‘Disappointing’ Tories blame national issues as they lose council control
THE Conservatives have lost their overall majority on South Gloucestershire Council as opposition parties made big gains at their expense at the local elections.
Tories have been the ruling group for eight years but suffered several major losses to place the authority into No Overall Control. They ended up with 23 councillors – down by 10 from the last elections in 2019 – with 36 per cent of the vote, two points above the Lib Dems who won 20 seats, an increase of three, from a 34 per cent vote share, while Labour went up from 11 to 17 members and received 24 per cent of the vote, with one independent.
All three groups fell well short of the required 31 seats for an overall majority, and a coalition between Labour and the Lib Dems now seems the likeliest outcome, although no official agreement has yet been made and talks are now expected.
The biggest shock on a night of surprises and change was the Conservatives losing cabinet member Steve Reade.
He fell just 13 votes short of fellow cabinet member Cllr Ben Stokes, elected in second place in Boyd Valley behind Lib Dem Marilyn Palmer who overturned
the party’s 18 per cent deficit from four years ago.
With Labour enjoying a healthy lead in opinion polls, national trends were reflected in many of the 28 wards’ results with massive swings in their favour.
The party gained seats from the Tories in Bradley Stoke South, Charlton & Cribbs, Emersons Green, Filton, Hanham and Stoke Gifford.
As well as Boyd Valley, the Lib Dems ousted Conservatives in Frenchay & Downend, Severn Vale and Pilning & Severn Beach where they had finished fifth and last in 2019. The Tories, by contrast, managed to gain just one seat held by another party, taking one of the two available in Chipping Sodbury & Cotswold Edge
from the Lib Dems. Independent candidate Isobel Walker took Patchway Coniston from Labour.
The turnout was 34 per cent – up by two per cent from the last local elections.
Speaking to the Post as the result became apparent in the early hours of Friday at the election count at Thornbury leisure centre, Toby Savage said: “It’s clearly a disappointing evening for the Conservatives in South Gloucestershire and it’s clearly the case that national issues are impacting on these local polls.
“I feel desperately sad for colleagues who have lost seats because of those national factors. I thank them for the work they’ve done over many years to serve their communities.”