County Elections: big Lib Dem gains

Thursday's county council elections saw great results for the Liberal Democrats - marking our SEVENTH year in a row of making gains in the annual May elections.

Lib Dems came second in seats winning 370 of the County Council seats up for election nationwide - a net gain of 163 councillors.

Labour and Conservatives both lost around two in every three seats they were defending.

Here in the North West the only council up for election was Lancashire County Council, where we went from 2 seats last time to 5 now.

Our two sitting councillors - John Potter in Preston West and David Haworth in Penwortham - held their seats comfortably. We gained three more: David Whipp in Pendle Rural, Fiona Duke in Preston North, and Mark Jewell in Preston South West.

We also won a council byelection in Ribble Valley, with Stephen Sutcliffe elected in St Mary's ward.

Outside the North West we gained control of Shropshire, Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire councils. This is the biggest share of County Councils the Lib Dems have ever controlled.