Turnout in Sheffield Council elections just 34.59 per cent

Returning Officer John Mothersole on the stage at EIS for the local election count results
Picture Dean Atkins — Returning Officer John Mothersole on the stage at EIS for the local election count results Picture Dean Atkins

The turnout after polls closed on Thursday (May 5) was just 34.59 per cent.

This is consistent with previous years. The last council-only elections, in 2014 and 2012, had turnouts of 35.82 and 32.77 per cent respectively. In 2015, when the council elections ran alongside the General Election, turnour was 62.41 per cent, and in 2011, running alongside a mayoral referendum, it was 41.81 per cent.

The city council is still under Labour control after the party retained the large majority of its seats.

The only wards to see any political shift were Beauchief and Greenhill, where Labour lost two seats to the Liberal Democrats, Broomhill and Sharrow Vale, where the Green Party lost one seat to Labour and Nether Edge and Sharrow, where the Greens gained one back from Labour.

There were close calls in the new City ward, where the Greens nearly took a second seat, Declan Walsh just 25 votes behind Labour’s Moya O’Rourke in fourth. And in Stocksbridge and Upper Don UKIP’s Graeme Waddicar was only three votes away from making it a clean sweep for his party, missing out to Labour’s Richard Crowther.

But the closest result was in West Ecclesfield, where UKIP and Labour tied for the third seat. Labour took it after a tie-breaking vote was drawn.

The new makeup of the council with all votes counted is:

Labour - 57 seats

Liberal Democrats - 19

Green Party - 4

Ukip - 4

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