Castle (Colchester electoral ward)

Castle is an electoral ward in Colchester and is within the Colchester Borough Council boundary, to which it elects 3 councillors.

Castle
Electoral ward for Colchester Borough Council
Castle ward (in red) displayed within Colchester Borough
Ward Information
Created	Unknown
Councillors	3
Electorate	7,615 (2015)
Created from	Unknown St. Marys (2002)
Overlaps
Parliament constituency	Colchester (Unknown-1983; 1997-present) Colchester North (1983-1997)
County division	Abbey

The ward covers central Colchester, England including the Town Centre, the historic Dutch Quarter neighbourhood and Colchester Castle, which lends its namesake to the ward.

History

Castle ward has existed since at least 1976 and is still in use today. The boundaries of the ward have seldom changed, with the exception of the amalgamation of the St. Marys neighbourhood (from St. Marys ward) into the west of Castle following boundary changes from the 2002 election.

The ward was originally held by the Labour Party and then changed hands between the Conservatives, Labour and the SDP-Liberal Alliance (later Liberal Democrats) until the 1990 election, when the Liberal Democrats solidly held the ward for the next 25 years. Recently, it has become a marginal ward, last won by the Green Party at the 2019 election.

Castle has the highest vote share for the Green Party in a Colchester ward.

Ward Councillors

Current

Name	Party		Years in Office
Richard Kirkby-Taylor		Green	2022–present
Steph Nissen		Labour	2021–present
Mark Goacher		Green	2019–present

Former

Name	Party		Years in Office
Ken Cooke		Labour	1978–1992; 1995-1999
D. Dunn		Labour	1979-1983
D. Goodchild		Labour	1980-1984
E. Humphrey		Conservative	1983-1987
R. Cole		Conservative	1984-1988
as above		Liberal Democrats	1988-1990
Chris Hall		Liberal Democrats	1987-2010
J. Carter		Liberal Democrats	1990-1995
Henry Spyvee		Liberal Democrats	1990-2012
Ken Jones		Liberal Democrats	1999-2007
Bill Frame		Liberal Democrats	2010-2016
Jo Hayes		Liberal Democrats	2012-2016
Simon Crow		Conservative	2018-2022

