Elections to Cheshire East Council took place on Thursday 2 May 2019 in all 52 wards, with each ward returning between one and three councillors to the council. The Conservative Party lost overall control of the council, losing 17 seats; the Labour Party gained 9 seats, independents gained 6 and the Liberal Democrats gained 2.
The elections were held against a background of a number of controversies, with the council facing eight criminal investigations. Multiple Conservative Cabinet members lost their seats, with Ainsley Arnold (Planning) losing out to Independents in Macclesfield Tytherington and Paul Bates (Finance) falling to fifth place in Congleton East, whilst then-Leader of the Council Rachel Bailey came within 78 votes of losing her seat to the Liberal Democrats. The biggest shocks came in Broken Cross and Upton, with Labour's Rob Vernon and James Barber becoming the first ever Labour councillors for the area and unseating the Mayor-elect, Liz Durham, and Sandbach Ettiley Heath and Wheelock, where Laura Crane achieved a huge swing to win the seat for Labour against Conservative councillor Gail Wait.
No party or group held a majority of the council seats, and so, after a few weeks of negotiation, Labour and the Independents agreed to form a joint-Cabinet that would run the council for the following year. The focus was on changing the system of governance to abolish the Cabinet and replace it with the old committee system.
Summary Election result
Results by ward Alderley Edge
Alsager
Audlem
Bollington
Brereton Rural
Broken Cross and Upton
Bunbury
Chelford
Congleton East
Congleton West
Crewe Central
Crewe East
Crewe North
Crewe South
Crewe St. Barnabas
Crewe West
Dane Valley
Disley
Gawsworth
Handforth
Haslington
High Legh
Knutsford
Leighton
Macclesfield Central
Macclesfield East
Macclesfield Hurdsfield
Macclesfield South
Macclesfield Tytherington
Macclesfield West and Ivy
Middlewich
Mobberley This ward's single seat was uncontested.
Nantwich North and West
Nantwich South and Stapeley
Odd Rode
Poynton East and Pott Shrigley
Poynton West and Adlington
Prestbury
Sandbach Elworth
Sandbach Ettiley Heath and Wheelock
Sandbach Heath and East
Sandbach Town
Shavington
Sutton
Willaston and Rope
Wilmslow Dean Row
Wilmslow East
Wilmslow Lacey Green
Wilmslow West and Chorley
Wistaston
Wrenbury
Wybunbury
Changes 2019–2023
Nicky Wylie, elected as a Conservative councillor for Poynton East and Pott Shrigley, left the Conservative group in January 2022 over the "Partygate" scandal, and sat as a non-grouped independent for the remainder of the term. Andrew Gregory, elected as a Conservative councillor for Sutton, resigned from the Conservative group in June 2022 and joined the Cheshire East Independent Group. Marc Asquith, Conservative councillor for Chelford, was suspended by his party pending an investigation in June 2021 after saying he would attend a full council meeting despite believing he had tested positive for COVID-19; it later emerged he had misread a negative test, and he remained a Conservative councillor for the rest of the term.
By-elections
Crewe West
The Crewe West by-election was triggered by the death of Labour councillor Brian Roberts in February 2020; the by-election was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wilmslow Dean Row
The Wilmslow Dean Row by-election was triggered by the resignation of Residents of Wilmslow councillor Toni Fox, who was relocating with her family to Shropshire.
Notes Italics denote a sitting councillor for the same ward. 1. Elected as a Conservative councillor for the same ward in 2015.
References