BROMSGROVE District Council remains under the control of the Conservative Party after the Tories maintained their majority at Thursday’s local elections.

Having possessed 17 of the 31 seats before the election, the Tories retained that exact same number as despite losing four councillors, they picked up a quartet of seats elsewhere.

The Conservatives lost Alvechurch South to Louise English – who becomes the fifth and newest independent Bromsgrove councillor – and the Tories also lost three seats to the Liberal Democrats.

Other than the Tories, the Lib Dems were the big winners on election night, going into last week with no representation on the council but leaving with those three seats.

Rob Hunter (Norton), Janet King (Lickey Hills) and Siobhan Hughes (Bromsgrove Central) are the new Liberal Democrat councillors.

The losers from Friday’s count were Labour and Wythall Residents’ Association, who both lost two seats apiece, all to the Conservatives.

Tory candidate Adam Kent beat the WRA’s Keith Yates to the Hollywood ward seat, while Sarah Hession won Wythall East by beating Wythall’s Helen Cleaver.

The two seats gained by the Tories from Labour were Maria Middleton winning Sanders Park and Adrian Kriss taking Rubery South.

The closest battle came in Aston Fields where Conservative councillor Phil Thomas retained his seat by a single vote, pipping Labour’s Rory Shannon 419 votes to 418.

Overall, the Conservatives have 17 councillors, Labour five, with five independents, plus three Liberal Democrats and one councillor from the Wythall Residents’ Association.