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All 57 council seats on Merton London Borough Council | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 46.4% [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections for the London Borough of Merton were held on 4 May 1978 to elect members of Merton London Borough Council in London, England. This was on the same day as other local elections in England and Scotland. [1]
The whole council was up for election and the incumbent majority Conservative administration maintained its overall control of the council. [1] This was the first election held in which no aldermen were elected onto the council. [2] Boundary changes also meant that the number of elected seats increased by 3. [1]
At the last election, the Conservatives had won a majority of three seats on the council, with twenty-nine elected members and four aldermen. [2] They subsequently gained a seat from the Labour Party in a by-election in the ward of Wimbledon South on 19 September 1974 and then lost a seat to the Liberal Party in the ward of Cannon Hill on 30 October 1975. [1]
Prior to the election, elected councillors appointed nine aldermen to serve on Merton London Borough Council. This was the first election in which this arrangement ended, [2] as was required by the Local Government Act 1972, which rendered the post merely an honorary title. [1]
The Conservatives did not stand in the newly-created ward of Longthornton, leaving the three-member ward as a two-way contest between the Labour Party and the Longthornton and Tamworth Residents Association. [1]
The Conservatives maintained their overall majority control of the council, increasing their majority to 21 seats. [2]
Party | Seats | Gains | Losses | Net gain/loss | Seats % | Votes % | Votes | +/− | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 39 | n/a | n/a | 6 | 68.4 | 52.6 | 85,773 | ||
Labour | 15 | n/a | n/a | 12 | 26.3 | 34.7 | 56,501 | ||
Longthornton and Tamworth Residents | 3 | n/a | n/a | 0 | 5.3 | 3.9 | 6,336 | ||
Liberal | 0 | n/a | n/a | 0 | 0.0 | 8.3 | 13,532 | ||
National Front | 0 | n/a | n/a | 0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 457 | ||
Independent | 0 | n/a | n/a | 0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 272 | ||
Workers Revolutionary | 0 | n/a | n/a | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 74 |
Notes
References