Local election results in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Milton Keynes
Hundreds of local councillors in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Milton Keynes and surrounding areas were up for election on Thursday.
The Conservatives lost control of a flagship council in East Hertfordshire where just eight years ago they held every seat. The Greens surged ahead there with more than a dozen gains
The Conservative also lost their overall majority in Central Bedfordshire, where they previous had a majority of 20, in Welwyn Hatfield, in South Kesteven and in Harborough
The Liberal Democrats snatched control from the Conservatives in Dacorum
The Tories had some crumbs of comfort with gains in Peterborough, where they retain minority control and in Harlow
Also Bedford has a new Conservative elected mayor as Tom Wootton ousted the incumbent Liberal Democrat Dave Hodgson by 175 votes
Although local elections are held every year in the Anglia region, this year is the largest number of the four-year election cycle. It is the biggest test of political opinion ahead of a General Election expected some time next year.
In some places one third of the seats on the councils were contested and in others it was the entire council facing election.
The latest election results will be updated in this article as they come in during Friday
BEDFORDSHIRE
There are three unitary councils in Bedfordshire which run all the local council services from education to social services, highways and planning to recycling and rubbish collections.
They are Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton.
BEDFORD RESULT
Bedford Borough Council remains hung but has a new Conservative elected mayor. Tom Wootton beat Liberal Democrat Dave Hodgson by 175 votes after a marathon re-count process.
Bedford has the only directly-elected local authority mayor in the ITV Anglia and Dave Hodgson had been in post since 2009. Until now mayors have been elected by the proportional alternative vote method but that was changed this time to the traditional first-past-the-post method used in most other council seats and parliamentary elections.
Despite having a Liberal Democrat mayor for 14 years, Bedford Borough has been a hung council since 1986 when the Conservatives lost their overall majority. After the 2023 election bedford is still a hung council with Labour and the Conservative having 14 seats each.
Only five Labour MPs were elected in the Anglia region at the 2019 General Election; one is the MP for Bedford although the constituency covers a much smaller area than the borough.
There have been boundary changes in the Bedford council area and the new council has six additional councillors, making a total of 46.
CENTRAL BEDFORDSHIRE RESULT
A 20-seat Conservative majority was demolished in the May 2023 election and the council is now hung for the first time. The Tories lost 19 seats while Independent candidates gained 11, and Liberal Democrats gained seven.
Independents now make up the largest grouping and parties will have to work together to complete council business.
Central Bedfordshire has been Conservative-controlled since the creation of unitary council in 2009. It was formed by the merger of Mid Bedfordshire and South Bedfordshire councils.
There have been boundary changes in the Central Bedfordshire council area and the new council has four additional councillors, making a total of 63.
LUTON RESULT
Labour will go into their sixteenth year in power on Luton Council after increasing their majority in the May 2023 election. The party now has an overall majority of 12 after making two gains. The Conservatives also gained an extra seat.
Labour lost control of Luton Council in 2003 after 12 years in power but won it back in 2007 and have had an overall majority ever since. The Conservatives had an overall majority in Luton between 1976 and 1991.
Only five Labour MPs were elected in the Anglia region at the 2019 General Election; two of them represent Luton.
Labour are currently defending an overall majority of eight seats.
There have been boundary changes in the Luton council area but the new council has the same number of councillors as before - 48.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE
Four of the six district and unitary councils in Cambridgeshire held elections in May. There were no widespread elections in Huntingdonshire and South Cambridgeshire, which held their elections last year.
CAMBRIDGE RESULT
Labour have had a controlling majority on Cambridge City Council since 2014 but the Liberal Democrats and Greens have dented that slightly each taking a seat from them in 2023. The Greens also gained two seats here in 2021 and a further seat in 2022.
The Labour majority is now reduced to 12.
Sixteen of the 42 seats on the council were up for election in May.
EAST CAMBRIDGESHIRE RESULT
Despite a strong challenge from the Liberal Democrats, the Conservative retained overall control of East Cambs with the narrowest majority of just two seats.
