2018 Thurrock Council election

The 2018 Thurrock Council elections took place on 3 May 2018 to elect members of Thurrock Council in England.[1] Councillors in 16 out of the 20 electoral wards were be up for election.[2] The council remained under overall control, with a minority Conservative administration running the council.[3]

2018 Thurrock Council election

3 May 2018
16 of the 49 seats to Thurrock Council 25 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Rob Gledhill Oliver Gerrish Graham Snell Party Conservative Labour Thurrock Independent Leader's seat Little Thurrock Rectory West Thurrock & South Stifford Stifford Clays (lost re-election) Seats before 19 14 16 Seats won 6 9 1 Seats after 20 17 12 Seat change 1 3 4
Council control before election No overall control Council control after election No overall control

On 26 January 2018, all sitting UKIP councillors resigned from the party and formed a new opposition group called Thurrock Independents.[4]

On 13 March 2018, Basildon UKIP announced that they had taken over responsibility for the 6 East Thurrock wards and are now called UKIP Basildon and Thurrock Branch.[5]

Before the elections, there was a by-election held in Ockendon which resulted in a Conservative gain after a tie and drawing of lots.[6]

Council Composition

Going into the election, the composition of the council was:

19	16	14
Conservative	Thurrock Independent	Labour

After the election, the composition of the council was:

20	12	17
Conservative	Thurrock Independent	Labour

Election Results

Comparisons for the purpose of determining a gain, hold or loss of a seat, and for all percentage changes, is to the last time these specific seats were up for election in 2014.

Thurrock Local Election Result 2018

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	9	3	0	+3	56.3	41.9	12,381	+5.7
	Conservative	6	3	1	+2	37.5	33.7	9,972	+12.1
	Thurrock Independent	1	0	4	-4	6.2	21.2	6,282	N/A
	UKIP	0	0	5	-5	0	2.9	846	-36.1
	Democrats and Veterans	0	0	0	0	0	0.3	94	N/A

Ward Candidates

All percentage changes are versus 2014, the last time the comparable set of wards were fought. Holds / Gains are given against control of ward going in to the 2018 elections.

Aveley & Uplands

Aveley & Uplands

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Thurrock Independent	Tim Aker	1,037	43.2	2.3†
	Conservative	David Van Day	653	27.2	6.0
	Labour	Rafal Zak	570	23.7	0.5
	UKIP	Peter Curtis	141	5.9	48.7
Majority			384	16.0	14.4
Turnout			2,401
	Thurrock Independent hold		Swing	1.9

† Percentage change calculated from the 2014 Aveley & Uplands by-election at which Aker was elected (as a UKIP candidate). He subsequently defected from the UKIP group on Thurrock council and formed Thurrock Independents, although he still sits as a UKIP MEP.

Belhus

Belhus

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Mike Fletcher	828	43.7	9.4
	Thurrock Independent	Chris Baker*	667	35.2	16.4†
	Conservative	Georgette Polley	399	21.1	5.0
Majority			161	8.5
	Labour gain from Thurrock Independent		Swing

No UKIP candidate as previously (-49.6%).

† change calculated from the 2014 election when Baker was originally elected (as a UKIP candidate).

Chadwell St Mary

Chadwell St Mary 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Barbara Rice (incumbent)	1,383	67%	+23%
	Conservative	Paul Armold	402	20%	+5%
	Thurrock Independent	Paul Stevens	264	13%	+13%
Majority			981	47%
	Labour hold		Swing	+9%

Note no UKIP as previously (-39%), no Lib Dem as previously (-2%)

Grays Riverside

Grays Riverside 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Martin Kerin (incumbent)	1,063	56%	+14%
	Conservative	Wendy Herd	488	26%	+7%
	Thurrock Independent	Shane McDonagh	343	18%	+18%
Majority			575	30%
	Labour hold		Swing

Note no UKIP candidate as previously (-34%)

Grays Thurrock

Grays Thurrock 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Lynn Worrall	1,124	55%	+13%
	Conservative	Evelina Vulpe	559	27%	+9%
	Thurrock Independent	Gillian Wardrop	362	18%	+18%
Majority			565
	Labour hold		Swing

Note no UKIP candidate as previously (-36%)

