The local Conservative leader in Bath and North East Somerset Vic Pritchard said he did not expect Thursday's local election result, which saw the Conservatives "wiped out."

The Liberal Democrats won a second term running Bath and North East Somerset Council with their seats increasing to 41 — meaning they control two thirds of the seats on the council — while the Conservatives were left with only three. Labour, who won five seats, will now take over from them as the official opposition.

Mr Pritchard, who lost his seat after 36 years, said: "I didn't know we would get wiped out."

He said: "I thought there was an outside chance of us taking control or being in a hung regime. […] I thought we would have done reasonably well in Bath."

He added: "We couldn't have done very much worse. We have only got three seats now."

Only one of the previous Conservative councillors is remaining on the council after Thursday's election — Keynsham South's Alan Hale — but one new and one returning face were elected for the Conservatives in Midsomer Norton Redfield.

Tim Warren, who had led the council until he lost his Mendip seat in 2019, made a surprise return to the council after standing as a "paper candidate" in the seat, with new councillor Sarah Evans also winning election.

But Mr Pritchard said: "It's a bit cruel really because she had potential to be a good councillor but she's not going to have much chance to develop."

He added: "They are not going to be taken any notice of at all. All they can do is their ward work."

Mr Pritchard warned: "It's not a healthy regime now because you have got 41 Lib Dems […] They have got no-one to challenge them on anything."

He added: "There's such a dominance of Lib Dems they are scrutinising themselves."

Speaking about losing his own Chew Valley seat, which was the last seat on the night to declare in a bitter final blow for the Conservatives, Mr Pritchard said: "I have been doing it for 36 years and suddenly its taken away. It's quite a vacuum to fill."

He said that, in his time on the council, he had been most proud of what the Conservatives had done with social care when they ran the council, giving the contract to Sirona, then Virgin, and now HCRG. He said: "That's especially important and that makes up the bigger part of the council budget. That's what I was proud of, the service we gave to the most vulnerable."

He added: "That's to be watched now because [the Liberal Democrat council] are bringing it in house."

The composition of the council is now:

• Liberal Democrats: 41 councillors
• Labour: 5 councillors
• Independents: 5 councillors
• Conservatives: 3 councillors
• Greens: 3 councillors

Voting for the two seats in the Paulton ward has not yet taken place, as the election in the ward has been postponed following the death of Green Party candidate Tim Morgan. It is being rearranged for a later date.