Worcester City Council is now back under no overall control - so what now?

The city’s Conservatives managed to secure a one-seat majority in the Guildhall in last May’s election but three losses on Thursday’s contest means the former ruling party is now down to 15 councillors and without an overall majority.

Two gains for the Greens means the party now has six councillors sitting on the city council and a win for Labour against the Conservatives means it is up one councillor to 12 with the Lib Dems remaining on two.

Despite the losses across the city on May 5, the Conservatives remain the largest party in the Guildhall, and due to a constitution change, would give them the right to appoint, or keep, the council’s leader and deputy leader.

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

However if the other opposition parties, all of which picked up wins on Thursday, were to band together it could make things interesting at the top of the city council.

Green leader Cllr Louis Stephen, who was celebrating impressive wins in Battenhall and St Peter’s, and Cllr Adrian Gregson, leader of the council’s Labour group who was also revelling in a victory against the Conservatives in the Nunnery ward, both appeared open to the idea of collaboration.

Cllr Stephen said the existing and new Green councillors would support “good ideas” from any party.

“We should work for the benefit of local residents,” he said. “We are not going to be overly party political. If it’s a good idea, from whichever party, then we will run with it. That is what the residents of St Peter’s and Battenhall will expect.”

CHEER: Worcester Green Party celebrate a successful night in Thursday's elections

Buoyed by those two victories in previous Tory strongholds, Cllr Stephen said there was still much to discuss about who took control of the council.

“It’s early days for us,” he added. “We need to think about how things will pan out over the weekend and obviously discuss it with the rest of the group leaders.”

READ MORE: Conservatives lose control of Worcester City Council

Cllr Gregson was equally open to joining forces saying: “What we have seen is that the opposition parties in general have been more successful.

“At the end of the day, the ruling group here has lost three seats. You can’t turn away from that.

“We have worked as no overall control for a few years. We’ll just see what happens over the next few days.

“Some of us have got used to working on a more cross-party basis and what we will aim to do throughout that is make sure that we get our Labour policies through and supported by the council.”