# 1997 United Kingdom local elections

The 1997 United Kingdom local elections took place on Thursday 1 May 1997 in England, and Wednesday 21 May 1997 in Northern Ireland. Elections took place for all of the English country councils, some English unitary authorities and all of the Northern Ireland districts. The local elections were held on the same day as the 1997 general election.

## Summary of results

| Party | Party | Councils | Councils | Councils | Councils | Councillors | Councillors | Councillors | Councillors |
| Party | Party | Gain | Loss | Change | Total | Gain | Loss | Change | Total |
| | Labour | | | | | | | 1 | 1299 |
| | Liberal Democrats | | | | | | | -177 | 741 |
| | Conservative | | | | | | | 193 | 1121 |
| | Other | | | | | | | -17 | 131 |
| | No overall control | | | | | — | — | — | — |
While the results were overshadowed by the landslide election of a Labour government, they did provide some comfort to the Conservative party. The Conservatives made some gains and were the largest party in the county council elections. It is likely that what helped the Conservatives gain some councils (Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Essex and Kent) was the creation of unitary authorities and thus the abolition of county council divisions in these areas (in this case unitaries in Peterborough, Luton, Thurrock and Medway), in predominantly urbanised areas which are usually strong for the Labour Party in elections and indeed all four of those unitaries (and all of the parliamentary seats that they cover) were won/held by Labour at the point these elections took place. Buckinghamshire, the only county council that the Conservatives actually had a majority for the four years prior to these elections, will have also been helped by the creation of a unitary authority for Milton Keynes in 1996.
The gains for the Conservatives in Lincolnshire, Surrey and West Sussex will likely have been helped by the fact that most parliamentary seats in these counties were seriously strong Conservative areas (indeed, every parliamentary seat in Surrey was retained by the Conservatives in the general election) and thus saw some genuine ground recovered compared with the 1993 local elections. The only seats that the Conservatives lost in the general election in these areas were Lincoln and Crawley, both of which were very easy seats for Labour to gain in the general election, while they came close to losing Boston & Skegness to Labour too, though this was far from enough to have made a difference to council control in their respective counties.

## England
### Non-metropolitan county councils

In 34 non-metropolitan counties the whole council was up for election.
| Council | Previous control | Result | Details |
| Bedfordshire County Council | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
| Buckinghamshire County Council | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Cambridgeshire County Council ‡ | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
| Cheshire County Council ‡ | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Cornwall County Council | Liberal Democrats | No overall control gain | Details |
| Cumbria County Council | No overall control | Labour gain | Details |
| Derbyshire County Council | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| Devon County Council ‡ | No overall control | Liberal Democrats gain | Details |
| Dorset County Council | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Durham | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| East Sussex County Council | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Essex County Council ‡ | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
| Gloucestershire County Council | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Hampshire County Council | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Hertfordshire County Council | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Kent County Council ‡ | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
| Lancashire County Council ‡ | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| Leicestershire County Council | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Lincolnshire County Council | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
| Norfolk County Council | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| North Yorkshire County Council | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Northamptonshire County Council | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| Northumberland County Council | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| Nottinghamshire County Council ‡ | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| Oxfordshire County Council | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Shropshire County Council ‡ | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Somerset County Council | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details |
| Staffordshire County Council ‡ | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| Suffolk County Council | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Surrey County Council | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
| Warwickshire County Council | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| West Sussex County Council | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
| Wiltshire County Council ‡ | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Worcestershire County Council † | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
† Elected as a "shadow authority" until 1 April 1998.
‡ Because areas of the county were due to become unitary authorities on 1 April 1998, the county councillors representing those areas had their terms extended by one year and no election was held.

### Unitary authorities
#### Whole council

These were the first elections to 19 more unitary authorities established by the Local Government Commission for England (1992). They acted as "shadow authorities" until 1 April 1998.
| Council | Previous control | Result | Details |
| Blackburn with Darwen ‡ | New Council | Labour | Details |
| Blackpool Council ‡ | New Council | Labour | Details |
| Bracknell Forest Council | New Council | Conservative | Details |
| Halton Borough Council ‡ | New Council | Labour | Details |
| Herefordshire Council ‡ | New Council | Liberal Democrats | Details |
| Medway Council ‡ | New Council | Labour | Details |
| Nottingham City Council | New Council | Labour | Details |
| Peterborough City Council ‡ | New Council | Labour | Details |
| Plymouth City Council | New Council | Labour | Details |
| Reading Borough Council | New Council | Labour | Details |
| Slough Borough Council | New Council | Labour | Details |
| Southend-on-Sea Borough Council | New Council | No overall control | Details |
| Telford and Wrekin Council ‡ | New Council | Labour | Details |
| Thurrock Council ‡ | New Council | Labour | Details |
| Torbay Council | New Council | Liberal Democrats | Details |
| Warrington Borough Council ‡ | New Council | Labour | Details |
| West Berkshire Council ‡ | New Council | Liberal Democrats | Details |
| Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council | New Council | No overall control | Details |
| Wokingham Borough Council | New Council | Conservative | Details |
‡ New ward boundaries from predecessor authorities

#### Third of council

In 2 unitary authorities one third of the council was up for election.
| Council | Previous control | Previous control | Result | Result | Details |
| Bristol City Council | | Labour | | Labour hold | Details |
| Kingston upon Hull | | Labour | | Labour hold | Details |

### District council

In 1 district the whole council was up for election.
| Council | Previous control | Previous control | Result | Result | Details |
| Malvern Hills District Council ‡ | | No overall control | | No overall control hold | Details |
‡ New ward boundaries

### Sui generis

| Council | Previous control | Previous control | Result | Result | Details |
| Council of the Isles of Scilly | | Independent | | Independent hold | Details |

## Northern Ireland

| Council | Previous control | Result | Details |
| Antrim Borough Council | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Ards | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Armagh | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Ballymena | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Ballymoney | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Banbridge | UUP | UUP | Details |
| Belfast | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Carrickfergus | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Castlereagh | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Coleraine | UUP | No overall control | Details |
| Cookstown | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Craigavon | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Derry | SDLP | No overall control | Details |
| Down | SDLP | SDLP | Details |
| Dungannon | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Fermanagh | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Larne | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Limavady | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Lisburn | UUP | No overall control | Details |
| Magherafelt | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Moyle | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Newry and Mourne | SDLP | No overall control | Details |
| Newtownabbey | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| North Down | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Omagh | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Strabane | No overall control | No overall control | Details |