1998 Bromley London Borough Council election

Elections to Bromley Council in England were held on 7 May 1998. The whole council was up for election and the Conservative party lost overall control of the council to no overall control.^[1]

Because the council fell into no overall control, for the first time in the London Borough of Bromley history it was taken over by a Liberal Democrat/Labour Coalition. This ended in 2001 when the Conservatives regained the council.

Election result

Turn out across the borough dropped to 40.8%, the lowest in the history of the council.

Bromley Local Election Result 1998
	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	+/−
Conservative	28	0	4	-4	46.7	45.3	+4.4
Liberal Democrats	25	5	1	+4	41.7	35.0	-1.6
Labour	7	1	1	0	11.7	18.7	-1.5

Despite the Conservatives increasing their share of the vote at the expence of both Labour and Liberal Democrats, they still lost seats to the Liberal Democrats and with it, control of the council. Labour, despite losing votes and seats found themselves as part of the administration. For the first time, the Liberal Democrats had managed to get the first past the post voting system to work in their favour by winning a higher share of seats than share of vote.

Ward results

Bromley Borough Council election, 1998: Anerley^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	Christopher Richard Gaster*	1,362	28.9
	Liberal Democrats	William Alan Macdonald MacCormick*	1,289	27.4
	Labour	Clinton Valvis McCree	765	16.2
	Labour	Andrew Jonathan Pharoah	658	14.0
	Conservative	Adrian Grantham Smith	328	7.0
	Conservative	John Anthony De'Giovanni	308	6.5
Turnout				34.2
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Bromley Borough Council election, 1998: Bickley^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Ingrid Alexandra Buckley*	2,507	20.5
	Conservative	Sheila Ann Humphreys*	2,449	20.0
	Conservative	Gordon William Jenkins*	2,357	19.3
	Liberal Democrats	David Malcolm Dear	1,027	8.4
	Liberal Democrats	Anne Wendy Chaplin	991	8.1
	Liberal Democrats	Susan Anne Taylor	989	8.1
	Labour	Susan Noelle Cox	690	5.6
	Labour	Arthur Harold Johnson	638	5.2
	Labour	Alfred Ernest Parish	579	4.7
Turnout				40.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

Bromley Borough Council election, 1998: Biggin Hill^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	Geoffrey Colin Gostt*	1,830
	Liberal Democrats	Walter Robert Shekyls*	1,742
	Conservative	David Robert Haslam	1,481
	Conservative	Christopher Douglas Wordingham	1,366
	Labour	Brendan French	284
	Labour	Leonard David Hall	283
Turnout				43.1
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Bromley Common & Keston (3)^[2]
Party		Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats
	Liberal Democrats
	Liberal Democrats
	Conservative
	Conservative
	Conservative
	Labour
	Labour
	Labour
Turnout			36.77
	Liberal Democrats hold	Swing

Chelsfield & Goddington (3)^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	Graem Peters*	2,477
	Liberal Democrats	Gillian Margaret Chamarette*	2,461
	Liberal Democrats	Michael James Hall*	2,399
	Conservative
	Conservative
	Conservative
	Labour
	Labour
	Labour
Turnout				45.08
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Chislehurst (3)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

Clock House (2)^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	David Edward Aubrey Crowe*	1,871
	Liberal Democrats	Martin Arthur Lockwood*	1,802
	Conservative
	Conservative
	Labour
	Labour
Turnout				45.44
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Copers Cope (2)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

Crofton (2)^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	Helen Cecilia Rabbatts*	2,007
	Liberal Democrats	Vivian Charles Ross*	1,883
	Conservative
	Conservative
	Labour
	Labour
Turnout				49.9
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Darwin (1)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

Eden Park (2)^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	Jane Elizabeth Green	1,474
	Liberal Democrats	Anthony Robert Phillips	1,338
	Conservative	Albert George Miles*	1,237
	Conservative	Robert Alistair Herd	1,207
	Labour
	Labour
Turnout				45.8
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

Farnborough (2)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

Hayes (3)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

Kelsey Park (2)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

Lawrie Park & Kent House (2)
	Candidate	%
Conservative	Richard Foister*	36.8
Conservative	Philip G. Jones*
Labour	Ms C Newman	33.2
Labour	M Malik
Liberal Democrats	B Astell	30.0
Liberal Democrats	Paul Nash

Martins Hill & Town (2)^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	Peter John Ayres*	1,274
	Liberal Democrats	Raymond Philip Warner*	1,144
	Conservative	Philip Thomas Hollobone	1,111
	Conservative	Paul Louis Jemetta*	1,024
	Labour
	Labour
Turnout				38.8
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Mottingham (2)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

Orpington Central (2)^[2]
Party		Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats
	Liberal Democrats
	Conservative
	Conservative
	Labour
	Labour
Turnout			37.1
	Liberal Democrats hold	Swing

Penge (2)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

Petts Wood & Knoll (3)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

Plaistow & Sundridge (3)^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrats	James Gillespie	1,865
	Conservative	Catherine Ann Bustard	1,824
	Liberal Democrats	Stephen Frank Gosling	1,818
	Conservative	Michael Turner	1,812
	Conservative	Dorothy Joan Laird*	1,791
	Liberal Democrats	Lennard Douglas Woods	1,768
	Labour
	Labour
	Labour
Turnout				39.9
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

St Mary Cray (3)^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Susan Ann Polydorou*	1,381
	Liberal Democrats	David McBride	1,332
	Labour	John Richard Holbrook*	1,312
	Labour	Christopher John Price	1,225
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Oldman	1,255
	Liberal Democrats	Brenda Denise Thompson	1,246
	Conservative
	Conservative
	Conservative
Turnout				35.4
	Liberal Democrats gain from Labour		Swing

St Paul's Cray (3)^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Colin Willetts	1,662
	Liberal Democrats	William Hawthorne*	1,597
	Liberal Democrats	Martin Alan Curry*	1,471
	Liberal Democrats	Duncan Keith Borrowman*	1,443
	Labour	Kelly Jane Galvin	1,440
	Labour	Elizabeth Ruth Johnstone	1,411
	Conservative
	Conservative
	Conservative
Turnout				35.0
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing

Shortlands (2)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

West Wickham North (2)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

West Wickham South (2)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%

References

^ "Local Elections results". The Times. 9 May 1998. p. 46.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m London Borough of Bromley

[results-1] "Local Elections results". The Times. 9 May 1998. p. 46.

[lms-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m London Borough of Bromley

[1]

[2]

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