
Turnout			1,877	34.93
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Pilgrims (top 1 candidate elected) *

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	R4GV	Tony Rooth	507	65.0
	Conservative	Sallie Barker	370	35.0
Majority
Turnout			890	52.46
	R4GV gain from Conservative		Swing

Pirbright (top 1 candidate elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gordon Jackson	392	67.4
	Liberal Democrats	Russel Sherrard-Smith	127	21.8
	Labour	Akanshya Gurung	63	10.8
Majority
Turnout			587	29.31
	Conservative hold		Swing

Send (top 2 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	GGG	Patrick Sheard	1,217	75.5
	GGG	Susan Parker	1,150	71.3
	Conservative	Julia Osborn	357	22.1
	Conservative	Alexander Stewart-Clark	234	14.5
	Labour	Rob Woof	139	8.6
Majority
Turnout			1,612	47.56
	GGG hold		Swing
	GGG hold		Swing

Shalford (top 2 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	R4GV	Chris Blow	825	46.1
	GGG	Ramsey Nagaty	637	35.6
	Conservative	Michael Parsons	489	27.3
	Conservative	Bob Hughes	431	24.1
	Liberal Democrats	Jillian Doran	336	18.8
	Liberal Democrats	Vanessa King	294	16.4
	Labour	Tim Wolfenden	181	10.1
	Independent	Mark Taylor	128	7.1
Majority
Turnout			1,791	42.92
	R4GV gain from Conservative		Swing
	GGG gain from Conservative		Swing

Stoke (top 2 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Angela Gunning	648	52.1
	Labour	James Walsh	496	39.9
	Liberal Democrats	Lizzie Griffiths	424	34.1
	Conservative	Paul Mackie	338	27.2
	Conservative	Tay-Jarl Andessen	295	23.7
Majority
Turnout			1,244	28.11
	Labour hold		Swing
	Labour hold		Swing

Stoughton (top 3 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Pauline Searle	1,476	61.1
	Liberal Democrats	Gillian Harwood	1,431	59.2
	Liberal Democrats	Masuk Miah	1,317	54.5
	Conservative	David Quelch	574	23.7
	Conservative	Philip Hooper	513	21.2
	Labour	Anne Rouse	430	17.8
	Labour	Shelley Grainger	399	16.5
	Conservative	Malachy Ujam	377	15.6
	Labour	Nick Trier	337	13.9
Majority
Turnout			2,417	35.01
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Tillingbourne (top 2 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Richard Billington		49.8
		Diana Jones		45.0
		David Wright	734	44.3
		Liam O'Keefe	679	41.0
Majority
Turnout			1,656	41.71
	hold		Swing
	gain from		Swing

Westborough (top 3 candidates elected)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Julia McShane		47.7
		Fiona White		42.6
		James Steel		41.4
		Amanda Creese	519	27.6
		George Dokimakis	493	26.2
		Howard Smith	468	24.9
		Liz Hooper	311	16.5
		Sheila Kirkland	311	16.5
		Alastair Knowles	306	16.3
		John Morris	190	10.1
		Valerie Drummond	153	8.1
		Frances Worpe	116	6.2
Majority
Turnout			1,881	29.91
	hold		Swing
	gain from		Swing
	gain from		Swing

Worplesdon (top 3 candidates elected) *

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Bob McShee		54.3
		Elizabeth McShee		48.2
		Ruth Brothwell		41.6
		David Elms	803	33.3
		Keith Witham	762	31.6
		Dennis Paul	675	28.0
		Jonathan Edwards	472	19.6
		Ali Mirmak	307	12.7
		Dominic Stone	295	12.2
Majority
Turnout			2,409	37.99
	gain from		Swing
	gain from		Swing
	gain from		Swing

By-elections

Friary & St Nicolas: 6 May 2021

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Cait Taylor		39.2
		Dom Frazer	660	24.5
		Sallie Barker	548	20.3
		Jacob Allen	430	16.0
Majority
Turnout			2,694	39.59
	hold		Swing

Pirbright: 6 May 2021

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Keith Witham		60.8
		Claire Whitehouse	119	16.4
		Gerry Lytle	109	15.1
		Ali Mirmak	56	7.7
Majority
Turnout			724	34.51
	hold		Swing

Send: 6 May 2021

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Guida Esteves		52.4
		Justin Offord	500	30.8
		Sam Peters	206	12.7
		Charlotte Smith	68	4.2
Majority
Turnout			1,625	47.88
	hold		Swing

Tillingbourne: 20 October 2022

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Richard Morris		46.5
		Justin Offord	293	21.4
		Clare Price	185	13.5
		Sam Peters	168	12.3
		John Marsh	85	6.2
Majority
Turnout			1,367
	gain from		Swing

See also

• 2015 Guildford Borough Council election
• Guildford Borough Council elections