THE Conservatives have taken full control of South Gloucestershire Council following last week’s election.

The party gained seven extra seats this time around at the expense of five Liberal Democrat, one Labour and one Ukip councillors.

No party had overall control of the council prior to the election, however there are now 40 Conservative councillors to the Liberal Democrats’ 16 and Labour’s 14.

In the Gazette area, three positions on the council changed hands from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives.

They were:

  • Adrian Rush losing out to Conservative Rob Creer in one of the Chipping Sodbury ward councillor roles;
  • Howard Gawler (who did not stand) being replaced by Marian Lewis;
  • And Conservative David Chubb winning one of the two councillor positions in Thornbury North with Neil Halsall not standing.

Conservative council leader, Matthew Riddle, said that their success was based on a track record of hard working hard across South Gloucestershire.

“I’m very pleased with how things went,” he said. I’m pleased that all of our existing councillors were re-elected and that we kept seats where councillors had stood down.

"It shows that we have a track record of working hard, especially since 2007 when we became the biggest party in the authority.”

He added that having a majority would enable the party to push ahead with its plans to phase out green bins, protect the green belt, and introduce rollout broadband to more areas, as well as and reduce the number of councillors on the authority.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Ruth Davis said that the results would make things “potentially harder” for the party but they would “still be working for the best we can.”

The full results for the Gazette area were:

Almondsbury, – Keith Burchell (Conservative);

Boyd Valley, – Stephen Reade (Conservative) and Ben Stokes (Conservative); 

Charfield, – John O’Neill (Liberal Democrat);

Chipping Sodbury, – Linda Boon (Liberal Democrat) and Rob Creer (Conservative);

Cotswold Edge, – Sue Hope (Liberal Democrat);

Dodington, – Tony Davis (Liberal Democrat) and Gloria Stephen (Liberal Democrat);

Frampton Cotterell, – Dave Hockey (Liberal Democrat) and Pat Hockey (Liberal Democrat);

Ladden Brook, – Marian Lewis (Conservative);

Pilning and Severn Beach, – Robert Griffin (Conservative);

Severn,– Matthew Riddle (Conservative);

Thornbury North, – Clare Fardell (Liberal Democrat) and David Chubb (Conservative);

Thornbury South and Alveston, – Shirley Holloway (Liberal Democrat) and Maggie Tyrrell (Liberal Democrat);

Westerleigh, – Claire Young (Liberal Democrat);

Winterbourne, – Time Bowles (Conservative) and Martin Manning (Conservative);

Yate Central, – Ruth Davis (Liberal Democrat) and Sue Walker (Liberal Democrat);

Yate North, – Ian Blair (Liberal Democrat), Mike Drew (Liberal Democrat) and John Davis (Liberal Democrat).