The Conservative party has successfully maintained control of the district council, winning all-but-one of the contested seats in Thursday’s local election.

With 61 per cent of the total vote, the Conservatives won 16 out of the 17 seats being contested for Epping Forest District Council, out of 58 seats in total.

The results were announced on Friday afternoon (May 8), following a vote count in Theydon Bois Village Hall.

Of the 17 contested seats, 13 were unchanged and kept the same councillor.

In Shelley, the Labour party lost their only seat on the council as Peter Gode was replaced by Conservative Nigel Bedford.

The only other change of party was in Epping Hemnall, where Liberal Democrat councillor Kim Adams was replaced by Nigel Avey of the Conservatives.

Overall, the Liberal Democrats won the second largest share of the vote with 12 per cent, with UKIP taking ten per cent and Labour nine per cent.

In Buckhurst Hill West, Aniket Patel was elected for the Conservatives after Haluk Ulkun, who only attended 29 per cent of council meetings between August 2014 and February this year, stepped down.

Epping Forest Guardian:

Candidates observe the vote count in Theydon Bois on Friday

Independent candidate Richard Morgan was once again successfully re-elected in his ward of Hastingwood, Matching and Sheering village with 46 per cent of the vote, narrowly beating Conservative candidate Joanne Share-Bernia by four per cent, a margin of 51 votes.

Conservative leader of the council Chris Whitbread kept his seat in Epping Lindsey and Thornwood Common, taking 62 per cent of the vote, 1,624 more than Liberal Democrat candidate Ingrid Black.

Success for the Conservatives in the district council election was reflected in the general election, with Eleanor Laing taking 55 per cent of the vote to be successfully re-elected as Epping Forest MP.