# 2006 Woking Borough Council election

The 2006 Woking Council election took place on 4 May 2006 to elect members of Woking Borough Council in Surrey, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.
After the election, the composition of the council was:
* Liberal Democrat 18
* Conservative 15
* Labour 3

## Campaign

6 sitting councillors stood down at the election including the former Conservative leader of the council Jim Armitage and the independent Mike Copham who had resigned from the Conservatives.
Housing and development was a contentious issue during the campaign, with the council being required to build 240 houses a year for the next 20 years under the South East Plan. Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats fought the election on a platform of opposing overdevelopment and protecting the green belt.
The campaign saw allegations of electoral fraud in Woking, which were investigated by the police. These included claims of multiple voter registrations at 6 addresses in Maybury and Sheerwater, intimidation and that blank postal votes had been given community leaders. The investigation saw one man arrested on suspicion of impersonating another voter.

## Election result

The results saw the Liberal Democrats become the largest party on the council with 18 seats as compared to 15 for the Conservatives. The Conservatives failed to take any seats from the Liberal Democrats, who gained 3 seats in Horsell West, Knaphill and Mount Hermon East wards and almost won a majority on the council for the first time since 1998 after losing by just 2 votes in Byfleet after 4 recounts. Despite this the Conservatives took more votes across the council than the Liberal Democrats and made a gain from Labour in Maybury and Sheerwater. Labour was reduced to only 3 seats on the council after losing in Maybury and Sheerwater, which was the only ward where they won more than 200 votes. Overall turnout in the election was 42.17%.
Woking Local Election Result 2006 :
| Party | Seats | Gains | Losses | Net gain/loss | Seats % | Votes % | Votes | +/− |
| Liberal Democrats | 8 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 61.5 | 41.0 | 10,450 | +1.4% |
| Conservative | 5 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 38.5 | 45.2 | 11,527 | +4.4% |
| Labour | 0 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 8.1 | 2,063 | -2.1% |
| UKIP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.4 | 865 | -3.4% |
| Independent | 0 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 1.5 | 384 | -0.1% |
| UK Community Issues Party | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.9 | 229 | +0.0% |

