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.