Until 1999 East Cambridgeshire had always been an Independent-run council but then the Liberal Democrats were in power for four years. The Conservatives took control for the first time in 2007.
All 28 seats on the council were up for election.
FENLAND RESULT
Fenland Council in north-east Cambridgeshire has been run by the Conservatives since 1999 and boundary changes in 2023 have created four more council seats.
The Tories have maintained a very healthy majority of 27 seats over the other parties.
Labour briefly had an overall majority in 1995 to 1997.
There were boundary changes in the Fenland council area and the new council now has four additional councillors, making a total of 43.
PETERBOROUGH RESULT
The Conservatives run a minority administration on Peterborough City Council and needed a further three net gains to win an overall majority. The Tories didn't quite managed that but they bucked the national trend and made two gains
There was a Labour MP in Peterborough until the 2019 election but Labour has not been in power on the city council, which covers a wider area, since 1997. Peterborough is the kind of constituency which Labour needs to win at the General Election to hav a chance of becoming the government.
Peterborough is a unitary authority meaning a single council runs all the local services rather than two councils.
21 of the 60 seats on the council were up for election.
HERTFORDSHIRE
Local elections were held in Hertfordshire for the councils in Dacorum, East Hertfordshire, North Hertfordshire, St Albans, Stevenage and Welwyn Hatfield.
DACORUM RESULT
Dacorum in west Hertfordshire has been a Conservative council for most of the time since its creation in 1973 although Labour held power from 1973-76 and 1995-99.
Now the Liberal Democrats have snatched control for the first time by making nine gains while the Conservatives fell back by 13.
The Lib Dems now have a majority of five.
All 51 seats on the council were up for election.
EAST HERTFORDSHIRE RESULT
A dramatic surge by the Greens saw the Conservative lose a flagship council where they have held a controlling majority for most of the past five decades. The Green Party made 17 gains, particularly in the Hertford area, and become the largest group on the hung council.
The Conservatives lost 23 council seats.
East Hertfordshire had only ever been a Conservative-controlled council although the party had no overall majority between 1995 and 1999 and for a short period in the 1970s.
The Tories went into the election with a seemingly secure majority of 30. At the 2015 local elections, all 50 councillors in East Hertfordshire were Conservative.
There were boundary changes in East Hertfordshire but the council remains with 50 councillors.
NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE RESULT
The Conservatives lost their overall majority on the council in 2019 after two decades in power and the council remains hung after the 2023 election.
The hung council is now a joint administration with Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Labour have replaced the Tories as the largest council grouping.
Sixteen of the 49 seats on the council were up for election in May.
ST ALBANS RESULT
The Liberal Democrats still have a massive majority of 41 in St Albans despite losing a seat to the Greens.
The Liberal Democrats secured a slender overall majority on the district and city council in 2021 after victory in the parliamentary seat in 2019 but consolidated that victory in 2022. The Tories ran the council from 2015 until 2019.
Eighteen of the 56 seats on the council were up for election in May
STEVENAGE RESULT
Stevenage is the only council in the Anglia region that has always had a Labour majority since local government re-organisation in 1974.
The party came close to losing it in 2021 as they shed seven of their council seats, mostly to the Conservatives.
Labour retained an overall majority of nine seats in the 2023 election.
Thirteen of the 39 seats on the council were up for election in May
WELWYN HATFIELD RESULT
Welwyn Hatfield is back as a hung council after the Conservatives lost four seat, two each to Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
The Conservative had won back controlling power in Welwyn in the 2021 local elections with the net gain of five seats after losing their overall majority two years previously.
Sixteen of the 48 seats on the council were up for election in May
MILTON KEYNES RESULT
Labour and the Liberal Democrats run a joint administration in Milton Keynes on a council that has been hung since 2006 meaning no one party has had enough council seats to out-vote all the other parties.
Before 2023, the Conservatives were the biggest party grouping but have now been overtaken by Labour who made five gains while the Conservatives lost six.
Milton Keynes is a unitary authority meaning a single council runs all the local services rather than two councils.
Twenty of the 57 seats on the council were up for election in May
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