THE CONSERVATIVES have lost control of the city council after a number of defeats in yesterday’s local elections.

The party, which gained control of Worcester City Council just last May lost three seats meaning the authority has now moved back to no overall control.

Council leader and Tory boss Marc Bayliss threw in the towel before a result was officially announced blaming the ongoing Partygate scandal for the party’s poor performance in Worcester.

READ MORE: Worcester council leader Marc Bayliss walks out of election count before results are announced

Two big gains for the Green Party in Battenhall and St Peter’s and a Labour gain in the Nunnery ward means the city council now has 15 Conservative, 12 Labour, six Green and two Lib Dem councillors.

Made with Flourish

Tom Piotrowski was elected in Battenhall for the Greens almost a thousand votes in front of the Conservatives and fellow Green Steve Cockeram won in the previously Tory stronghold St Peter’s.

Labour regained control of the Nunnery ward, after losing one of three seats to Tory Jim Carver last year, with Pat Agar re-elected and new candidate Basharat Ali picking up the second highest number of votes.

Two seats were up for grabs in the Nunnery ward following the sudden resignation of Jim Carver before the election.

Elsewhere in the city, Mel Allcott was emphatically re-elected for the Lib Dems in Claines with 1,933 votes – almost 1,400 ahead of her nearest rival.

Shafaz Ditta was narrowly elected in Bedwardine, one of a handful of seats the Tories managed to hold, finishing with 841 votes – just 23 ahead of Labour’s Sue Smith.

Andy Roberts was also re-elected in the Warndon Parish South ward and Tory colleague Stephen Hodgson, who is coming towards the end of his mayoral year, was re-elected in the neighbouring Warndon Parish North ward and Mohammed Altaf was re-elected in the Gorse Hill ward.

Labour held onto the Warndon ward with Jill Desayrah victorious ahead of Chris Rimell for the Conservatives and Jabba Riaz was re-elected in the Cathedral ward.

The party also held onto the Rainbow Hill ward with Zoe Cookson finishing on 535 votes – 235 ahead of the Conservatives – and Matt Lamb was also re-elected in St John’s.