Croydon Council election, 1998

Elections to Croydon Council in London, England were held on 7 May 1998. The whole council was up for election and the Labour party stayed in overall control of the council.^[1] For the first time in a local election two polling stations were situated in supermarkets.^[2]

Before the election the council had been seen as a top target for the Conservatives who only needed a small swing of 2 percent to take control.^[3] The Labour party had taken control of the council for the first time in the council's history in the previous election in 1994.^[4] The removal of mounted patrols from parks and an increase in nursery places were seen as important issues in the election.^[5] Both main parties concentrated on trying to get their vote out and were targeting several key wards.^[4]

Election result

Croydon Local Election Result 1998[6]
Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/-
	Labour	38			-2	54.3
	Conservative	31			+1	44.3
	Liberal Democrat	1			+1	1.4

References

1. ^ Riddell, Peter (1998-05-09). "Apathy the winner in struggle between new and old Labour". The Times. p. 46. 
2. ^ Travis, Alan (1998-05-08). "London leans to independent mayor improving life in the capital". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/1998/may/08/london.london1. Retrieved 2009-04-26. 
3. ^ "Labour's first big test approaches". BBC Online. 1998-05-03. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk/politics/87380.stm. Retrieved 2009-04-26. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Ward, Lucy (1998-05-04). "When sofa apathy is party enemy No.1, it's all down to swinging the key wards Local elections: In Croydon both sides are concentrating on where they hope it will do most good. Lucy Ward reports". The Guardian. p. 4. 
5. ^ "Councils of war: the 12 key town halls they're fighting for". Evening Standard. 1998-05-06. p. 19. 
6. ^ "Local Elections results". The Times. 1998-05-09. p. 46. 

Preceded by Croydon Council election, 1994

Croydon local elections

Succeeded by Croydon Council election, 2002