Little Thurrock Blackshots

Little Thurrock Blackshots 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ben Maney	1,073	59%	+18%
	Labour	Jacqueline Dobson	471	26%	+10%
	Thurrock Independent	Oliver Smith	284	16%	+16%
Majority			602
	Conservative hold		Swing

Note no UKIP candidate as previously (-39%)

Little Thurrock Rectory

Little Thurrock Rectory 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Robert Gledhill	842	55%	+15%
	Labour	Lawson Akhigbe	486	32%	+7%
	Thurrock Independent	Jay Hayers	200	13%	+13%
Majority			356
	Conservative hold		Swing

Note no UKIP candidate as previously (-32%)

Ockendon

Ockendon 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Sue Shinnick	864	38%	+17%
	Conservative	Romanus Nwakuna	740	33%	+2%
	Thurrock Independent	Jan Baker (incumbent)	663	29%	+29%
Majority			124
	Labour gain from Thurrock Independent		Swing

Note no UKIP as previously (-46%)

Orsett

Orsett 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Barry Johnson	1,091	65%	+17%
	Labour	Vince Offord	290	17%	+4%
	UKIP	Adrian Short	206	12%	-24%
	Thurrock Independent	James Mower	81	5%	+5%
Majority			801
	Conservative hold		Swing

South Chafford

South Chafford 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Abbie Akinbohun	685	48%	+21%
	Conservative	Tunde Ojetola	647	45%	+1%
	Thurrock Independent	Torren Snell	105	7%	+7%
Majority			38	3%
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Note no UKIP as previously (-26%)

Stanford East & Corringham Town

Stanford East & Corringham Town 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Alex Anderson	810	38%	+5%
	Labour	George Elcock	636	30%	+3%
	Thurrock Independent	Roy Jones (incumbent)	565	26%	+26%
	UKIP	Michael Keal	132	6%	-35%
Majority			174
	Conservative gain from Thurrock Independent		Swing

Stifford Clays

Stifford Clays 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Elizabeth Rigby	804	44%	+18%
	Labour	Lee Watson	668	36%	+1%
	UKIP	Stephen Andrews	195	11%	-27%
	Thurrock Independent	Graham Snell	177	10%	+10%
Majority			136
	Conservative gain from Thurrock Independent		Swing

The Homesteads

The Homesteads 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	James Halden (incumbent)	1,233	49%	+6%
	Thurrock Independent	Gary Byrne	575	23%	+10.5%^1
	Labour	Daniel Friday Chukwu	532	21%	+2%
	UKIP	Peter Prendegast	172	7%	-31%
Majority			658
	Conservative hold		Swing

a.¹ Gary Byrne stood as an independent in the 2016 election for the same seat, achieving 12.5% of the vote. The change in this table is calculated from this result, though he is now a candidate for the Thurrock Independents.

Tilbury Riverside & Thurrock Park

Tilbury St Chads 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Bukky Okunade (incumbent)	563	45%	+7%
	Thurrock Independent	Allen Mayes	528	42%	+42%
	Conservative	Elaine Parker	159	13%	-7%
Majority			35
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

Note no UKIP candidate as previously (-36%)

Tilbury St Chads

Tilbury St Chads 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Steve Liddiard (incumbent)	558	58%	+14%
	Thurrock Independent	Paul Martin	240	25%	+25%
	Conservative	Steve Minett	169	17%	+4%
Majority			318
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

Note no UKIP candidate as previously (-42%)

West Thurrock & South Stifford

West Thurrock & South Stifford 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Qaisar Abbas	1,058	57%	+10%
	Conservative	George Coxshall	505	27%	+12%
	Thurrock Independent	Michael Wager	191	10%	+10%
	Democrats and Veterans	Christopher Boosey	94	5%	+5%
Majority			553
	Labour hold		Swing

Note no UKIP candidate as previously (-34%)

References

1. "Current councillors | Thurrock Council". www.thurrock.gov.uk.
2. "Order of retirement of Thurrock Councillors" (PDF). Thurrock Council. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
3. "Conservatives seize power at Thurrock Council after knife-edge vote with Ukip". Thurrock Gazette.
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 27 January 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
5. "LOCAL ELECTIONS: Basildon & Thurrock Firing On All Cylinders | Kipper Central".
6. "Ockendon by-election: winner pulled out of a box in tiebreaker result". Thurrock Gazette.