THE CONSERVATIVES remain in control of the Wokingham Borough Council after securing 31 seats, while the Liberal Democrats made huge gains.

The Wokingham Borough council local election results were announced today, Friday, May 3 with the conservatives gaining 10 seats, while the Liberal Democrats took 8 and Labour 4.

Click here for the full list of results 

Despite the Conservatives retaining majority they lost several key seats to the Liberal Democrats including, Philip Mirfin the executive member for regeneration and the leader of the party Julian McGhee-Sumner.

The Wokingham Borough Mayor Councillor John Kaiser managed to hold his seat.

He said: “I would like to thank the people of Barkham for the faith they have shown in me.”

The Borough Mayor was disappointed for the rest of his candidates.

He added: “It is a disappointing night as some of my colleagues  haven’t done as well as we expected but of course we have Brexit going on and all the other issues and I believe this has a big impact on what we do.”

The Liberal Democrat party had a successful night and managed to double their seats, which they are delighted with.

Relive election night as it happened by catching up with our live blog here

Councillor Clive Jones, Liberal Democrats deputy leader, said: “I am absolutley ecstatic, we have been working on this for a few years and we are just so pleased to have doubled the Liberal Democrats.

“To knock out a Conservative leader and quite a few executive members is great.”

Meanwhile Labour were able to gain 4 seats, they seemed hopeful before the count started.

Andy Croy, Labour leader, said: “Tonight I’m feeling tired but excited, my candidates have been working really hard in the last few months and we are hopeful we will see some good results tonight.

“I’ve got a little smile on my face, which might just be a clue that there will be some good things happening tonight.”

The turnout on the night was lower than past years with 39.2 per cent confirmed, which was noticed by all parties.

Councillor Croy added: “In terms of the turnout from what people are saying my feeling is that the turnout is down.”

The Liberal Democrats ended the night with huge cheers.

Read the full list of results here.