2007 Craven District Council election

The 2007 Craven District Council election took place on 3 May 2007 to elect members of Craven District Council in North Yorkshire, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.^[1]

After the election, the composition of the council was

Background

Before the election the council was run by an alliance between the 11 independents and the 6 Liberal Democrats, while the 13 Conservative councillors were in opposition.^[3] 10 seats were contested at the election with the Conservatives needing to make at least 2 gains to take control.^[4]

Candidates at the election included Conservative candidates in every ward, while there were no candidates from the Labour party.^[3] The British National Party meanwhile stood their first candidate in an election for Craven council in Skipton South.^[3]

Election result

There was no change to the party balance on the council, after the Conservatives gained a seat from an independent, but also lost a seat to another independent candidate.^[5] The Conservative gain came in Skipton South, where they defeated the vice-chairman of the council, Mike Hill, while they lost Bentham to an independent by 5 votes after 3 recounts.^[6]

Craven local election result 2007^[2]^[7]
	Seats	Gains	Losses	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
Independent	5	1	1	50.0	38.4	4,149	+8.1%
Conservative	4	1	1	40.0	45.1	4,866	-0.3%
Liberal Democrats	1	0	0	10.0	14.6	1,581	-8.7%
BNP	0	0	0	0	1.9	200	+1.9%

Ward results

Bentham^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Lin Barrington	686	50.2	−7.4
	Conservative	Felicity Hey	681	49.8	+7.4
Majority			5	0.4	−14.7
Turnout			1,367	46.5	+5.2
	Independent gain from Conservative		Swing

Embsay with Eastby^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Andy Quinn	409	63.4	−3.6
	Liberal Democrats	John Manley	236	36.6	+36.6
Majority			173	26.8	−7.2
Turnout			645	45.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

Gargrave and Malhamdale^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Crawford	802	70.4	+3.8
	Liberal Democrats	Stephen Walpole	337	29.6	−3.8
Majority			465	40.8	+7.6
Turnout			1,139	47.1	−0.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

Glusburn^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Graham Beck	776	58.9	−14.9
	Conservative	Jenny Wood	541	41.1	+14.9
Majority			235	17.8	−29.8
Turnout			1,317	42.8	+1.6
	Independent hold		Swing

Skipton East^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Christopher Harbron	610	53.9	+5.0
	Independent	Michael Hill	521	46.1	+46.1
Majority			89	7.9
Turnout			1,131	40.5	−11.5
	Conservative gain from Independent		Swing

Skipton North^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Marcia Turner	577	42.0	+0.3
	Independent	John Kerwin-Davey	418	30.4	+5.9
	Liberal Democrats	Andrew Rankine	379	27.6	−6.1
Majority			159	11.6	+3.6
Turnout			1,374	50.0	−9.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

Skipton South^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Robert Heseltine	659	66.3	+49.3
	BNP	Gary Beresford	200	20.1	+20.1
	Conservative	Robert Firth	135	13.6	−6.4
Majority			459	46.2
Turnout			994	36.1	−5.4
	Independent hold		Swing

Skipton West^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Polly English	629	61.9	−3.4
	Conservative	Pamela Heseltine	387	38.1	+3.4
Majority			242	23.8	−6.7
Turnout			1,016	35.4	−7.6
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Sutton-in-Craven^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Ken Hart	687	64.9	−1.1
	Conservative	David Harrison-Young	372	35.1	+1.1
Majority			315	29.7	−2.4
Turnout			1,059	38.6	−1.3
	Independent hold		Swing

West Craven^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Robert Mason	402	53.3	+2.5
	Conservative	Terry Thorpe	352	46.7	−2.5
Majority			50	6.6	+4.9
Turnout			754	50.6
	Independent hold		Swing

By-elections between 2007 and 2008

A by-election was held in Cowling on 12 July 2007 after independent councillor John Alderson resigned from the council after moving away from the area.^[8] The seat was gained for the Conservatives by Jan Ackroyd with a majority of 215 votes over Craven Ratepayers' Action Group candidate Alan Perrow.^[8]

Cowling by-election 12 July 2007^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Jan Ackroyd	351	64.3	+47.4
	Craven Ratepayers' Action Group	Alan Perrow	136	24.9	−13.2
	Independent	Peter Seward	59	10.8	−34.3
Majority			215	39.4
Turnout			546	31.2	−18.9
	Conservative gain from Independent		Swing

References

^ "Craven". BBC News Online. 4 May 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Results - Election 2007". The Times. NewsBank. 5 May 2007. p. 83. ISSN 0140-0460.
^ ^a ^b ^c "BNP field first candidate in Skipton election". West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire Counties Publications. NewsBank. 4 April 2007.
^ "Conservatives need two seats to win Craven council". West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire Counties Publications. NewsBank. 3 May 2007.
^ "Local Elections: Legal threat in postal votes row". The Yorkshire Post. NewsBank. 5 May 2007. ISSN 0963-1496.
^ "Conservatives fail to take Craven council". West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire Counties Publications. NewsBank. 4 May 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k "District Council election" (PDF). Craven District Council. Political Science Resources. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 March 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Tories win council seat". West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire Counties Publications. NewsBank. 19 July 2007.