1973 Reading Borough Council election

The 1973 Reading District Council election was the first election to the reconstituted Reading Borough Council, which changed from being a county borough to a non-metropolitan district under the Local Government Act 1972. At the time of the election it had yet to be decided whether the new district would hold borough status and so contemporary reports describe the election as being to "Reading District Council", although it was subsequently confirmed that the new council would be a borough.

The elections were held on 7 June 1973, in common with other new non-metropolitan district councils in England and Wales. The councillors elected in 1973 were to shadow the outgoing corporation until they formally took over on 1 April 1974. The election left the council with no overall control, with Labour winning most votes by a very narrow margin, but holding the same number of seats (16) as the Conservatives. The Liberals with 14 seats held the balance of power.^[1]^[2]

The Labour leader on the old corporation was Bob Towner and the Conservative leader was Edward Busby. Both led their parties into the elections, but neither man stood for a seat on the new council. After the election, Chris Goodall was appointed Labour group leader, and William Badnall the Conservative group leader. The Liberal group leader remained Jim Day, who had been party leader on the old corporation. A Labour / Liberal administration was eventually formed, with Jim Day being appointed to the council's top political job as chair of the policy committee.^[3]

Results

Reading Borough Council Election, 1973
	Seats	Seats %	Votes %	Votes
Labour	16	34.8%	36.3%	43,929
Conservative	16	34.8%	36.2%	43,731
Liberal	14	30.4%	26.1%	31,524
Independent	0	0%	1.5%	1,760

Ward results

The results in each ward were as follows:^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

Abbey Ward (two seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Labour	William George Mander (Bill Mander)	486
Labour	Roger Scaife	447
Conservative	Bryan Jones	325
Labour win
Labour win

Battle Ward (two seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Labour	Reginald Harry Bristow (Joe Bristow)	813
Labour	Frank Wise	771
Conservative	Roger Brown	369
Labour win
Labour win

Castle Ward (three seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Labour	Graham Anthony Rush	900
Labour	Robert J. Garnett (Bob Garnett)	840
Labour	Antony William Page (Tony Page)	816
Conservative	Eric Gordon Davis	736
Conservative	Frederick Llywelyn Pugh (Fred Pugh)	706
Conservative	F. Tim Rose	684
Liberal	David Scott	413
Liberal	Mary Clarke	372
Liberal	Leon D. Summers	366
Labour win
Labour win
Labour win

Caversham Ward (three seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Conservative	Ronald William Jewitt (Ron Jewitt)	1,127
Conservative	George Robinson	1,119
Conservative	Michael Francis	1,061
Labour	Charles Evans	914
Labour	Harry Young	896
Labour	Tom Clifton	875
Conservative win
Conservative win
Conservative win

Christchurch Ward (four seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Labour	Fred L. Roberts	1,347
Labour	Christopher John Goodall (Chris Goodall)	1,286
Labour	Marian Jeanne Absolom	1,271
Labour	William Maurice John Huntley (John Huntley)	1,262
Conservative	Kitty C. Foote	915
Liberal	Hester M. Crichton	912
Liberal	Elizabeth M. O'Rourke	910
Conservative	Patricia Mellows	838
Liberal	Richard W. Hellier	800
Conservative	Frances A. Spark	766
Labour win
Labour win
Labour win
Labour win

Katesgrove Ward (two seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Labour	Harry Wheeler	820
Labour	Geoffrey Robert Mander (Geoff Mander)	738
Conservative	Stanley Beamish	441
Independent	John Still	317
Labour win
Labour win

Minster Ward (six seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Conservative	William Wykeham Edward Badnall	2,342
Conservative	Geoffrey Gascoigne Lawrence	2,291
Conservative	Simon Christopher Coombs	2,284
Conservative	Charles Frederick Sage	2,247
Conservative	Joyce A. Talbot	2,247
Conservative	Kenneth Loder (Ken Loder)	2,243
Labour	Frances Margaret Nash (Bunty Nash)	2,140
Labour	Leslie Glanville	1,934
Labour	John Allen	1,929
Labour	Lawrence Brennan	1,898
Labour	Robert Mitchell (Bob Mitchell)	1,896
Labour	Daphne A. Dunkason	1,890
Conservative win
Conservative win
Conservative win
Conservative win
Conservative win
Conservative win

