5th May 2006

Philip Booth was elected to Randwick, Ruscombe and Whiteshill with 56% of the vote - Greens narrowly miss Nailsworth but saw over 20 more councillors elected across country (pictured right and click 'Read more')

Philip Booth was elected to Over Stroud with 418 votes, the Tories got 214 votes, Labour (who held the post previously) got 71 plus and Lib Dems with 46. Turnout 52%.

Green candidate Piers Clifford narrowly missed Nailsworth by 70 votes to Sybil Bruce, Chair of the Council, in a night where Tories saw large gains - including 2 more seats on Stroud District where Labour lost 2 and Lib Dems 1 - that puts Lib Dems and Greens with 5 councillors each, Labour with 9, independents with 3 and Tory with 29 seats. Greens also took second place in Painswick and Chalford and David Wood held his Parish Council. Click on read more to get full results plus results in Gloucester.

Gloucester - Small but good progress.

Bryan Meloy in Moreland ward came third of 5 candidates, beating LibDems as well as ukip - our best result to date.

Amanda McGrath our first candidate we've had in Tuffley got 9.7% -  almost beat the Lib Dems.

Jenny Hume in Barton and Tredworth got around 9% - our best result in this ward.

Gloucester City Council saw no change to seats with 16 Tory seats, 12 Lib Dem and 8 Labour.

Cheltenham

No Greens standing this year. The Council saw 2 Tory wins to bring them to 17 with Lib Dems losing 1 seat to put them also at 17 with Labour losing one of their two seats and 5 independents holding their seats.

National picture

 
Greens reinforce position as fourth party and put their "stamp on the shape of local government to come"

 
April 30th 2006 - 70 councillors.
May 14th 2006 - 92 councillors.

The Green Party has achieved unprecedented success in the local elections. The Green Party now have more councillors on more principal authorities than ever before with Green candidates winning seats in Camden, Islington, Lambeth, Southwark and Bristol. The ranks of  our principal authority councillors increased by over 30%, we successfully defended every single seat up for election that we already held, and made a net gain of 22 councillors compared to our strength in April - bringing our total number of councillors  to 92.

Caroline Lucas, Principal Speaker, comments: "Green candidates have stood on a platform of a healthy local environment, decent local services and a strong local voice and this message has been well-received by the electorate. The rise of the Green Agenda has resulted in attempts by the Liberal Democrats and the Tories to market themselves as environmentally friendly and ethical yet the Greens, throughout this campaign, have rightly drawn attention to their poor record on issues of social and environmental justice on a local level.

"The public are turning to the only real alternative to the spin and sleaze of the Westminster parties. Principled and dedicated Green councillors across the country will be working to improve local neighbourhoods, enhance local services, promote health and protect the wider environment. Our record speaks for itself - wherever Green councillors are voted in, the public see the results and want more.

"In Oxford, the Green group now totals 8 and in Norwich, we have an extraordinary 9 Green councillors. In Lewisham, we have seen an unprecedented success with the number of Greens rising from 1 to 6. With an increase of 22 councillors overall, this proves yet again that the Greens are the clear fourth political party and have put our stamp on the shape of local government to come."

 
Philip Booth commented: "The results nationally from all parties show again that it is time we had a fairer system of representation. We have authorities with wrong winners like Kingston where the Lib Dems retained overall control of the Council despite coming second to the Conservatives in share of the vote. We have ‘electoral deserts’ where parties gain many votes but no seats at all like Conservatives in Cambridge, Haringey and Manchester. We also have councils which are dominated by a single party with little opposition making it difficult to hold the executive to account. Lastly we have the absurd situation where the make-up of many councils can change fundamentally on just a small vote swing. In Richmond, a 5% swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat changed a 2:1 Tory majority into a 2:1 Lib Dem majority."

See South-west Green party results

Stroud District results in more detail - apologies for formatting

GREEN CANDIDATE  CON   LAB   LD  GRN  Total  CON %  LAB %   LD %  GRN %

Simon Laverack  586  43  77  219  925   63.35%   4.65%   8.32%   23.68%

Helen Royall   584  733   254  375  1946  30.01%  37.67%  13.05%  21.65%

No second Green  664  603 251  XXX 1518   43.74%  39.72%  16.53%    

David Wood   1100   220  259  447  2026  54.29%  10.86%  12.78%  22.06%

Piers Clifford   877  316   240  807 2240  39.15%  14.11%  10.71%  36.03%

Philip Booth  214  71  46  418  749  28.57%  9.48%   6.14%   55.81%

Fiona Richie  1160  185   XXX 385   1730    67.05%    10.69%   22.25%

Claire Sheridan  712  835 134  263  1944   36.63%   42.95%  6.89%  13.53%

Sue Drennen    754  276  192  181 1403  53.74%  19.67%  13.68%    12.90%

Clive Phillips   911  201  881 223  2216   41.11%   9.07%   39.76%   10.06%

TOTALS   7562   3483   2334  3318  16697   45%   21%   14%    20%


Notes 

Green % for Cainscross is averaged as only one candidate stood
In 7 out of 9 seats where Greens stood, Green %age of vote was higher than LibDem
In 6 out of 9 seats where Greens stood, Green %age of vote was higher than Labour