Labour loses grip on north Wales

Labour saw Plaid Cymru take two seats of it on the Caia Park estate

Labour has lost control of its only council in north Wales and seen representation on a neighbouring authority almost halved.

Voters in Flintshire ousted 15 Labour councillors, leaving independents as the biggest group

In Wrexham, the Liberal Democrats are now the largest political party, after Labour went from 20 to 11 members.

In Denbighshire, the Conservatives are celebrating after more than doubling their councillors.

Labour had run Flintshire council since it was set up in 1996, with local members blaming Gordon Brown and the 10 pence tax relief for a "meltdown".

The party dropped from 37 seats on the council four years ago to 22 now.

They want an end to the kind of party political management that Flintshire has suffered from for years Patrick Heesom, Independent

Ros Griffiths, who lost her Broughton South seat on the council, said: "It's certainly not helped local politics and that is what this election was about last night - local politics.

"National politics has certainly let us down badly."

Independents on Flintshire now have 26 seats and are confident of forming an administration without Labour.

Patrick Heesom, leader the independent group of councillors in Flintshire before Thursday's vote, said he is delighted that none of the political parties now hold sway.

"I think the verdict of the electorate in Flintshire is quite clear," he added.

"They want an end to the kind of party political management that Flintshire has suffered from for years.

Coalition

In Wrexham, Labour continued to take a battering from the electorate.

The party lost 11 seats, including two to Plaid Cymru in once solid Labour wards on the Caia Park estate.

Plaid gained four seats in all, a first for the party in Wrexham elections.

The results make the Liberal Democrats the largest political party in the council, but without overall control.

However, the Lib-Dem group leader, Aled Roberts, said he is confident that the current coalition he heads in Wrexham will move from strength to strength.

"There's not much need to thrash things out. We have a platform that was agreed three years ago, and we've still got a lot of work to do," said Cllr Roberts.

He said the position of independents in the coalition has been strengthened, which would benefit the authority.

"Hopefully we can continue to work together for the people of Wrexham," he added.

"Spent force"

The Conservatives have been resurgent in Denbighshire. In 2004 just six Tories were returned to the council chamber, today there are 18 members.

"We did better than I could have ever imagined," said Julian Thompson-Hill, who chairs the Vale of Clwyd Conservative Association.

"We worked the campaign hard and fought it on predominately local issues.

"Labour don't have a lot to offer, they looked like a spent force."