One third of seats were up for election. This was the first election following the merger of the Liberal Party and SDP to form the Social & Liberal Democrats. There were also several candidates representing the continuing SDP. There was a general small swing to Labour.

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...	39	+2
	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...	24	-1
	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...	5	-1
Total		68

Ward results

The change is calculated using the results when these actual seats were last contested, i.e. the 1984 election.

• The Conservatives won Avonmouth in a by-election in 1987 and lost the seat back to Labour at this election.

Source

• Bristol Evening Post 6 May 1988