The Conservatives were celebrating in North Tyneside today after winning three seats from Labour.
The council, run by a directly elected Labour mayor, John Harrison, is always fiercely contested. Labour lost three seats in Benton, Collingwood and Killingworth wards to the Tories.
But the party gained a seat from the Lib Dems in the Valley ward. This means the one third majority needed by the Mayor to pass proposals in the chamber still remains. The new make- up of the council is Conservative 30, Labour 21 and Lib Dems eight. There is one vacancy after the resignation of Tory councillor Hugh Jackson, who stepped down amid controversy after he made comments about euthanasia at a council meeting.
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/2008/05/02/labour-takes-a-real-hammering-72703-20853460/North Tyneside - where I happen to work - contains some of the best-heeled areas on Tyneside and its first two elected Mayors were Tories. So the pendulum merely swung back - and not so very far.
Actually, the most surprising result for your party in the region (though I don't see anything about it on their website) is that, in spite of a well-publicised Herculean effort, they still have no members at all on the Newcastle or Gateshead city councils. Not so long since they had two Newcastle MPs, remember ...
The Skin
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