Politics of Loughton

Loughton in Essex, England, was an urban district from 1900-1933, when it became part of Chigwell Urban District until 1974, when Epping Forest District Council Epping Forest (district) was created. Loughton Town Council was established in 1996. The Town Council consists of 22 Councillors representing seven wards, elected for a four-year term. The council adopted the designation Town Council just after its re-creation as a parish in 1996, and changed the title of its chairman to Town Mayor in 2004.

Loughton is politically diverse and somewhat heterodox. The Urban District Council was not elected under party affiliations, but was largely shared by those of Conservative and Liberal backgrounds; conservatives generally after 1933. In 1981, the Loughton Residents' Association (LRA, and originally the Central Loughton Residents' Association) was formed to protest against what was said to be a planning decision in the town centre taken improperly behind closed doors. During the 1980s, the LRA ousted the previous conservative-held seats in Loughton with the exception of the eastern part of the town. Since 2000 the Town Council has largely been dominated by independent Loughton Residents Association Councillors. In the period between 1950 and 2004, the Labour Party predominated in the east of the town, but lost all their District seats there to the BNP in 2004-06. This part of Loughton became for a few years one of the strongholds of the BNP nationally.

At district council level, Loughton has been represented since re-warding in 2002 by two Councillors from each of the 7 wards, one elected in every even year for a four-year term. After the 2008 elections, six of these were from the Loughton Residents Association, four British National Party, three Conservative and one Independent. However, at the 2010 elections, LRA made substantial gains, deposing a Conservative party cabinet member in one ward, one further Conservative, and three candidates from the British National Party, reducing that organisation to a lone member. This achievement was all the more notable in that it was held on the same day as a General Election which gave rise to huge Conservative gains nationally, and the defection in April of an LRA Councillor to the Conservatives. In the 2012 election, when seven district seats were contested, a further two seats were won by the LRA, one gained from the Conservatives and one from the BNP, whose incumbent candidate polled only 94 votes. The composition of district members from Loughton was thus LRA 12, Conservative 1, and independent 1, and the BNP lost all representation in the town. In the 2014 election, all six LRA seats were retained, with proportion of the vote ranging from 41% to 70%, and the independent retained his with over 80%. The LRA gained the last conservative held seat after the longstanding incumbent stood down in the 2016 election.

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