REGIONAL ROUND-UP

Chester
CHESTER City Council remains hung today, but the balance of power shifted, with the leapfrogging Labour into second place.

The Liberal Democrats, who ran the council in a pact with Labour strengthened their position, gaining one seat to give them a total of 22 of the authority's 60 seats.

Conservative party leader Cllr Margaret Parker said: "Our priority now is to work hard for the people of Chester, the people out there who have voted for us. We are listening to what they are saying and will act on it."

The trial postal voting system caused Chester problems when it came to counting votes last night.

Normally, at the council's election counts, most results have been in by midnight.

But counters who had taken in the papers over the last few days had mixed them up between wards.

This meant that, last night at 10pm, when counting should have started, they were left with the mammoth task of trying to sort out all the ballot papers before they could start the process to see which councillors could claim victory.

Ellesmere Port & Neston
LABOUR managed to maintain its dominant position in the council last night, despite losing two seats to the Conservatives.

The Tories took Little Neston and Whitby, with the latter being a close-fought match needing three recounts. This left the final makeup of the council with Labour on 29 seats, Conservatives with 12, and the Liberal Democrats remaining with two seats.

The total number of votes cast was 21,611, with a turnout of 42.23%.

Stephen Ewbank, returning officer, paid tribute to the team which organised the election. He said: "It was only at the eleventh hour we knew it would be all postal voting. The officers have risen to this in a big way."

Conservative leader Cllr Miles Hogg said he was delighted with the result. He said: "I would put it down to the hard work of local candidates who are well known in the wards."

Labour leader Cllr Fred Venables said holding marginal seats such as Groves and Ledsham was a triumph for his party.

But he admitted to being disappointed to have lost Little Neston to the Conservatives.

He said: "The Green candidate did reasonably well and that may have affected the result."

Halton
HALTON'S election turnout, at just under 40%, constituted the biggest vote Runcorn and Widnes has experienced in 40 years.

And, with so many new electors casting their vote, council leader Tony McDermott said the Government's decision to use the North West as a postal voting guinea pig had been vindicated.

Mr McDermott said he had found no evidence that voting rebels were using the war in Iraq as an excuse for a protest vote.

And he believed that the British National Party - which fielded candidates in the Appleton and Castlefields wards had gained a significant chunk of the vote.

The second biggest turn-out was in the Daresbury ward, but Hale was the only ward to top 50% turn-out.

The 37.5% average overall turnout dwarfed the 2002 election when just over 20% of electors cast their votes.

Mr McDermott said: "The proposal to build a new Mersey crossing is regarded as very important amongst voters but it is the redevelopment of Runcorn and Widnes town centres which has garnered the most interest. "In my opinion, the increased turnout has totally vindicated the decision to hold a postal vote."

West Lancs
EARLY indications showed that the Conservatives will maintain their narrow majority in West Lancashire.

They currently hold nine of the 18 seats involved in this election.

The votes were still being counted in the early hours of the morning, however seasoned campaigners were expecting Labour to slip slightly.

Labour leader Alan Bullen said: "The voting is going very well. It's impossible to tell at this stage. "The number of smiling faces is equal on each side but that's hysteria rather than confidence. "I may have lost my seat and Terry Aldridge is convinced he's lost Digmoor. We'll have to wait and see".

Conservative Deputy Leader Cllr Robert Hodge was upbeat but cautious, saying: "We feel that we may possibly have held our position. "We're just hoping we maintain our present control."

Election turnout was up by 14% to 42%.

Sefton
THERE was a shock result in Sefton last night as Carol Gustafson, the chairwoman of Merseyside Police Authority, lost her seat.

Ms Gustafson had been councillor in the Church ward for nine years, but lost to the Lib-Dems last night

The overall picture was not so clear by 1am this morning, however, as a flurry of last-minute votes held up the count in Sefton, with early indications that the authority could switch from Labour to Liberal Democrat hands.

Some 600 last-minute votes had to be distributed to the three counts in Maghull, Bootle and Southport, and well after midnight no results had yet been declared.

Sefton will remain a hung council, but with Lib-Dems needing only two seats to become the largest party, tensions were running high.

Liberal Democrat Leader Tony Robertson was confident of holding the leadership. . His party hopes to gain five seats, including two from Labour in Church Ward, one each in Victoria Meols and Kew.

Labour Leader Dave Martin had last week hoped to gain six seats but last night admitted things were looking shaky. He said: "All I'm confident of is that we have held Bootle. The rest of the borough is a mystery. Crosby is a real mix, and it looks like we might lose one or two seats there."

The Tories were hoping to take Cambridge from the Southport Party and two seats from Labour in Formby's Manor Ward.

The future of the Southport Party looked uncertain with the Liberal Democrats targeting Kew and Tories hoping to steal back Cambridge. The party has three seats but looked unlikely to hold any of them.

Wirral
WIRRAL'S election count almost descended into chaos last night after Royal Mail lost the keys to 13 post boxes around Wallasey.

Returning officer Jo Miller allowed the count to go ahead only after receiving assurances the boxes were empty.

The keys had been lost yesterday morning after the boxes had been emptied by postmen.

When it became known that the keys had gone, the Royal Mail immediately sealed the boxes.

In another last-minute upset, it emerged at 9pm that about 400 ballot papers were still in a sorting office in Chester.

Senior council workers, including Wirral council chief executive Steve Maddox, were dispatched to collect the papers.

With half of the wards counted by 1.30am it was clear that the much predicted Tory takeover of Wirral wasn't going to happen.