Norcot Ward (six seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Liberal	Terence James Francis (Terry Francis)	2,240
Liberal	Geoffrey David Salisbury (Geoff Salisbury)	2,210
Liberal	John Freeman	2,195
Liberal	Peter Beard	2,162
Liberal	Dennis L. Hopkins	2,137
Liberal	Peter I. Pratt	2,042
Labour	William (Bill) Gothard	914
Conservative	Peter S. Madges	913
Conservative	Francis W. Rogers	885
Labour	Ian R. Hills	885
Labour	Ann Watkins	843
Labour	Peter Watkins	827
Labour	F. J. S. Ribero (Chico Ribero)	803
Labour	Ron J. Tyler	757
Liberal win
Liberal win
Liberal win
Liberal win
Liberal win
Liberal win

Park Ward (three seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Conservative	Roland Kirby	1,367
Conservative	Douglas Alan Chilvers	1,360
Conservative	Veronica McCarthy	1,314
Labour	Jean Thomas	1,226
Labour	Bernard Lyons	1,223
Labour	Brian Thomas	1,221
Conservative win
Conservative win
Conservative win

Redlands Ward (three seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Liberal	Eric G. Baxter	1,317
Liberal	Victor John Angell (Vic Angell)	1,312
Liberal	Antony G. Milano (Tony Milano)	1,079
Conservative	R. John Goodman	987
Conservative	Gladys Emily Matthews	917
Conservative	John A. Thornley	875
Labour	Robert H. Smith	271
Labour	Pam M. Nixon	260
Labour	Ron Nixon	253
Liberal win
Liberal win
Liberal win

Thames Ward (four seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Conservative	Kathleen Sage	2,487
Conservative	Ivy Sylvia Blagrove (Silvia Blagrove)	2,457
Conservative	Cyril William Aucock	2,452
Conservative	Deryck Mitchell Morton	2,425
Labour	Margaret Mander	597
Labour	Patricia Mary Mander (Pat Mander)	593
Labour	Eva Harding	585
Labour	Priscilla Mares	567
Conservative win
Conservative win
Conservative win
Conservative win

Tilehurst Ward (five seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Liberal	Ronald James Day (Jim Day)	2,416
Liberal	Desmond A. Allen (Des Allen)	2,227
Liberal	George Henry Ford	2,150
Liberal	Margaret M. S. McEwen	2,149
Liberal	Michael Ingrey	2,115
Conservative	Peter C. Boyce	926
Conservative	Michael J. Caseley	847
Conservative	A. J. (Tony) Guy	778
Labour	David W. Asquith	555
Labour	Ron J. S. Williams	552
Labour	Marilyn M. Marshall	549
Labour	James T. Green	545
Labour	A. J. Hinder	536
Liberal win
Liberal win
Liberal win
Liberal win
Liberal win

Whitley Ward (three seats)
	Candidate	Votes
Labour	Jack Price	1,094
Labour	Doris Ellen Lawrence	1,059
Labour	Herbert Williams (Bert Williams)	1,045
Independent	Barbara Morrison	743
Independent	Roy Giles	700
Labour win
Labour win
Labour win

By-elections 1973–1976

Whitley By-Election 11 December 1975
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Mike Orton	1,038	48.5
	Conservative	Gladys Matthews	720	33.7
	Liberal	Keith Townsend	382	17.9
Majority			317	14.8
Turnout			2,139	31
	Labour hold		Swing

The Whitley ward by-election in 1975 was triggered by the resignation of Labour councillor Bert Williams.^[12]

References

^ "Parties "must end their bickering"". Evening Post. Reading. 11 June 1973. p. 1. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
^ "First political crack". Evening Post. Reading. 20 June 1973. p. 11. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
^ "Get ready for heavy rate rise, warns new Liberal committee chief". Evening Post. Reading. 4 October 1973. p. 1. Retrieved 5 April 2022. Liberals took the helm of the new Reading Council's top committee yesterday... Councillor Day was voted policy committee chairman on the new district council...
^ "Next mayor must fight town elections". Evening Post. Reading. 9 May 1973. p. 8. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
^ "Now Day bids for his Reading seat". Evening Post. Reading. Reading. 10 May 1973. p. 11. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
^ "Reading Young Conservatives ready to invade Tilehurst". Evening Post. Reading. 11 May 1973. p. 3. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
^ "Liberal 'rebel' to fight Whitley seat". Evening Post. Reading. 14 May 1973. p. 3. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
^ "Evening Post Election Special". Evening Post. Reading. 8 June 1973. p. 9. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
^ "Election round-up". Evening Post. Reading. 9 June 1973. p. 9. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
^ "Liberals 'can win third of seats'". Evening Post. Reading. 17 May 1973. p. 4. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
^ "Candidates line up". Evening Post. Reading. 26 April 1973. p. 6. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
^ "Labour holds Whitley seat". Evening Post. Reading. 12 December 1975. p. 1. Retrieved 6 April 2022.