County Durham: Labour scrapes through

2:27am Friday 2nd May 2008

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By Chris Lloyd »

LABOUR has scraped through to take control of the new County Durham unitary authority, but it has gone backwards in both Sunderland and Hartlepool.

With just two more seats to declare, Labour has crept over the finishing line and, with 67 councillors, has an overall majority of three.

The Liberal Democrats and Independents were making a good showings in different pockets of the county. The British National Party polled heavily in a couple of divisions - notably Tudhoe and Chilton - but did not win a seat.

Except in Teesdale, the Conservative showing was lukewarm in Durham - although one of the last results of the night gave Becky Brunskill, 20, a big win in Willington with 1210 votes.

The Conservatives also gained five seats in Sunderland, which is their success story in the North-East.

In Hartlepool, Labour lost one seat, as did the Lib Dems, with the Tories and the UK Independence Party both gaining one. The council, which Labour has run for five years, has slipped back to No Overall Control.

Turnout in Durham appears to have been remarkably high.

The Lib Dems have done particularly well in Durham City, where they run the district council. They have won 15 of their 25 seats in Durham City.

In other areas of the county, Independents proved the main opposition to Labour, particularly in Derwentside and Newton Aycliffe.

Durham became the country's first ever Labour council in 1919, and it would have been a major embarrassment if it had lost in its heartland.

As it was, it has suffered three big casualties. Two came in Bishop Auckland where former Durham county council leader Ken Manton was defeated for the second time in three years, and where the town's respected mayor Barbara Laurie was also beaten by the Lib Dems.

The other big casualty was in Peterlee where David Taylor-Gooby, a councillor for nearly 20 years, was another victim of the Lib Dems.