Lewes District Council remains with no overall control

Heading into the election with 20 Conservatives, nine Lib Dems, three Greens and nine independents, the final results saw a significant change up in the make up of the council.

The final results left the council with 19 Conservatives, nine Greens, eight Lib Dems, three Labour and just two independents.

The Green Party made the greatest gains – taking on six new seats to become the council’s second largest party.

Speaking after his group returned all three Ouse Valley and Ringmer seats, Green Party councillor Johnny Denis said: “I think it is a really brilliant reward for a lot of hard work.

“People have seen that all three candidates have worked really, really hard to convince people that they do the job, speak to people on the doorstep and find out what really matters to them.

“We are thrilled that our hard work has been recognised and we just hope to be better able to represent the people of Ouse Valley and Ringmer.

“It is really going to change the shape of the council because we are going to be a much bigger influence.

“We’ve gone from three voices to nine so we hopefully we will be able to have a stronger influence on the council to represent more broadly the views of the whole district.”

The Green Party saw particular success within Lewes town, with all bar one of the seats going their way.

The final seat – within Lewes Priory ward – went to longstanding independent councillor Ruth O’Keeffe who received a massive 2,041 votes.