Basingstoke's Conservatives are celebrating after a strong showing in county council elections that saw them make inroads into opposition seats.

The party retained all seven divisions of Basingstoke's Hampshire County Council seats they held after the 2017 elections, but decreased the Labour majorities in Basingstoke North and Central.

There were just 116 votes separating the Labour and Conservative candidates in the Central division, with Labour candidate Kim Taylor picking up the ward formerly held by Mike Westbrook.

And the Conservatives managed to edge out Labour in Basingstoke North West, meaning the party's Basingstoke leader Andy McCormick could not get on the county council.

Speaking to The Gazette shortly after being re-elected in Basingstoke South West, Cllr Stephen Reid said his party had a strong showing.

"I am absolutely delighted and I am looking forward to doing another four years serving the people of Hatch Warren, Beggarwood, Kempshott and a little bit of Brighton Hill.

"The interesting thing is that we continue to win comfortably in Conservative areas and Arun [Mummalaneni] has increased the majority in North West [Basingstoke].

"But in the Labour seats, we are pushing them close.

"There is no county division we regard as off limits."

Whilst Basingstoke's divisions remained the same colour as before, there will be four new names heading down to Winchester to represent the town, after a number of high-profile departures at yesterday's elections.

Kim Taylor (LAB, Basingstoke Central), Jacky Tustain (LAB, Basingstoke North), Arun Mummalaneni (CON, Basingstoke North West) and Juliet Henderson (CON, Candovers, Oakley and Overton) were all elected to HCC for the first time.

Reacting to the extremely close result in Basingstoke Central, Cllr Kim Taylor, who also is seeking re-election in Brighton Hill on Sunday, said: "I am very pleased and I am very grateful to the constituents for voting for me.

"It is very importnat to have a good, well-fought campaign and I look forward to representing my new constituents."

The Conservatives were coming from a high marker - the last time these seats were elected was in 2017, the highest the Conservatives were polling in recent times.

But whilst a number of rural wards saw councillors return slightly reduced majorities, they still had healthy leads.

One of those was in Tadley and Baughurst, where re-elected Conservative councillor Derek Mellor said he was "quite thrilled".

"I was expecting it to be very close [with the Liberal Democrats]. I was a little bit surprised about the majority because the Lib Dems have been very fair and have fought it on the issues.

"It has been a good day."

You can see the full results here.