One third of seats were up for election. There were by-elections in Brislington East and Easton. As Easton also had an election in the usual schedule, 2 seats were elected in that ward. There was a significant swing against the Liberal Democrats, largely as a result of the post-merger

SDP-Liberal Alliance

The SDP–Liberal Alliance was an electoral pact formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom which was in existence from 1981 to 1988, when the bulk of the two parties merged to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, later referred to as simply the Liberal...

 chaos that the party suffered.

The party standings following the election:

Party		Cllrs	Change
	Labour Party Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...	43	+4
	Conservative Party Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...	21	-3
	Liberal Democrats Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...	4	-1
Total		68

Ward results

The change is calculated using the results when these actual seats were last contested, i.e. the 1986 election.

Source

• Bristol Evening Post 4 May 1990