1988 North Hertfordshire District Council election

← 1987 5 May 1988 (1988-05-05) 1990 →
18 of 50 seats onNorth Hertfordshire District Council 26 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Con Lab SDP Leader Bob Flatman Judi Billing Tony Quinn Party Conservative Labour SDP Seats before 26 13 4 Seats after 27 13 4 Seat change 1   Fourth party Fifth party   SLD RA Party SLD Ratepayers Seats before 4 3 Seats after 3 3 Seat change 1
Leader before election Bob Flatman Conservative Leader after election Bob Flatman Conservative

The1988 North Hertfordshire District Council election was held on 5 May 1988, at the same time as otherlocal elections across England and Scotland. There were 18 out of 50 seats onNorth Hertfordshire District Council up for election, being the usual third of the council plus a by-election in Codicote ward.^[1]

TheConservatives made a net gain of one seat to increase their majority on the council. The formerSDP–Liberal Alliance group of eight councillors had fragmented ahead of the election; four joined the new merged party of theSocial and Liberal Democrats (renamed theLiberal Democrats the following year), but the other four (including former Alliance group leader, Tony Quinn) joined the breakawaycontinuing Social Democratic Party opposed to the merger.^[2]

The overall results were as follows:^[3]

1988 North Hertfordshire District Council election
Party		This election			Full council			This election
		Seats	Net	Seats %	Other	Total	Total %	Votes	Votes %	+/−
	Conservative	12	1	66.7	15	27	54.0	14,569	41.1	+1.6
	Labour	5		27.8	8	13	26.0	11,412	32.2	+7.8
	SLD	0	1	0.0	3	3	6.0	6,094	17.2	-14.5
	SDP	0		0.0	4	4	8.0	1,363	3.8	New
	Ratepayers	1		5.6	2	3	6.0	1,869	5.3	+1.2
	Green	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	138	0.4	0.0

The results for each ward were as follows. An asterisk (*) indicates a sitting councillor standing for re-election.^[3]

The by-election in Codicote ward was triggered by the death of Conservative councillor Denis Winch.

The Royston West by-election was triggered by the resignation of Social and Liberal Democrat councillor Fran Bate. Tim Doyle won the seat for the Conservatives.^[4]

The Hitchin Priory by-election was triggered by the death of Conservative councillor Frank Howett. The seat was retained for the Conservatives by Richard Thake. The number of votes was not reported, but it was said that the Conservative vote was down 20% from the last time the seat was contested and the Liberal Democrat share of the vote was 33%.^[5][6]

• 1988 English local elections
• North Hertfordshire District Council elections

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