The fifth full elections for Guildford Borough Council took place on 1 May 1987.[1] The Conservatives retained control of the council winning 30 of the 45 seats on the council. This represented one net loss for the Conservatives, relative to the 1983 council elections. Labour retained its 6 councillors. The SDP-Liberal Alliance won 9 seats, a net gain of two seats on the 1983 council elections. No independents were elected to the council, one had been elected in 1983.
Three wards partly or wholly changed hands in the 1987 council elections relative to the 1983 council elections. The SDP-Liberal Alliance gained one councillor from the Conservatives in Stoughton and gained a further councillor from the Conservatives in Normandy.
The Conservatives gained one councillor in Tillingbourne from an independent.
In 1982, the Local Government Boundary Commission recommended the transfer of the southern part of Send parish to West Clandon parish.[2] This measure was implemented by Statutory Instrument 1984 No 411 known as the Guildford Parishes Order, which adjusted the ward boundaries at the same time. That Order also produced a number of minor changes to other Guildford parish boundaries the most significant of which, other than the Send-Clandon boundary change, was the transfer of the easterly part of Shalford parish to St Martha's parish in Tillingbourne ward.
^Results were published in the Surrey Advertiser 8 May 1987 edition.
^See p22 Local Government Commission for England Final Recommendations on the Future Electoral Arrangements for Guildford in Surrey, September 1998
^Gains and losses are shown here relative to the 1983 election. Alan Hillier, the SDP-Liberal Alliance candidate, held one of these Ash seats going into the election following an earlier by election victory. If gains and losses were displayed relative to the position entering the election this seat would show a gain for the Conservative , plus 2 Conservative holds, rather than the 3 Conservative holds shown here.
Ash is the only ward, in the 1987 elections, where the gain, loss and hold figures differ depending on whether you measure them from the previous full council election in 1983 or from the parties position going into the election.
