Vote 2012: Conservatives lose control in Gloucester

The Conservative Party have lost overall control of Gloucester City Council, one year after winning their first majority for more than 20 years.

Ten seats were up for election and there was just one change, with Labour taking the Grange ward from the Tories.

That cut the number of Conservatives to 18 but they are still the biggest group and said they are likely to remain in charge of the council.

Labour now have nine seats and the Liberal Democrats have nine.

Council leader Paul James (Conservative) said: "It's disappointing in the sense that we lost the one ward to Labour which was my deputy leader Steve Morgan.

"On the whole we can be fairly satisfied that we managed to defend the four other seats that we held.

"Given that we fought the election against a difficult national backdrop I think we can be fairly happy with what we have achieved."

People Against Bureaucracy

Elsewhere in the county, there has been no change at Cheltenham Borough Council.

The Liberal Democrats' vote has held up there. They lost one ward but gained another to retain overall control of an authority they have now run for four years.

Half of the 40 seats in the borough were up for grabs. The makeup of the council now stands at 25 seats for the Liberal Democrats, 11 for the Conservatives and four for the People Against Bureaucracy group.

In Stroud, 18 out of 51 seats in the district were up for grabs.

The Conservatives lost three seats, Labour gained five seats, one Green Party seat was lost and one independent councillor was lost.

Counting began on Friday morning and the results ended with 22 for the Conservatives, 16 for Labour, six for the Liberal Democrats, five for the Green Party and two seats held by independents.

It means no single party has overall control.

There was a 32% turnout in Gloucester, 31% in Cheltenham and 37% in Stroud.

No elections were held in the Forest of Dean, Tewkesbury, or the Cotswolds.

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