The 2006 Carlisle City Council election took place on 4 May 2006 to elect members of Carlisle District Council in Cumbria, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.^[1]

After the election, the composition of the council was:

• Labour 24
• Conservative 19
• Liberal Democrats 8
• Independent 1^[2]

Before the election the Conservatives ran the council with 20 seats and the backing of the 7 Liberal Democrats.^[3] Labour was in opposition despite being the largest group on the council with 24 seats^[4] and needed 3 gains to take control.^[3]

19 of the 52 seats on the council were being elected,^[4] with extra seats contested in Stanwix Rural and Upperby wards after the sitting councillors, Conservative Edward Firth and Labour's Caroline Watson, stood down.^[5] Labour were defending 9 seats, compared to 8 for the Conservatives and 2 Liberal Democrats.^[3] Candidates at the election included 11 independents standing to protest against the demolition of the Warwick Road cinema and the first candidate from the English Democrats Party in Belah ward.^[5]

Before the election top Labour targets were reported as being Morton and Castle from the Liberal Democrats and Belah from the Conservatives.^[3] The Conservatives were targeting Yewdale from Labour, while the Liberal Democrats aimed to take Dalston from the Conservatives.^[3]

Labour remained the largest party on the council with 24 councillors after only one seat changed hands.^[6][7] The Liberal Democrats gained Dalston from the Conservatives,^[6] to go up to 8 seats, while the Conservatives dropped to 19 and there remained 1 independent.^[7] Overall turnout at the election was 34.6%, down from 42.6% at the 2004 election.^[8]

Following the election Michael Boaden became the new leader of the Labour group, after challenging the previous leader Heather Bradley.^[9] However Conservative Mike Mitchelson remained as council leader after being re-elected by 26 votes to 25 at the annual council meeting on 22 May.^[10] This came after the Liberal Democrats backed the Conservatives and Liberal Democrat Peter Farmer was elected mayor by the same margin.^[10]