A Tory councillor has said she hopes the county council’s new UK Independence Pary (Ukip) members will address local issues, after seven of her group’s seats were lost to the party.

All the district’s five Conservative seats on Essex County Council stayed blue after the elections last week, but the party lost 12 seats elsewhere in the county.

Valerie Metcalfe, who retained her Buckhurst Hill and Loughton South seat for the Conservatives, said: “I think Essex has always been quite a Euro-sceptic county.

“I guess the further you get away from London, maybe the greater that feeling for Ukip is.

“There were also vast numbers of candidates standing in all the seats here, so the vote may have been dissipated.”

She said she was keen to see the nine new Ukip councillors represent local issues.

“I have no reason to suppose otherwise,” she added. “I hope they were all prepared to be elected.”

The results of the election have seen a greater variation of political views represented on the council, with two new Green Party councillors and four independents, including Chris Pond for the Loughton Residents’ Association, who retained his seat.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats now have nine seats each, while the Conservatives have retained an overall majority, with 42 seats.

Cllr Metcalfe said: “It will be interesting to see if they co-operate as anti-Tory, or whether all the parties have their own agenda.

“There are bound to be some alliances and coalitions.”