1973 United Kingdom local elections

England and Wales

The elections took place on three dates:

• 12 April 1973: Metropolitan county councils (601 councillors), Non-metropolitan county councils (3,128 councillors), Welsh county councils (578 councillors) and the Greater London Council (92 councillors).
• 10 May 1973: Metropolitan district councils (2,517 councillors) and Welsh district councils (1,522 councillors).
• 7 June 1973: Non-metropolitan district councils (13,540 councillors).

Elections took place for all the seats on the councils. In the case of the new councils, they became shadow authorities, taking over from the existing local authorities on 1 April 1974. The elections for the new councils had been brought forward from an originally planned date in November 1973, to allow the councils more time to act as shadow authorities - the final dates were set in May 1972.

The April elections

The elections held on 12 April saw a very impressive performance by the Labour Party, which regained control of the Greater London Council and took control of all six of the new metropolitan county councils. In the rest of England, they won seven county councils, including two of the new "estuary" counties: Cleveland and Humberside. The party also won Gwent and the three Glamorgan county councils (West Glamorgan, Mid Glamorgan, South Glamorgan) in Wales.

The poor Conservative vote in London and the metropolitan counties was somewhat compensated by winning thirteen of the non-metropolitan counties. Failure to gain Essex or Hertfordshire were disappointments to the party, but taking control of Gloucestershire was a success. The party also failed to gain its only realistic Welsh prospect, South Glamorgan.

There were no great successes for the Liberal Party, which found itself in third place in all the metropolitan counties. They did however gain representation on the GLC for the first time, winning two seats at Sutton and Cheam and Richmond upon Thames. This followed the previous year's by-election success in winning the Sutton and Cheam parliamentary seat from the Conservatives.

Independents won two English counties outright: Cornwall and the Isle of Wight. They also formed the largest grouping on a number of other councils, and entered agreements with the Conservatives in the running of some of these. In Wales, Independents controlled three mainly rural counties.

The May elections

The results of the elections in May saw an improvement in the performance by the Conservatives since the county council elections, and a slight fall back in the Labour vote. The Liberals had a notable success, becoming the largest group on Liverpool council.

The Conservatives took control of five metropolitan districts, gaining seats in areas where they had been beaten in the elections to the county councils. They also gained one Welsh district, Monmouth.

The Labour party declared it was pleased with the results, especially as opinion polls had shown them losing support. They took control of most of the metropolitan districts, making a clean sweep of councils in Tyne and Wear and South Yorkshire and important councils such as Birmingham, Coventry and Manchester. Labour also took control of most districts in South Wales including Cardiff. The party's organiser for Wales also pointed to the fact that official Labour candidates won rural seats in north and west Wales for the first time.

Apart from forming a minority administration in Liverpool, the Liberals were able to hold the balance of power at Leeds, Stockport and Wirral. They were however disappointed with their performance at Calderdale which was won by Labour.

The June elections

In the June elections for 296 non-metropolitan districts, Labour won control of 71, the Conservatives 59, the Liberals 1, Democratic Labour 1, and Independents 67. 97 councils were under no overall control: in many of these councils Conservative and Independent groups formed an administration.

The Labour Party won 4,327 seats, the Conservatives 4,286, Independents 3,534, and the Liberals 919; with the remaining 449 seats going to various other groupings.

It was a good result for the Liberal Party who took control of Eastbourne and became the largest group on Adur, Newbury, Pendle and Waverley councils. The other two main parties also had notable successes: Labour considered control of Cambridge, Dacorum, Ipswich and Oxford to be good results; while the Conservatives celebrated taking Gloucester, Great Yarmouth, Lewes and Warrington councils.

The break-away Lincoln Democratic Labour Association won twenty of the thirty seats on Lincoln District council. The group were supporters of Dick Taverne, member of parliament for Lincoln who had been expelled from the Labour Party. Taverne had earlier in the year resigned his seat to force a by-election in protest against his expulsion, which he won against the official Labour candidate.

Results

Metropolitan county councils

Non-metropolitan county councils

Welsh county councils

Greater London Council

Main article: 1973 Greater London Council election

Metropolitan districts

Welsh districts

Non-metropolitan districts

Avon

Bedfordshire

Berkshire

Buckinghamshire

Cambridgeshire

Cheshire

Cleveland

Cornwall

Cumbria

Derbyshire

Devon

Dorset

Durham

East Sussex

Essex

Gloucestershire

Hampshire

Hereford and Worcester

Hertfordshire

Humberside

Isle of Wight

Kent

Lancashire

Leicestershire

Lincolnshire

Norfolk

North Yorkshire

Northamptonshire

Northumberland

Nottinghamshire

Oxfordshire

Salop

Somerset

Staffordshire

Suffolk

Surrey

Warwickshire

West Sussex

Wiltshire

Future elections

The next county council elections took place in 1977.

Future elections to Metropolitan District councils were to be by thirds, with the one third of seats being elected in 1975.

The next election of non-metropolitan district councils and Welsh district councils was to in 1976.

Northern Ireland

Main article: 1973 Northern Ireland local elections

Local government in Northern Ireland was reorganised in 1973 by the Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 and the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972. The county councils, county borough and municipal borough corporations and urban and rural district councils were replaced by twenty-six Local Government districts. Elections took place for all the seats on the district councils on 30 May, and the councils came into their power in 1 October.

Scotland

Main article: 1973 Scottish local elections

Local elections were also held in Scotland in 1973. At the time of the election, Scotland was the only part of the UK in which local government had yet to be reformed, with the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 only receiving Royal Assent in October 1973. The election saw Labour maintaining their control of Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Dundee, although failing to make gains in Edinburgh.

References

References

1. "Local Elections Handbook 1973". The Elections Centre.
2. "Council compositions".
3. (18 February 1972). "Councils offered five more months before changes". [[The Times]].
4. (26 May 1972). "Election dates in 1973 for new local councils". [[The Times]].
5. (13 April 1973). "Labour sweep to victory in London and all six of the metropolitan counties". [[The Times]].
6. (14 April 1973). "Labour take over metropolitan counties and 11 other councils". [[The Times]].
7. (14 May 1973). "Three major parties find cause for satisfaction in local election results despite low poll". [[The Times]].
8. (8 June 1973). "Final poll result may lie with Independents". [[The Times]].
9. (8 June 1973). "Liberals capture Eastbourne and exceed ambition to win 1,000 local government seats". [[The Times]].
10. Local Government Act 1972, sections 7 and 26
11. (29 October 2003). "The 1973 Local Government Elections". [[Economic and Social Research Council]].
12. (31 May 1973). "Big Roman Catholic turnout in poll despite threats". [[The Times]].
13. (31 May 1973). "Party accused over Ulster poll". [[The Times]].
14. (2 June 1973). "Unionist supporters elect many hard-line men in Ulster local government poll". [[The Times]].