The whole council was up for election and the result was no overall control, with the Liberal Democrats as the largest party.

This resulted in a no-party-control shared administration for the first year of the Council, with the three main party groups being briefed on a coequal basis.

Following a by-election gain by the Liberal Democrats from the Conservatives, giving the Liberal Democrats exactly half the seats on the Council, a Liberal Democrat administration was formed, but with a convention that those chairing committees would not use their casting vote.

When Swindon Borough Council was established as a new unitary authority on 1 April 1997, the members who had been elected to the county council from Haydon Wick, Highworth, Stratton St Margaret, Swindon, Wanborough, and Wroughton ceased to hold office.

The size of the council fell from 68 to 47, and in the remaining month of the council's term of office the Liberal Democrats briefly gained control, but they lost it at the 1997 Wiltshire Council election, when there was a return to no overall control.