HANGING BY A THREAD (From Warrington Guardian)

HANGING BY A THREAD

LABOUR has narrowly held on to its control of Warrington Town Hall despite a strong showing from the Liberal Democrats at Thursday's local elections.

Labour has retained control of the Town Hall despite their majority being reduced to just three, with the Lib Dems and Conservatives picking up seats across the town.

Among the high-profile casualties of the fall in the Labour vote were prospective Mayor Clr Jan Davidson and finance boss Clr Paul Kenny. They both lost out to Lib Dem candidates. But executive member Clr Hans Mundry and Clr Linda Dirir held their seats in closely-fought wards.

There were no celebrations for exiled former council leader Mike Hughes, either. The ousted councillor failed to make any impression against his former Labour colleagues with a poor showing in Fairfield and Howley.

Council leader John Joyce said some of the results had been surprising.

He added: "We have lost some candidates and this is a mid-term blip for the Labour party.

"We have worked for the people of Warrington and will continue to do so but in some areas the Labour vote has not got out."

Lib Dem leader Clr Barbara Mawer heralded a good day for her party and said they would be looking to wrest control of the council at the next election.

She said: "We have made a lot of progress to take this many seats from Labour and the gains we have made tells me that people do like what we talk about in local politics."

Tory leader Clr Keith Bland was similarly upbeat about his party's performance with their seats rising from four to six. He said: "This has proved the point that we can have a good go at it. We were strong in Woolston before."

In the European elections, Brian Simpson lost his seat for Labour as both the two main parties lost MEPs to the Lib Dems and the UK Independence Party.