Ipswich Borough Council election, 2008

Elections for Ipswich Borough Council were held on Thursday 1 May 2008. One third of the seats were up for election. The Labour Party won enough seats to become the largest party gaining 3 seats (2 from Con 1 from Lib Dem). The Conservatives had been the largest party since the Ipswich Council election 2006. The results came as a stark contrast which saw the Conservatives make significant gains from Labour across the country. Particular disappointments for the Conservatives came when they lost Rushmere and Bridge to Labour and narrowly failed to gain St Margaret's from the Liberal Democrats, while narrowly holding onto St John's by a mere 3 votes. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats lost Whitehouse.

After the Ipswich Council election 2008, the composition of the council was

• Labour 21
• Conservative 19

• Liberal Democrat 8
• Independent 0

Despite the losses, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition continued to run the Council with a reduced majority of 6 seats.

Election result

Ipswich Local Election Result 2008
Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	9	3	0	+3	50.00	36.0	12327	+0.4
	Conservative	7	0	2	-2	38.9	41.5	14214	+1.8
	Liberal Democrat	2	0	1	-1	11.1	16.8	5762	-4.0
	Green	0	0	0	0	0	4.1	1388	+1.4
	Independent	0	0	0	0	0	0.5	174	-0.5
	UKIP	0	0	0	0	0	1.0	1388	+0.8

Ward results

Alexandra
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Louise Gooch	681	37.7	-3.1
	Labour	Martin Goonan	508	28.1	-0.6
	Conservative	Janice Rawlings	408	22.6	+2.2
	Green	Brenda Cavanagh	211	11.7	+1.5
Majority			173	9.6	-2.5
Turnout			1808	30.6	-1.3
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	+1.3

Bixley
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Carnall & Russell Harsant	2,839	64.8	-0.2
	Labour	Lindsey Rawlingson & Emma Stock	691	15.8	-1.9
	Liberal Democrat	Alison Williams & Clive Witter	614	14.0	-3.3
	Green	Adrian Hedges	235	5.4	+5.4
Majority			1,148	49.0	+2.7
Turnout			4,379	38.6	-1.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.9

Bridge
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Bryony Rudkin	762	43.1	-2.4
	Conservative	James Spencer	658	37.7	+2.7
	Liberal Democrat	Christopher Newbury	179	10.3	-1.2
	Green	Rick Deeks	157	9.0	+1.1
Majority			94	5.4	-5.1
Turnout			1,746	29.3	+0.6
	Labour hold		Swing	-2.6

Castle Hill
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robin Vickey	1,249	63.2	+14.4
	Labour	John Harris	308	15.6	-3.6
	Liberal Democrat	Nigel Cheeseman	298	15.1	-7.6
	Green	Jenny Overett	120	6.1	+1.8
Majority			941	47.6	+21.5
Turnout			1,975	34.9	+8.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+9.0

Gainsborough
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Mowles & Martin Cook	1608	50.0	-4.0
	Conservative	Kathleen Kenna & Janet Sibley	1174	36.5	+6.0
	Liberal Democrat	Sally Scott & Jamie Scott	264	13.5	-1.9
Majority			434	13.5	-10
Turnout			3218	28.9	+1.0
	Labour hold		Swing	-5.0

Gipping
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Ellesmere	746	49.1	-3.2
	Conservative	Maureen Springle	549	36.1	+5.8
	Green	Tony Slade	225	14.8
Majority			197	13.0	-9.0
Turnout			1,520	26.1	-1.2
	Labour hold		Swing	-4.5

Holywells
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Hale	851	49.7	-1.1
	Labour	Kenneth Douglas	457	28.4	-2.5
	Liberal Democrat	Robert Chambers	347	21.9	+3.7
Majority			337	21.3	+1.4
Turnout			1,586	30.8	-2.7
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.7

Priory Heath
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Bill Quinton	881	46.9	+1.5
	Conservative	Eddy Phillips	789	36.8	-5.3
	Liberal Democrat	Nick Jacob	169	9.0	-3.5
	Independent	Sally Wainman	137	7.3
Majority			189	10.1	+6.8
Turnout			1,879	30.5	-1.2
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.4

Rushmere
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alasdair Ross	1,026	44.0	+5.2
	Conservative	Paul Carter	1,013	43.4	+0.3
	Liberal Democrat	Leslie Nicholls	294	12.6	+1.2
Majority			13	0.6
Turnout			2,333	39.0
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+2.6

Sprites
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Richard Kirby	924	48.7	-1.9
	Conservative	Medlin Spencer	769	40.5	-0.6
	Liberal Democrat	Heidi Williams	205	10.8	+2.4
Majority			155	8.2	-1.3
Turnout			1,898	35.6	+1.7
	Labour hold		Swing	-0.7

St John's
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Tanya De Hoedt	848	37.3	-2.8
	Labour	Hamil Clarke	845	37.2	-6.8
	Liberal Democrat	Jill Atkins	269	11.8	-4.1
	Green	Steven Pritchard	156	6.9
	UKIP	Bill Vinyard	154	6.8
Majority			3	0.1
Turnout			2,272	36.6	-1.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	+2.0

St Margaret's
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Richard Atkins	1,134	41.7	+3.5
	Conservative	Mary Young	1,089	40.0	+3.5
	Labour	Elizabeth Cooper	304	11.2	+0.3
	Green	Amy Drayson	183	7.2	+0.3
Majority			45	1.7	0.0
Turnout			2,722	46.1	+1.5
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	0.0

Stoke Park
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Paul West	907
	Labour	Barry Studd	472
	Liberal Democrat	Tim Lockington	202
Majority
Turnout				28.95
	Conservative hold		Swing

Westgate
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Carole Jones	748
	Liberal Democrat	Robin Whitmore	581
	Conservative	Ian Fisher	338
	Green	Colin Rodgers	89
	Independent	Russell Metcalfe	37
Majority
Turnout				29.21
	Labour hold		Swing

Whitehouse
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Albert Grant	584
	Liberal Democrat	Tony James	503
	Conservative	Ben Matthews	339
	UKIP	John West	199
Majority
Turnout				26.47
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrat		Swing

Whitton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Don Ward	918
	Labour	Sue Crocker	635
	Liberal Democrat	Jonathan Lockington	244
Majority
Turnout				30.60
	Conservative hold		Swing