The party failed to capture key targets such as New Brighton and even began losing safe seats Liscard and Clatterbridge.

Labour leader Steve Foulkes said: "It has been a night of very high tension. We started this election 3-0 down thanks to the boundary changes which were not kind to Labour.

"It has been a phenomenal night, the Tories have not laid a glove on us. We have held our own in the marginals and in safe Tory seats the Labour vote is holding its own. "It shows that people still want Labour in power, bring on the general election."

Conservative leader Jeff Green blamed his party's poor results on confusing ballot papers.

He said: "What concerns me is that this has been a very complicated election and a lot of people have struggled with the postal ballot. "This could have affected the outcome of the election."

Before the election, Labour had 26 seats, the Conservatives had 23 and the Lib-Dems held 16, with one independent seat.

It had been predicted that the Conservatives would snatch leadership after 17 years of Labour rule.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat group, Cllr Stuart Kelly, added: "We are confident of increasing the number of councillors we have in Wirral."

Turnout had broken 40% for the first time in five years - compared to last year when just 26% of the electorate voted.

St Helens
LABOUR'S chances looked promising as they held on to four vital seats in St Helens Council.

The party held on to Blackbrook, Earlestown, Parr and Thatto Heath while the Conservatives maintained their grip on Rainford.

However, turnout dropped from 48% to around 40%.

It is the second year that the area has had an all postal vote with no polling stations but it has not proved as successful as in 2003.

Councillors gathered at the town hall last night with particular interest being taken in the performance of the only British National Party candidate, Michael Pearcey.

However, a delay in beginning the count meant that no results were received by midnight.

A last-minute sweep of post boxes in the region took care of ballot papers which the voters had posted past the deadline.

A spokesman for St Helens Council said: "Last year, around 3,000 votes went unregistered because a postal sweep was not carried out and voters had failed to meet the postal deadline."

Supporters eagerly watched as more papers were rushed to the town hall by Royal Mail.

Knowsley
THE LABOUR mayor of Knowsley was among the shock casualties last night, as the party suffered setbacks even in this traditional stronghold.

Mayor Michael Murphy (Whiston North) and his current deputy and Mayor elect, Mick Foulkes (Prescot West) both lost their seats as part of the changing picture in the borough which saw the whole of Prescot held by Liberal Democrats.

The third Labour casualty was actor Tony Scoggins, also in Prescot West.

Postal voting virtually doubled turnout in Knowsley this year, as 34% of the electorate registered their vote, but as people watched at home via a live webcast on the internet, the whole of Prescot, formerly held by Labour, fell to the Lib-Dems.

But in St Michael's Ward Huyton, former Labour Leader Jim Keight was re-elected following his shock defeat last year. In some wards, including Roby, turnout was as high as 40%. Labour held its three seats in Roby easily.

Deputy Labour leader Cllr Graham Morgan, who kept his Roby seat, said of the Mayor's defeat: "We are always concerned when one of our colleagues loses their seat."

Cllr Dave Smithson, deputy leader of the Lib-Dems, held his Halewood North seat. State of the parties: Labour 52 seats, Lib Dems 11.

Liverpool:
ANDY KELLY reports on early indications of a comfortable win for the Lib Dems - despite the late-night drama
LIVERPOOL'S first all-out election for 24 years was heading into the small hours this morning with not a single result declared by 12.30am.

And by 2am, with 11 of the 30 wards declared, the Lib Dems were heading for a resounding triumph, with 21 seats, to Labour's nine.

Despite the all-postal vote, meaning that many people had voted days ago, the fact that people could still cast their vote up to 10 pm on election night meant a final result was not expected until 3am.

Most observers were predicting a comfortable victory for the Liberal Democrats securing their seventh successive year in control of Liverpool Town Hall, but with a number of wards appearing too close to call, the opposition Labour group were still hoping to cut their majority.

Turnout for the city's first ever all postal ballot was 33%, considerably up on last year's 21%, but still well short of many people's expectations.

Returning officer David Henshaw said he was unsure if the Liverpool electorate had embraced the pilot system, but said he was certain improvements could be made.

He said: "Some of the feedback I have had is that we have certainly suffered from the shortage of time we had to sort everything out.

"Certainly, the ballot paper could have been simplified, my wife said you needed to be an origami expert to understand it."

Council leader Mike Storey was hopeful of another strong showing from his Liberal Democrat group, and quashed a brief rumour at the count that he was planning to step down from his current role.

He said: "It is always dangerous for a politician to say what he will be doing at xy and z time. It will be up to my group to decide who is our leader on Monday, but I would not have led the group into this all-out election if I did not intend to carry on.

"There comes a time when leaders have to hand the baton on, but I don't know when that time will be.

"You have to bring on the new generation of politicians, and sometimes leaders can signal that change."

Mr Storey said he was not convinced that postal voting had increased the turnout, though it may have helped, he said.

"It's the extra campaigning that produces increases in turnout, not postal voting. There needs to be a serious discussion on whether we have the capacity to deliver a proper postal vote."

Labour leader Joe Anderson admitted that a couple of his group's target seats appear to have been lost.

He said: "We obviously targeted County Ward and Warbreck Ward which don't look to have gone our way, which is disappointing. And wards like Princes Park and Central look very close.

"But anything we get over our current proportion of 27 seats is a good night for us, and I am still confident this could be our night.

"For the last two years, we have made gains and we have to keep that momentum going."

The new-look town hall will have 90 councillors elected from 30 wards instead of 99 councillors elected from 33 wards, following Boundary Commission changes.