The 2004 Fareham Council election took place on 10 June 2004 to elect members of Fareham

Fareham (borough)

Fareham is a local government district and borough in Hampshire, England. Its council is based in Fareham. Other places within the Borough include Portchester, Stubbington, Hill Head, Titchfield, Warsash, Locks Heath, Sarisbury and half of Whiteley...

 Borough

Borough status in the United Kingdom

Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district...

 Council in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Half of the council was up for election and the Conservative party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 stayed in overall control of the council.

After the election, the composition of the council was

• Conservative
  Conservative Party (UK)
  The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
  
   22
• Liberal Democrat 9

Campaign

Before the election there were 18 Conservative and 12 Liberal Democrat councillor

Councillor

A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...

s, with 15 of the 31 seats being contested. One of the 15 seats, in Fareham

Fareham

The market town of Fareham lies in the south east of Hampshire, England, between the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth, roughly in the centre of the South Hampshire conurbation.It gives its name to the borough comprising the town and the surrounding area...

 South ward

Wards of the United Kingdom

A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...

, was vacant after an independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

, former Liberal Democrat, councillor had stepped down, after being fined for false housing and council tax

Council tax

Council Tax is the system of local taxation used in England, Scotland and Wales to part fund the services provided by local government in each country. It was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as a successor to the unpopular Community Charge...

 benefit claims. Fareham South was among a number of wards which were reported as being vulnerable to a change in party control including Fareham East, Fareham North, Portchester

Portchester

Portchester is a locality and suburb 10km northwest of Portsmouth, England. It is part of the borough of Fareham in Hampshire. Once a small village, Portchester is now a busy part of the expanding conurbation between Portsmouth and Southampton, on the A27 main thoroughfare...

 West, Stubbington

Stubbington

Stubbington is a large Hampshire village which is located between Southampton and Portsmouth on the south coast of England. It is within the borough of Fareham but is part of the parliamentary constituency of Gosport.-History:...

 and Titchfield

Titchfield

Titchfield is a village in southern Hampshire, by the River Meon. The village has a history stretching back to the 6th century. During the medieval period, the village operated a small port and market...

 Common. A couple of former councillors who had been defeated in the 2002 election

Fareham Council election, 2002

The 2002 Fareham Council election took place on 2 May 2002 to elect members of Fareham Borough Council in Hampshire, England. The whole council was up for election with boundary changes since the last election in 2000 reducing the number of seats by 11...

 stood again, former Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 group leader Mick Prior in Fareham North-West and Conservative Nick Walker in Portchester West.

Issues in the election included council tax levels and plans by the government to build 1,000 houses near Sarisbury

Sarisbury

Sarisbury is a village to the west of Park Gate within the borough of Fareham. Its focal point, The Green, originated as a tongue of land at the extremity of Titchfield Common which was left when the rest was enclosed. Its focal point is still the parish church of St Paul, built in 1836 to a...

. The national issue of the Iraq War was also seen as being likely to sway votes in the election.

Election result

The results saw the Conservatives increase their majority on the council after gaining 3 seats from the Liberal Democrats. Conservative gains included Stubbington where they won by only 8 votes over the Liberal Democrats after a recount and in Portchester West where Nick Walker returned to the council. The Conservatives also gained a seat in Fareham South from an independent in a seat which had previously been seen as strongly Liberal Democrat. The Liberal Democrats partly blamed their defeats on the election being held at the same time as the European elections

European Parliament election, 2004

Elections to the European Parliament were held from 10 June 2004 to 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom...

, while a defeated Labour candidate said their failure to win any seats was in line with the national performance by the party.

Overall turnout

Voter turnout

Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

 increased to 40.3% with a rise in postal votes to 6,000 contributing to the increase.

Ward results