THE Frenchay & Downend ward now has its first non-Conservative councillor since it was formed in 2019.
Liberal Democrat Raj Sood (above, left) topped the poll with 1,994 votes in the ward, which elects three councillors.
The other two winners were sitting Conservative councillors Ben Burton (centre) and Liz Brennan (right), with 1,780 and 1,678 votes respectively.
The other sitting Tory councillor, James Griffiths, ended up in fifth place. He was behind another Lib Dem, David Eldridge, who fell just five votes short of third place with 1,673 votes.
Raj Sood, a parish councillor well known as the owner of a convenience store in Bromley Heath, had come second in a by-election in the ward two years ago.
His win was one of four gains for the Lib Dems – but the party also lost one seat to the Tories, leaving them with a net increase of three councillors.
The other Lib Dem candidate, John Tansey, was fifth.
Labour, whose candidates were third, fourth and sixth in 2019, fell to seventh, eighth and ninth this time round.
Full results:
| Raj Kumar Sood | Liberal Democrats | 1994 | 15% | Elected |
 Benjamin Paul Burton | Conservative Party | 1780 | 14% | Elected |
| Liz Brennan | Conservative Party | 1678 | 13% | Elected |
| David Geoffrey Richard Eldridge | Liberal Democrats | 1673 | 13% | Not elected |
| James Griffiths | Conservative Party | 1622 | 12% | Not elected |
| John Michael Tansey | Liberal Democrats | 1487 | 11% | Not elected |
| Jacky Dockerty | Labour Party | 1034 | 8% | Not elected |
| Mike Richards | Labour Party | 1033 | 8% | Not elected |
| Andrew Mark Smith | Labour Party | 858 | 7% | Not elected |