THE Conservatives have retained control of Braintree Council on an election night which saw the Greens become the largest opposition party.

The Tories claimed 34 of the 49 seats on offer, a comfortable victory despite seeing their majority cut by five.

The Green Party pulled off the biggest surprise of the night to claim six seats on the council having gone into the election with just one.

They intend to strike up a coalition with Coggeshall's two new Independent councillors, Nick Unsworth and Tom Walsh, who took more than 1,000 votes each to oust the Conservatives from the ward.

Jo Beavis made it three for the Independents by taking Hedingham.

Elsewhere in the district, Halstead Residents' Association took two seats from the Tories to ensure they took all four seats in the Halstead St Andrews and Halstead Trinity wards.

While there was success for some, both Labour and the Lib Dems endured a frustrating night with the latter failing to claim a single seat.

The overall turnout for the elections was 31.22 per cent.

Speaking after the results were confirmed, Tory chief and council leader Graham Butland, who held on to his Great Notley and Black Notley seat, admitted his party was relieved to hold on to power.

He said: “We are really delighted. With the national situation as it is and strong pressure from certain groups, to lose five seats is a real achievement.

“I understand we have been almost wiped out in Basildon, Southend and struggled in Colchester so I think we should be really delighted. We knew this was always going to be a tough election.

“Moving forward the real challenge will be to get a local plan through but I think we can see we have had a vote of confidence for that.”

Labour saw its number of councillors halved to two, with branch chairman David Mann and Tony Everard clinging to their seats in Bocking North.

David Mann said: “We have clearly suffered a Brexit backlash in common with the rest of the country.

"The Conservative administration has lost seats but remains very clearly in control in the Braintree District. Labour have lost two of our hardworking and experienced councillors.

"In Chelmsford it was the Lib Dems that surfed the protest vote - here it was the Greens, Residents and Independents. Congratulations to them for their good showing."

It was a positive night for the Lib Dems as it gained seats across the country, and despite failing to replicate that success in Braintree, leader Kate Onions said she was pleased with their efforts.

She said: “We’re delighted. The wards we did well in we have done well in. We came second in Witham South and a very close third in Witham Central, I think the difference was 11 votes between us and the Greens.

“It shows the cooperation agreement has worked. All of our votes seem to be up which was reflected in the nationals as well. We feel now we are a very credible threat to the Tories in Witham. On the whole we see it as a very positive night.”