LOCAL ELECTIONS 2019: Vale council election - at a glance

The Lib Dems now represent 31 of the council’s 38 seats – a total reverse of the way the council looked before Thursday’s election. 

See the full list of results below 

Before voters went to the polls, the Conservatives held 29 seats to the Liberal Democrats’ nine. 

Emily Smith, the Lib Dems’ group leader, first won her Botley and Sunningwell seat in 2015 when her party suffered massive losses. 

But as part of the huge change, she will now become the council’s next leader next week. 

She said: “We were quite confident that we could get close and get a majority if we worked it and we pulled together. 

"We had an amazing team of candidates. We’ve got lots of new people to politics, lots of local people who are keen to see a change in their communities. 

“They have worked so hard (to be elected).”

READ MORE: Sir Vince Cable joins Lib Dem campaign in Harwell and Blewbury

She added: “Obviously Brexit played a part. It was a hard election campaign in terms of the aggression from people.

“But once we started talking to them about the council …people could support us.” 

She said her aim is now to improve the council's finances in the medium term after worries were raised in budget documents earlier this year. 

Emily Smith

While she added the other 'big issue' facing the authority is ensuring infrastructure is provided with new houses. 

The Conservatives now represent just six seats on the authority. Some of the party’s most familiar figures lost their seats to Lib Dems.

Father and daughter Mike and Alice Badcock lost their seats in Abingdon Caldecott, despite visits from Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis and prime minister Theresa May to the town during the election campaign. 

THE WINNERS OF LAST NIGHT'S ELECTIONS: 

Abingdon Abbey Northcourt

Cheryl Briggs – Green

Elizabeth Pighills – Liberal Democrats

Abingdon Caldecott

Samantha Bowring – Liberal Democrats

Neil Fawcett – Liberal Democrats

Abingdon Dunmore

Margaret Crick – Liberal Democrats

Andy Foulsham – Liberal Democrats

Abingdon Fitzharris

Eric De La Harpe – Liberal Democrats

Robert Maddison – Liberal Democrats

Abingdon Peachcroft

Mike Pighills – Liberal Democrats

Max Thompson – Liberal Democrats

Blewbury and Harwell 

Hayleigh Gascoigne – Liberal Democrats

Sarah Medley – Liberal Democrats

Botley and Sunningwell

Debby Hallett – Liberal Democrats

Emily Smith – Liberal Democrats

Cumnor

Alison Jenner – Liberal Democrats

Judy Roberts – Liberal Democrats

Drayton

Andy Cooke – Liberal Democrats

Faringdon

David Grant – Liberal Democrats

Bethia Thomas – Liberal Democrats

Grove North

Ron Batstone – Liberal Democrats

Ruth Molyneaux – Liberal Democrats

Hendreds

Janet Shelley – Conservative

Kennington and Radley

Bob Johnston – Liberal Democrats

Diana Lugova – Liberal Democrats

Kingston Bagpuize

Eric Batts – Conservative (elected without a contest)

Marcham

Catherine Webber – Liberal Democrats

Ridgeway

Paul Barrow – Liberal Democrats

Stanford

Nathan Boyd – Conservative

Steventon and the Hanneys

Matthew Barber – Conservative

Sutton Courtenay

Richard Webber – Liberal Democrats

Thames

Jerry Avery – Liberal Democrats

Wantage and Grove Brook

Amos Duveen – Liberal Democrats

Jenny Hannaby – Liberal Democrats

Wantage Charlton

Andrew Crawford – Liberal Democrats

Patrick O’Leary – Liberal Democrats

Watchfield and Shrivenham

Simon Howell – Conservative

Elaine Ware – Conservative

Wootton

Val Shaw - Liberal Democrats