Liberal Democrat gains in Derby

Liberal Democrats celebrate in Derby

The Liberal Democrats have gained five seats in Derby, but failed to take overall control of the city.

Labour lost four seats and the Tories lost one, leaving the Liberal Democrats with the most councillors on the authority with 18.

Labour now have 17 councillors and the Tories 14.

In Amber Valley, the Tories maintained overall control, but the British National Party took two seats from Labour and missed another by one vote.

The Tories now have 29 seats and Labour, which lost three seats, have 14 seats.

In the Heanor and Loscoe ward, the BNP candidate, Paul Snell, lost by a single vote to the Labour councillor Alan Longdon - 513 votes to 512.

In Derby, the council was earlier led by an unofficial coalition between Labour and the Conservatives.

Independents hold the other two seats on Derby City Council.

Chris Williamson, Labour leader in Derby, said: "There's clearly some disenchantment with the party at a national level. We were fighting against a national trend.

"There are some discussions to be had. We obviously aren't masters of our own destiny here. We will need to talk among ourselves about what our next step is."

Derby Liberal Democrat spokeswoman Hilary Jones said: "We have done well across the board - I am absolutely over the moon."

The turnout in Derby was 34.6%.