The 2023 Cannock Chase District election took place on 4 May 2023 to elect 17 of the 41 councillors on Cannock Chase District Council in Staffordshire, England.[3] on the same day as other local elections in England, including to eight parish councils in the district. The usual nominal third of the council (15 seats, one from each ward) was up for election, plus there were two vacancies to be filled, meaning a total of 17 councillors were elected.
The council was under Conservative majority control prior to the election. The election saw the council go under no overall control, and a coalition of Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat coalition subsequently formed to run the council.[4]
Background
At the previous 2022 election in Cannock Chase, the Conservatives retained the seats they were defending and gained one from Labour, increasing their overall majority. At the 2023 election, they were defending seven seats which they won at the 2019 election. Labour were looking to make gains for the first time since 2016 after being reduced to eight seats, their lowest ever seat total, at the 2022 election. Localist party the Chase Community Independent Group did not put up any candidates at this election; the Green Party were hoping to regain seats in the Hednesford area which they had held before the Chase Indies' formation in 2020. The Liberal Democrats were looking to retain one of two seats they held in the Brereton and Ravenhill ward; they did not field candidates in any other wards.
There had been substantial changes to the makeup of the council since the May 2022 election. Four Conservative councillors had resigned from the council whilst another had defected to Labour; the Conservatives successfully defended their Cannock West seat but lost the Hednesford North and Etching Hill and the Heath by-elections to Labour. This reduced their total from 25 councillors to 21. Meanwhile, the leader of the Chase Community Independent Group resigned his Hednesford South seat shortly before the election was called. This, along with a last minute Conservative resignation in Cannock East, resulted in there being two councillors elected in two of the council's wards.
The outcome of the election was a decisive shift to Labour, with them picking up the highest number of votes and seats for the first time since the 2016 election.[5] Labour gained three seats from the Conservatives, one from the Liberal Democrats, and regained a seat in Cannock North which had been held by a former Labour independent councillor. This boosted their seat count from 12 just before the election to 17. The Conservatives saw their vote share drop by 10% for the second year in a row, leading to them losing three seats and their overall majority. They remained the largest party by a single seat. The Greens regained three seats in Hednesford which had been held by former Green councillors, leaving them with the five seats they had following the 2019 election. The Liberal Democrats lost to Labour in their one remaining ward, reducing them to one seat for the second time in the council's history.
Across the district, there was a substantial 9.7% swing to Labour compared to 2019; compared to 2022, the swing to Labour was a slightly smaller 8.5%.
Following the election a coalition of Labour, the Greens and the Liberal Democrat formed, with Labour group leader Tony Johnson being appointed leader of the council at the subsequent annual council meeting on 24 May 2023.[6]
Although this was a notional Green hold compared to 2019, in current seat terms it was a Green gain from Labour due to the previous defection of the sitting councillor, Mandy Dunnett, to Labour.
^ Andrea Beach was the sitting councillor for the Cannock North ward. She switched to the Hednesford South ward after defecting from Labour to the Chase Community Independent Group, and latterly sitting as an independent.
There were two seats up for election in this ward due to the resignation of Chase Community Independent Group leader Paul Woodhead in March 2023.
Although one of these seats was a notional Green hold compared to 2019, in current seat terms it was a Green gain from the Chase Community Independent Group due to the previous defection of the sitting councillor, Stuart Crabtree, from the Greens.
Paul Fisher, elected as a Liberal Democrat in 2022, left the party in August 2023, leaving the party with no councillors.[9] He subsequently joined Labour later in 2023.[10]
References
^Including one vacant seat held by Conservative councillor John McMahon prior to his resignation in March 2023.[1]
^Including one vacant seat in Hednesford South ward previously held by Chase Community Independents Group councillor Paul Woodhead.[1] The party did not put up any candidates in 2023 and was de-registered with the Electoral Commission the month after this election.[2]
