Hear from a selection of County Councillors following the Local Elections last week, which saw Lib Dems take the win.

Rutland could turn yellow after the Liberal Democrats won the largest number of county council seats, taking 11 out of 27 and retaining power in many perviously-yellow areas.

The people of Rutland went to the polls on Thursday last week to vote for 27 new Rutland county councillors, but no political group managed to achieve the 14 seats required for a controlling majority.

Nonetheless, the Liberal Democrats now have the largest number of seats with 11, the Independents have 7, the Conservatives have 6, the Labour Party has 2, and the Green Party has 1 seat.

Leadership of the Council will be decided at the annual meeting, set to take place on May 22.

Former Council Leader and Conservative Cllr, Lucy Stephenson, retained her Conservative seat in Uppingham and will remain the Leader until then.

Cllr Gale Waller, leader of the Liberal Democrat Group and elected councillor for Normanton Ward was naturally delighted with the result.

She said: "Having been a councillor for Rutland County Council for 12 years now, I have seen a few elections go by, but obviously I am very pleased that we have some extremely bright and able councillors in my group now. I am honoured that the people of Rutland have felt that they could put their trust in us.

"It's not so much our policies that have drawn 47 per cent of the votes cast to us, but much more that we believe in being open and transparent and are happy to work with people, and not doing things to people! I think that the population appreciates that.

"As a party, the only way we will get a majority on the council is through by-elections and wining them – but are we going to work with others on the council? Well, I would hope so; but then we've worked with others on the council in the past, but not necessarily in any formal arrangement. Like everywhere, we are subject to what is happening nationally and that will inevitably have an impact."

The Conservative Party who had held an overall majority following the last local elections in 2019, had progressively lost seats on Rutland County Council at several by-elections in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and consequently only held on to their control of the council and cabinet with the support and cooperation of the alliance of independent councillors.

At the start of the 2023 local elections the Conservatives held 6 seats. Following the results, they still held 6 seats, but there was no hiding the disappointment from Cllr Stephenson.

She said: "In terms of local issues, working with two Lib Dem councillors, I hope that politics can go out of the window when issues such as speeding and anti-social behaviour are being looked at, and I'm looking forward to working with Stephen Lambert and Christine Wise so that can deliver together for Uppingham.

"Overall in Rutland, and nationally, I feel that these local elections have absolutely reflected what has been talked about in the media and the dissatisfaction with the central Conservative government.

"I would hope that all 27 councillors will work to put place before politics, and every councillor has a role to play in making good decisions for Rutland, but I think it is going to be a very challenging four years for local government, not the least of which will be the effort required to balance the budget and remaining sustainable as an authority. I really hope that people can put aside their politics where that is concerned and look at everything very objectively with the question always coming to the fore of is this the best decision for Rutland and our citizens."

Once again, Conservative control of the council and the cabinet could rely upon an alliance with the Independent councillors, who now have 7 seats following last week's election.

Rosemary Powell, who headed the alliance of independent councillors at the previous council, was unopposed as an Independent for the Whissendine ward.

She said that discussions and negotiations were still at a very early stage, but her reaction to the results shows just how much work is to be done in the next four years.

Cllr Powell added: "While the Lib Dems have more seats than any other party following these elections, we are still in a position of no overall control – which is effectively where Rutland County Council has been since May 2022.

"This makes for a very interesting combination of councillors and shows that the electorate are not so much divided, but that they want something different from that which has gone before.

"When I stood as an Independent for Rutland it was because I didn't see a role for party politics in local authorities, and that is exactly the same for me now. This time around, quite a lot of the long-standing councillors have decided not to stand again, all of which means we have some new councillors with a large learning curve and who must effectively hit the ground running.

"Myself, and the other independent councillors are already having conversations, as indeed we are with councillors across the board because, whilst we may disagree between ourselves, we have to work together and deliver for the electorate – and I will very disappointed if party politics gets in the way of that too much."

Steve McRobb is one of Rutland County Council's two new Labour councillors, alongside Ramsay Ross, both representing Oakham North West Ward.

Cllr McRobb sees his position as vital in representing the people who voted for him.

He said: "Right now I feel as if I've been hit by an express train especially when I look at how much work there is to do and how much I have to learn about the processes and systems of being a county councillor – but obviously I'm very pleased and grateful to the people who have elected me.

"I think that we have a very interesting make-up to the council – obviously a 'no overall control' council is a bit of a complicated beast, but essentially what I think that my fellow Labour councillor, Ramsay Ross and I will both be doing, is simply to represent the policies on which we stood, because that is what the people have elected us to do – and we will do that in the best way that we see when going forward. But at this point in time, I guess the main thing that we're trying to do is to respect the democratic mandate that this new council has, which is a complicated one."

Hans Zollinger-Ball for the Green Party - the only Green representative in Rutland - was elected to Barleythorpe Ward.

He says: "Naturally I am very pleased that the people of Rutland feel as I do about environmental issues, and I can confirm that I will aligning myself with the Liberal Democrats because the policies that I put out in my manifesto are things that obviously I can't bring through myself, as there are no other Green councillors. However, they spoke to me and are happy to help me to achieve the things that I want to bring to the people of Rutland, and we can do this if they find a few more councillors to join us which will give them an overall control of the council and the cabinet.

"Barleythorpe has a lot of roads that are not adopted, and I would like very much to alter this and get these roads adopted so they can be properly used. Also, I oppose the way in which big developers can buy up large tracts of land, build huge numbers of houses but contribute almost nothing to the infrastructure of the community in which they are making massive profits – that is something that the Liberal Democrats and I definitely agree on, and would like to change."

The 27 newly elected and re-elected councillors will take up their seats at Rutland County Council following the meeting on Monday, May 22.