Labour celebrate council victories and seat gains across Cheshire

Labour have retaken Cheshire West and Chester Council, after narrowly losing control of the authority in 2019.

The party, which had run the council as a minority administration, took 39 of the 70 seats to take full control.

The Tories dropped to 23 seats, a loss of five, independents took a fifth seat, the Green Party added a second and a Lib Dem loss left them with one.

Elsewhere, Cheshire East Council remained under no overall control, while Labour easily held Halton.

In Cheshire East, Labour gained six seats and the Conservatives gained three seats, while the Liberal Democrats lost two and the independents lost seven seats.

Two hyper-local Bollington First councillors lost seats to Labour and in Congleton West, an independent councillor also lost to Labour.

But in Wilmslow, an independent candidate took a seat from the Conservative, meaning all five seats in that area are held by independents.

After the count, Labour's Sam Corcoran said he hoped to remain as council leader and form a new joint administration.

In Cheshire West, there were celebrations not just for Labour, but also for Winsford's independent group, Winsford Salt of the Earth, which picked up three councillors, only hours after also taking control of Winsford Town Council.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said Labour leader Louise Gittins told those gathered that she was "really proud of what we achieved as a no overall control council... and I'm really excited about the future and our vision, which we're going to be taking out and delivering for our communities".

In Halton, Labour gained one seat from the Tories and now has 49 of the council's 54 representatives.

Analysis by Kaleigh Watterson, Cheshire political reporter, BBC News

In Cheshire West and Chester, Labour were confident going into this election that they would take control, so this result is not unexpected.

The Greens will be happy to have doubled their presence on the council - and it's interesting to see that they have taken Whitby Park, which is where a controversial hydrogen village is proposed.

In Cheshire East, there were some surprises with Labour gaining both seats in Nantwich South and Stapeley from the Conservatives and the Conservatives taking Crewe St Barnabas from Labour.

Earlier in the day, the Conservative group leader Janet Clowes said she was pleased with the performance.

Although some seats changed between the two major parties, it was the independents and Liberal Democrats who bore the brunt of losses, a situation highlighted in Congleton, where the Conservatives took a seat from the Lib Dems in the east of the town and Labour took an independent seat in the west.

"Elections are brutal affairs," Sam Corcoran told me afterwards.

I think those who lost their seats would definitely agree with him.

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