Map of the results of the 1994 Wigan council election.
Elections to the Wigan council were held on Thursday, 5 May 1994, with one third of the seats up for election. Prior to the election, Labour had defended their seats in two by-elections for Abram and Hindley. The election suffered from a mixture of a poor contesting rate and low voter turnout. The number of candidates contesting was just 50, the lowest since 1975, with four wards going unopposed, and Lib Dems back to fighting a half of the seats, and the Conservatives less than two-thirds. The only other opposition standing were three Independent Labour candidates, one of which was the previous - but since deselected - Labour incumbent for the seat being fought in Worsley Mesnes. Voter turnout rose from the previous election's nadir, but at 30.4%, still well below average.
Labour achieved their highest vote share to date, with an overwhelming 70.3% of votes cast. Conversely the Conservatives obtained both their lowest vote share, and lowest vote figure, on record. The Lib Dems, whilst suffering a drop to 16% - a figure below average for results in recent years - witnessed nothing as dramatic. Party seat totals remained unchanged, with Labour and the Lib Dems gaining a seat from each other. The Lib Dem narrowly gained (by just four votes) their third in Beech Hill, turning a ward entirely represented by Labour from the early to mid eighties, into solely Lib Dem for the first time. Labour elsewhere regained a seat in Hope Carr, returning that to entirely Labour.[1]
Election result
Wigan Local Election Result 1994
Party
Seats
Gains
Losses
Net gain/loss
Seats %
Votes %
Votes
+/−
Labour
23
1
1
0
95.8
70.3
41,704
+14.6%
Liberal Democrats
1
1
1
0
4.2
16.0
9,520
-4.1%
Conservative
0
0
0
0
0.0
11.3
6,729
-10.2%
Independent Labour
0
0
0
0
0.0
2.3
1,343
+1.4%
This result had the following consequences for the total number of seats on the Council after the elections:
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy"Wigan Council results from 1973 to 2008" (PDF). wigan.gov.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 November 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2012.