All photos courtesy of Simon Pizzey.

The Green Party made the most significant gains at the Stroud District Council (SDC) elections, but no party won enough seats to take overall control. 

SDC has been led by a cooperative alliance of the Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat parties for the last five years, and a similar deal will likely be struck in the coming days. 

While the Conservatives won 20 seats, and will still be the biggest group on the council, they fell six short of the number needed for a majority.

They made gains against Labour in some areas, including in Stonehouse where Nick Housden was elected - as he also was in the Gloucestershire County Council election.

But the party also lost all three of their seats in Chalford - two to the Greens and one to Labour.

Labour avoided the major losses seen in other parts of the country to win 15 seats. But former Stroud MP David Drew failed to follow up his success in the county council election as Conservative Haydn Sutton was instead re-elected in the Stroud Farmhill and Paganhill ward.

The Greens gained four seats, taking their total to 13, while the Lib Dems gained one seat to take their total to three. 

Curiously, no party has technically lost any seats. With the five gains made against three independent councillors and one Conservative (No Group). There was also one vacant seat previously held by the Conservatives.

But Labour actually won three less seats than in 2016, having had three councillors leave the party since they were elected. 

While more than a quarter of seats changed hands, the makeup of the council has changed very little. 

Council leader Doina Cornell was re-elected in Dursley.  

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"It's been a very interesting day for Labour," she said. 

"We have gained and lost. I think we have done pretty well.

"Now the election is finished it is our job to represent everyone whether they voted for us or not. That will be our priority now.

Cllr Cornell said negotiations would take place in the coming days and that the election results had been good for all three parties that made up the previous alliance. 

The Green Party's Catherine Braun was re-elected in Wotton-under-Edge. 

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Speaking halfway through the results she said: "We are really pleased. We have managed to retain all our seats so far and to gain new seats.

"We want to have a really strong Green group and we have got loads we want to achieve including delivering on our carbon neutral plan to deal with the climate and nature emergency."

Leader of the Liberal Democrat group Ken Tucker was also re-elected in Wotton, along with fellow Lib Dem George James. 

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He said: "‘May 6 was a great day for local Lib Dems. We re-took the District Council Kingswood Ward from the Tories, with a huge 81 per cent majority, which reflects the hard work put in by Rich Wilsher in the Ward.

"Linda Cohen retained the Wotton Division County Council seat, previously held for 40 years by Cllr John Cordwell.

"Cllr George James and I retained their seats in the District Council Wotton Ward, which includes North Nibley and Stinchcombe, again with good majorities over the Tories.

"We would like to thank all our supporters in helping us to achieve these successes."

Leader of the Conservative group Stephen Davies said he found it 'incredibly humbling' to be re-elected in the Severn ward. 

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He said he found elections 'divisive' and was looking forward to getting back to working collaboratively in opposition.