## Ward results

Byfleet :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Conservative | Irene Watson Green | 1,049 | 45.7 | +10.3 |
| | Liberal Democrats | Suzanne Kittelsen | 1,047 | 45.6 | +7.6 |
| | Labour | David Mitchell | 113 | 4.9 | +1.1 |
| | UKIP | Marion Free | 88 | 3.8 | −3.3 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 2 | 0.1 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 2,297 | 41.9 | −1.4 |
| | Conservative hold | Conservative hold | Swing | | |
Goldsworth East :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Liberal Democrats | Bryan Cross | 1,062 | 50.6 |
| | Conservative | Hilary Addison | 840 | 40.4 |
| | Labour | Chanchal Kapoor | 198 | 9.4 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 222 | 10.2 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 2,100 | 39.3 |
| | Liberal Democrats hold | Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | |
Goldsworth West :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Liberal Democrats | Denzil Coulson | 810 | 64.2 | +12.0 |
| | Conservative | Manish Gajjar | 368 | 29.2 | +1.6 |
| | Labour | John Bramall | 83 | 6.6 | −0.2 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 442 | 35.0 | +10.4 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 1,261 | 32.9 | +4.9 |
| | Liberal Democrats hold | Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | | |
Hermitage and Knaphill South :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Liberal Democrats | Kenneth Howard | 760 | 54.0 | +1.4 |
| | Conservative | Valerian Hopkins | 535 | 38.0 | +4.0 |
| | Labour | Graeme Carman | 112 | 8.0 | −5.4 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 225 | 16.0 | −2.6 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 1,407 | 35.5 | +9.9 |
| | Liberal Democrats hold | Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | | |
Horsell West (2) :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Liberal Democrats | Richard Sanderson | 1,297 | | |
| | Liberal Democrats | Gareth Davies | 1,242 | | |
| | Conservative | Anthony Branagan | 1,163 | | |
| | Conservative | Roger Wiltshire | 1,027 | | |
| | UKIP | Timothy Shaw | 172 | | |
| | Labour | Audrey Worgan | 119 | | |
| | UKIP | Richard Squire | 107 | | |
| | Labour | Christopher Lowe | 88 | | |
| | UK Community Issues Party | Michael Osman | 79 | | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 5,294 | 51.4 | +4.0 |
| | Liberal Democrats hold | Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | | |
| | Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative | Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative | Swing | | |
Knaphill :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Liberal Democrats | Richard Sharp | 1,302 | 49.4 | +8.3 |
| | Conservative | Anthony Hayes-Allen | 978 | 37.1 | −15.5 |
| | UKIP | Matthew Davies | 198 | 7.5 | +7.5 |
| | Labour | Linda Kendall | 157 | 6.0 | −0.3 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 324 | 12.3 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 2,635 | 38.1 | +3.6 |
| | Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative | Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative | Swing | | |
Maybury and Sheerwater :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Conservative | Mohammed Iqbal | 1,357 | 48.6 | +9.2 |
| | Labour | Mohammed Khan | 896 | 32.1 | −2.3 |
| | Liberal Democrats | Peter Hough | 389 | 13.9 | −8.9 |
| | UK Community Issues Party | Katrina Osman | 150 | 5.4 | +2.0 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 461 | 16.5 | +11.5 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 2,792 | 42.2 | −1.2 |
| | Conservative gain from Labour | Conservative gain from Labour | Swing | | |
Mayford and Sutton Green :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Conservative | Simon Bellord | 675 | 71.0 | −4.0 |
| | Liberal Democrats | Malcolm Randall | 191 | 20.1 | +2.8 |
| | UKIP | Dennis Davey | 45 | 4.7 | +0.8 |
| | Labour | Christopher Martin | 40 | 4.2 | +0.4 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 484 | 50.9 | −6.8 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 951 | 50.4 | +5.5 |
| | Conservative hold | Conservative hold | Swing | | |
Mount Hermon East :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Liberal Democrats | Norman Johns | 860 | 48.4 | +20.7 |
| | Conservative | David Bittleston | 786 | 44.2 | −12.2 |
| | UKIP | Judith Squire | 69 | 3.9 | −5.6 |
| | Labour | Michael Kelly | 62 | 3.5 | −2.9 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 74 | 4.2 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 1,777 | 48.7 | +9.0 |
| | Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative | Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative | Swing | | |
Mount Hermon West :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Liberal Democrats | Susan Smith | 970 | 56.7 | +2.6 |
| | Conservative | Carl Thomson | 603 | 35.2 | +3.9 |
| | UKIP | Mary Kingston | 77 | 4.5 | −5.2 |
| | Labour | John Pitt | 62 | 3.6 | −1.3 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 367 | 21.5 | −1.3 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 1,712 | 43.3 | +3.0 |
| | Liberal Democrats hold | Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | | |
St Johns and Hook Heath :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Conservative | John Kingsbury | 963 | 63.4 | −9.5 |
| | Liberal Democrats | Andrew Larkham | 271 | 17.8 | −3.8 |
| | Independent | Adrian Gray | 188 | 12.4 | +12.4 |
| | UKIP | Marcia Taylor | 52 | 3.4 | +3.4 |
| | Labour | Colin Bright | 46 | 3.0 | −2.6 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 692 | 45.6 | −5.7 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 1,520 | 43.3 | +8.1 |
| | Conservative hold | Conservative hold | Swing | | |
West Byfleet :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Conservative | Frederick Webber-Taylor | 1,183 | 66.8 | +8.1 |
| | Liberal Democrats | Michael Wilson | 249 | 14.1 | +0.1 |
| | Independent | Richard Wilson | 196 | 11.1 | −10.5 |
| | Labour | Louise Every | 87 | 4.9 | −0.7 |
| | UKIP | Robin Milner | 57 | 3.2 | +3.2 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 934 | 52.7 | +15.6 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 1,772 | 44.6 | +10.8 |
| | Conservative gain from Independent | Conservative gain from Independent | Swing | | |