West Somerset District Council elections

West Somerset District Council in Somerset, England was elected every four years. The first elections to the council were held in 1973, ahead of it coming into being in 1974. The last election was held in 2015. The council was abolished in 2019 when the district merged with neighbouring Taunton Deane district to become Somerset West and Taunton. West Somerset had 28 councillors following its final boundary changes in 2011, 28 elected from 16 wards.^[1]

Political control

From the first election to the council in 1973 until its abolition in 2019, political control of the council was held by the following parties:^[2]

Party in control		Years
	Independent	1973–1995
	No overall control	1995–2003
	Conservative	2003–2007
	Independent	2007–2011
	Conservative	2011–2019

Leadership

The leaders of the council from 1998 to 2019 were:^[3]^[4]

Councillor		From	To
Steven Pugsley	Independent	1998	2003
Steven Pugsley	Conservative	2003	2006
Christine Lawrence	Conservative	2006	2007
Keith Ross	Independent	May 2007	May 2010
Tim Taylor	Conservative	19 May 2010	10 May 2015
Anthony Trollope-Bellew	Conservative	20 May 2015	31 Mar 2019

Council elections

Summary of the council composition after each council election, click on the year for full details of each election.

Year									Notes
Year	Conservative	Independent	UK Independence Party	Labour	Liberal Democrats (including predecessor parties)	Independent Conservative	Residents	Vacant	Notes
1973^[5]	3	27	0	1	1	0	0	0
1976^[5]	4	28	0	0	0	0	0	0
1979^[5]	3	25	0	0	1	0	3	0	New ward boundaries^[6]
1983^[5]	4	27	0	0	1	0	0	0
1987^[5]	6	26	0	0	0	0	0	0
1991^[7]	5	22	0	3	1	0	0	1
1995^[8]	9	12	0	8	2	1	0	0
1999^[9]	15	8	0	5	1	0	0	2	New ward boundaries^[10]
2003^[11]	18	9	0	2	2	0	0	0
2007^[12]	13	16	0	1	1	0	0	0
2011^[2]	19	7	0	2	0	0	0	0	New ward boundaries^[13]
2015^[14]	21	3	3	1	0	0	0	0

District result maps

1999 results map
2003 results map
2007 results map
2011 results map
2015 results map

By-elections

By-elections occur when seats become vacant between council elections. Below is a summary of recent by-elections;^[15] full by-election results can be found by clicking on the by-election name.

By-election	Date
Minehead South by-election	14 November 1996	Ind. Conservative	Conservative
Quantock Vale by-election	17 July 1997	Conservative	Independent
Minehead North by-election	23 April 1998	Independent	Conservative
Porlock and Oare by-election	23 October 1998	Conservative	Independent
Williton by-election	8 December 1999	Labour	Conservative
Aville Vale by-election	13 July 2000	Labour	Conservative
Old Cleeve by-election	7 July 2005	Independent	Independent
Alcombe East by-election	1 May 2008	Conservative	Conservative
Minehead South by-election	16 April 2009	Independent	Independent
Dunster and Timberscombe by-election	23 March 2017	Conservative	Liberal Democrats

References

^ "Councillors — General Information". West Somerset Council. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
^ ^a ^b "England council elections". BBC News Online. 10 May 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
^ "Council minutes". Somerset West and Taunton Council. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
^ "Leaders' names". What do they know?. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "West Somerset District Council Election Results 1973 -2011" (PDF). The Elections Centre. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
^ The District of West Somerset (Electoral Arrangements) Order 1976
^ "Complete round-up of results from Thursday's local council elections". The Times. 4 May 1991.
^ "Complete list of results from thursday's council elections". The Times. 6 May 1995.
^ "West Somerset". BBC News Online. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
^ legislation.gov.uk - The District of West Somerset (Electoral Changes) Order 1998. Retrieved on 4 October 2015.
^ "Local elections". BBC News Online. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
^ "West Somerset". BBC News Online. 4 May 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
^ legislation.gov.uk - The West Somerset (Electoral Changes) Order 2011. Retrieved on 3 November 2015.
^ "District Election Results 2015". West Somerset Council. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
^ "Local Authority Byelection Results". Retrieved 27 November 2011.