This means that while the Labour Party still hold a massive majority on the council, the Conservatives now control 15 of the council’s 54 seats.
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In Sopwell, sitting councillor Janet Smith kept her seat for Labour by only two votes from the Lib Dem candidate Shakir Rahman and in St Peter’s the district’s only Green councillor Simon Grover retained his seat by six votes over Matt Jones for the Lib Dems.
Both Trumpington and Market demonstrated a trend towards the further domination of council politics by Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Past year the Conservatives were close enough to a majority that they made an offer – which was rejected – to the Highwoods Independents to form a coalition to run the council.
Liberal Democrat leader Phil Gilchrist marked 40 years in politics with his re-election as Eastham ward councillor.
They and the Conservatives now have 17 seats meaning they will now share power.
Commenting on the success of Labour in the elections, MEP Richard Howitt said he was “thrilled”.
Today’s all-out local election count in Birchwood saw just two gains for the Liberal Democrats.
When Labour Councillor Pete Lowe, leader of Dudley Council, was asked whether the party will form a coalition, he said: “We will continue to put forward the Dudley Labour vision, and the vision that is in the interest of the people of Dudley”.
All three main group leaders said they would be sitting down with their parties over the weekend to consider their next steps.
Salford remained the same, with 51 Labour councillors, eight Tory and one independent.
The most surprising result in Scotland last night was the Tory resurgence, which is even more of a dagger in Labour’s heart than losing seats to the SNP.
In Castle ward, another with a heavy student population, Labour achieved a 10.7% swing, but were able to gain the seat from the Independent John Hipkin.
“I hope we can show that we deserve these results”.
“How that’s going to look at the end of the week I don’t know yet, but we will play a very big part in the future of Thurrock”.
“We were finding on the doorstep that people were not thinking about local issues”.
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The Tories won a number of concessions from Alex Salmond’s minority administration and leader Ruth Davidson has pledged to “work constructively where required” but “provide challenge where they do not listen”.