Elections

Main article: Colchester Borough Council elections

Election Results

Election	Political result		Candidate		Party	Votes	%	±%
2015 election Electorate: 7,615 Turnout: 4,642 (61.0%) +23.0		Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats Majority: 496 (10.6%) N/A Swing: 6.2% from Lib Dem to Con		Darius Laws	Conservative	1,667	35.9	+11.8
				Owen Howell	Liberal Democrats	1,172	25.2	-0.5
				Andrew Canessa	Green	982	21.2	+4.0
				Andrew Murphy	Labour	821	17.7	-0.1
2014 election Turnout: 2,683 (38.0%) +8.0		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 46 (1.7%) -20.2 Swing: 10.4% from Lib Dem to Con		Bill Frame	Liberal Democrats	693	25.8	-14.6
				Darius Laws	Conservative	647	24.1	+6.2
				Ben Howard	Labour	478	17.8	+4.4
				Peter Lynn	Green	462	17.2	-1.4
				Ron Levy	UKIP	403	15.0	+5.3
2012 election Turnout: 2,129 (30.0%) -9.5		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 466 (21.9%) +7.6 Swing: 4.2% from Green to Lib Dem		Jo Hayes	Liberal Democrats	861	40.4	+0.3
				Peter Lynn	Green	395	18.6	-7.1
				Mohammed Rashid	Conservative	382	17.9	-3.1
				Robert Fisher	Labour	285	13.4	+0.2
				Ron Levy	UKIP	206	9.7	N/A
2011 election Turnout: 2,779 (39.5%) -19.6		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 398 (14.3%) -1.3 Swing: 3.0% from Lib Dem to Green		Nick Barlow	Liberal Democrats	1,113	40.1	-1.7
				Peter Lynn	Green	715	25.7	+4.2
				Bruce Halling	Conservative	583	21.0	-5.2
				Luke Dopson	Labour	368	13.2	+2.6
2010 election Turnout: 4,248 (59.1%) +21.0		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 662 (15.6%) +2.1 Swing: 6.0% from Lib Dem to Con		Bill Frame	Liberal Democrats	1,774	41.8	-3.4
				Lucy Cramer	Conservative	1,112	26.2	+8.6
				Peter Lynn	Green	913	21.5	-10.2
				Adam Fox	Labour	449	10.6	+5.1
2008 election Turnout: 2,460 (38.1%) +0.7		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 332 (13.5%) +4.8 Swing: 2.2% from Green to Lib Dem		William Spyvee	Liberal Democrats	1,111	45.2	+4.2
				Peter Lynn	Green	779	31.7	-0.6
				Darius Laws	Conservative	434	17.6	-2.9
				John Cooke	Labour	136	5.5	-0.7
2007 election Turnout: 2,291 (37.4%) +1.4		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 200 (8.7%) -17.3 Swing: 8.7% from Lib Dem to Green		Nick Barlow	Liberal Democrats	940	41.0	-7.7
				Peter Lynn	Green	740	32.3	+9.7
				Glenn Granger	Conservative	469	20.5	+2.4
				Michael Powell	Labour	142	6.2	-1.9
2006 election Turnout: 2,306 (36.0%) +0.6		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 600 (26.0%) -4.2 Swing: 15.9% from Lib Dem to Green		Chris Hall	Liberal Democrats	1,122	48.7	-9.2
				Peter Lynn	Green	522	22.6	N/A
				Benjamin Twitchen	Conservative	418	18.1	-9.6
				Mark Warner	Labour	187	8.1	-6.4
				Stephen Miller	Independent	57	2.5	N/A
2004 election Turnout: 2,047 (35.4%) +6.8		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 619 (30.2%) +0.1 Swing: 0.1% from Con to Lib Dem		William Spyvee	Liberal Democrats	1,185	57.9	+3.5
				Pauline Lucas	Conservative	566	27.7	+3.4
				Malcolm Cannon	Labour	296	14.5	+1.8
2003 election Turnout: 1,660 (28.6%) -3.4		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 499 (30.1%) Swing: 1.3% from Lib Dem to Con		Kenneth Jones	Liberal Democrats	903	54.4	-2.0
				Pauline Lucas	Conservative	404	24.3	+4.8
				Malcolm Cannon	Labour	210	12.7	-1.4
				Walter Schwarz	Green	132	8.0	-2.0
2000 election Turnout: 31.0% (-1.0)		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 263 (14.3%) -4.4 Swing: 3.8% from Lab to Lib Dem		William Spyvee	Liberal Democrats	788	42.9	-1.4
				N. Stock	Conservative	525	28.6	+8.6
				Kim Naish	Labour	486	26.4	-10.8
				L. Basker	Natural Law	39	2.1	N/A
1999 election Turnout: 32.2%		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 8.9% Swing: 3.5% from Lib Dem to Lab		Kenneth Jones	Liberal Democrats	834	44.3
				J. Thomas	Labour	666	35.4
				M. Coyne	Conservative	384	20.4
1998 election Turnout: 34.0%		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 15.8% Swing: 4.6% from Lab to Lib Dem		Chris Hall	Liberal Democrats	907	44.5
				Chris Pearson	Labour	585	28.7
				N. Stock	Conservative	514	25.2
				L. Basker	Natural Law	32	1.6
1996 election		Liberal Democrats hold Majority: 7.7% Swing: 4.2% from Lab to Lib Dem		William Spyvee	Liberal Democrats	unopposed

Polling districts

Electorate in brackets (as of 2015):

• AF: Castle (1,500)
• AE: Jumbo (1,201)
• AG: Riverside (2,247)
• AH: Cowdray Avenue (2,488)