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The 2008 Craven District Council election took place on 1 May 2008 to elect members of Craven District Council in North Yorkshire, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.^[1]

After the election, the composition of the council was

Background

Before the election an alliance between 9 of the 10 independents and the 6 Liberal Democrats controlled the council, with independent Carl Liss as council leader.^[3] The 14 Conservative councillors were in opposition, supported by the remaining independent councillor, Ken Hart.^[3]

Election result

The Conservatives won 8 of the 11 seats contested, including gaining one seat, to have exactly half of seats on the council.^[4] The Conservative gain came in Skipton East where Pam Heseltine took the seat from the Liberal Democrats.^[4] This reduced the Liberal Democrats to 5 councillors after they held the other 2 seats they were defending.^[4] The only independent councillor to be defending a seat, David Ireton, retained it in Ingleton and Clapham, while the 5 Labour candidates came last in each of the wards they contested.^[4]

Following the election Conservative Chris Knowles-Fitton became leader of the council, taking over from independent Carl Lis.^[5]

Craven local election result 2008^[2]^[6]
	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
Conservative	8	1	0	+1	72.7	55.0	6,268	+9.9%
Liberal Democrats	2	0	1	-1	18.2	27.4	3,124	+12.8%
Independent	1	0	0	0	9.1	10.2	1,159	-28.2%
Labour	0	0	0	0	0	7.4	843	+7.4%

Ward results

Aire Valley with Lothersdale^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Pat Fairbank	824	63.0	+16.0
	Liberal Democrats	Stephen Walpole	307	23.5	−29.5
	Labour	Bob Holland	177	13.5	+13.5
Majority			517	39.5
Turnout			1,308	45.7	+1.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Barden Fell^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Chris Knowles-Fitton	550	83.3	+32.1
	Liberal Democrats	Andrew Rankine	110	16.7	+5.2
Majority			440	66.7	+52.8
Turnout			660	49.6	−10.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

Cowling^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ady Green	470	69.5	+52.6
	Labour	Paul Routledge	206	30.5	+30.5
Majority			264	39.1	+32.1
Turnout			676	38.9	−11.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

Grassington^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Foster	539	77.1	+3.9
	Liberal Democrats	John Manley	160	22.9	−3.9
Majority			379	54.2	+7.7
Turnout			699	52.4	−13.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Ingleton and Clapham^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Independent	David Ireton	1,159	78.6
	Conservative	Terence Thorpe	315	21.4
Majority			844	57.2
Turnout			1,474	46.7
	Independent hold		Swing

Settle and Ribblebanks^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Donny Whaites	860	64.3	+24.8
	Liberal Democrats	Alison Fawcett	300	22.4	−31.8
	Labour	Edward Saunders	178	13.3	+13.3
Majority			560	41.9
Turnout			1,338	45.3	−1.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Skipton East^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Pamela Heseltine	595	50.5	−3.4
	Liberal Democrats	Eric Jaquin	464	39.4	+39.4
	Labour	Chris Rose	119	10.1	+10.1
Majority			131	11.1	+3.2
Turnout			1,178	42.3	+1.8
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Skipton North^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Paul Whitaker	737	57.4	+15.4
	Liberal Democrats	Carole Manley	547	42.6	+15.0
Majority			190	14.8	+3.2
Turnout			1,284	46.5	−3.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

Skipton South^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Andrew Solloway	391	50.4	+50.4
	Conservative	Charlotte Gott	222	28.6	+15.0
	Labour	Duncan Hall	163	21.0	+21.0
Majority			169	21.8
Turnout			776	27.7	−8.4
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Skipton West^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Paul English	592	56.9	−5.0
	Conservative	John Garton	449	43.1	+5.0
Majority			143	13.7	−10.1
Turnout			1,041	35.7	+0.3
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Upper Wharfedale^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Roberts	707	73.6	+10.1
	Liberal Democrats	John Bennett	253	26.4	+26.4
Majority			454	47.3	+20.3
Turnout			960	62.5	+1.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

^ "Craven". BBC News Online. 2 May 2008. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Full election results". The Guardian. NewsBank. 3 May 2008. ISSN 0261-3077.
^ ^a ^b "Conservative likely to become leader". The Yorkshire Post. NewsBank. 3 May 2008. ISSN 0963-1496.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Tories gain one Craven Council seat but fail to take control". Craven Herald & Pioneer. NewsBank. 2 May 2008. ISSN 0961-1908.
^ Tate, Lesley (23 May 2008). "Tories take over leadership of council". Craven Herald & Pioneer. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l "Declaration of result of poll" (PDF). Craven District Council. Political Science Resources. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2015.