THE CONSERVATIVES have increased their majority on Worcestershire County Council after a disastrous day for Labour which saw the party lose six seats including its leader.

It was a successful day for the Conservatives following Thursday’s election with the party snatching seats from Labour in Worcester, Redditch and Bromsgrove as well as claiming victory against a number of independent candidates on the 57-seat council.

The Conservatives increased their majority by five claiming 45 seats in total.

Labour dropped to three after losing six seats, the Lib Dems gained a seat overall winning four in total which now makes them the official opposition, the Greens gained a seat pushing them up to three seats and there were also two independent candidates elected.

James Stanley took Gorse Hill and Warndon for the Conservatives for the first time ever and another shock win for the Tories saw the Lib Dems’ Fran Oborski lose to Bill Hopkins by 78 votes in Kidderminster’s St Chad’s division.

Allah Ditta returned to County Hall after winning in Worcester’s Nunnery division defeating Labour’s Pat Agar.

It was a very bad day for the Labour Party in Worcestershire, particularly in Redditch, with current party leader Robin Lunn dumped from his Redditch North seat and former leader Peter McDonald also losing to the Tories in Bromsgrove’s Beacon division. Ceri Stalker was defeated in Gorse Hill and Warndon and Andrew Fry was also defeated in Arrow Valley West.

Labour lost both seats in Arrow Valley West meaning the party no longer has a Redditch representative on the county council.

In Worcester, Mel Allcott claimed a victory for the Lib Dems in Claines taking the seat away from the Conservatives, Andy Roberts was re-elected in Warndon Parish and Steve Mackay kept hold of St Peter’s for the Conservatives by just 32 votes. Richard Udall was re-elected again in St John’s and Labour’s Lynn Denham was elected in Rainbow Hill.

Matt Jenkins was re-elected again in St Stephen for the Green Party, county council leader Simon Geraghty was safely re-elected in the Riverside division for the Conservatives and Alan Amos was also re-elected again in Bedwardine.

It was a mixed start to the day for the Conservatives with the victory for Worcester City Council leader Marc Bayliss in Bowbrook one of the first to be announced but Tory cabinet member Lucy Hodgson was booted out of her Malvern Chase seat in an impressive win for Lib Dem Jack Satterthwaite.

Martin Allen took Croome for the Greens with a whopping 1,755 votes - 485 votes ahead of Conservative Paul Middlebrough who was standing for re-election. The win was even more impressive considering the Greens finished in last place in Croome in 2017 with just 146 votes.

Despite the early losses, the Conservatives soon began picking up seats taking Bromsgrove’s Alvechurch division and St Georges and St Oswalds in Kidderminster away from independent candidates.

Dan Boatright ensured Pershore remained with the Liberal Democrats taking over from long-standing councillor Liz Tucker in a comfortable win.

Upton Snodsbury remained with the Conservatives with Linda Robinson taking over from the outgoing Rob Adams and Hallow also stayed Tory with Scott Richardson-Brown claiming the victory.

Wychavon district councillor Emma Stokes won in Evesham South replacing Bob Banks and Tony Miller won in Ombersley, having switched divisions to free up his Bowbrook seat, taking over from former council chair Peter Tomlinson.