The Conservatives are the ruling group on Shrop Council with 43 Cllrs. You can see by the numbers they still have a big majority but that doesn’t give the full picture –yes in the end no’s are what matter when you want the win BUT the Tories had some big defeats & near misses

Peter Nutting’s loss in Copthorne by more than 500 votes to @mrrobwilson of Lib Dem’s was huge news. Then there’s the Bowbrook ward – the Conservative candidate defeated here by more than 600 votes by 20 year old Liberal Democrat Alex Wagner – the youngest cllr ever elected.

From the youngest to the oldest councillor – 86 year old Brian Williams – re- elected for the conservatives for the Meres but he only beat the Lib Dem candidate by 23 votes

In Whittington – Steve Charmley the council’s deputy leader won by just 34 votes – the lib dems again targeted this seat.

Meole – Gwen Burgess lost for the Conservatives to the Lib Dems – she was serving as Shrewsbury’s Mayor.

The tories did take Harlescott from Labour though and they managed to hold on to 2 seats in Whitchurch north – but again the lib dems came within 52 votes of taking that off them. Ed Bird fought off competition in Shifnal too.

Labour gained 3 councillors – including taking Broseley from the tories and a solid result for them in Bridgnorth West where Julia Buckley took one of 2 seats – the first time for Labour there since the unitary was formed.

The Greens also celebrating - 4 seats - up from 1 going into the election. They campaigned very hard and they now have Julia Evans in Radbrook, Julian Dean in Porthill, Duncan Kerr in Oswestry South and Mike Isherwood in Oswestry West.

And the Independents? 4 Cllrs - David Minnery amongst them - the former Conservative got one of the seats on Market Drayton West after being deselected by the Tories. So yes, Conservatives still the biggest party by far BUT to just report the numbers doesn’t give a full picture