The 2010 Exeter City Council election took place on 9 September 2010 to elect members of Exeter City Council in England. One third of seats were up for election.^[4] The elections took place later in the year than other local elections. Exeter had previously been granted permission to become a unitary authority, with local elections postponed until 2011.^[5] When the Coalition Government won the general election earlier that year, Exeter's permission to form a unitary authority was overturned. Because of this, the High Court ruled that those councillors who had stayed on beyond their four-year term were no longer constitutionally elected, and would need to seek re-election. This resulted in there being an election in every ward in September to renew the mandate for the wards.^[6]

Quick Facts 14 of the 40 seats to Exeter City Council 21 seats needed for a majority, Turnout ...

2010 Exeter City Council election ^{[1] [2] [3]}

← 2008 9 September 2010 2011 →
14 of the 40 seats to Exeter City Council 21 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	28.44 %
First party Second party   Party Labour Conservative Last election 11 12 Seats before 13 12 Seats won 7 4 Seats after 15 11 Seat change 2 1 Popular vote 7,619 7,060 Percentage 35.3% 32.7%   Third party Fourth party   Party Liberal Democrats Liberal Last election 13 4 Seats before 11 4 Seats won 3 0 Seats after 9 3 Seat change 1 Popular vote 4,333 348 Percentage 20.1% 1.6%
Map showing the results of the 2010 Exeter City Council elections by ward. Red shows Labour seats, blue shows the Conservatives and yellow shows the Liberal Democrats. Wards in white had no election.
Council control before election No overall control Council control after election No overall control

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However, no election was needed in Pennsylvania ward, as a by-election had been held on 6 May, the day on which the local elections would ordinarily have taken place, to fill a vacancy for the seat that would have been due for re-election in 2010 in any case. Therefore, the winner of the May by-election was deemed to be elected to represent the ward for a full four-year term.^[1] The result of the May by-election is included in the results given.

The previous election in 2008 had left the council under no overall control with the Liberal Democrats as the largest party on 13 seats, followed by the Conservatives on 12, Labour on 11 and the Liberal Party on four. However, the week before the election, two Liberal Democrat councillors defected to Labour in protest against the party's coalition with the Conservatives.^[7] This meant that Labour were the largest party going into the election, on 13 seats to the Conservatives' 12 and the Liberal Democrats' 11.