Mixed election night for smaller parties
With half of the local election results now in, the smaller parties have had mixed fortunes.
The Green Party appears to be on track to increase its number of councillors having also held all of their existing seats.
In Oxford the Greens gained four seats as Labour lost control of the council leaving no party in overall control
Two more seats were gained in Norwich and one in Watford.
With results still to come in from Yorkshire, where the Green Party has its largest number of councillors, the Greens claim they will meet their target of gaining ten new seats.
Opinion poll predictions of an electoral breakthrough for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) have failed to materialise.
UKIP has only gained two council seats so far – one in Hull and one in Derby.
Results from the European Parliamentary elections, which were the major target of the UKIP, will not be known until Sunday though.
The predicted gains by the British National Party fortunately did not emerge.
They slipped into fourth place on Burnley Council, loosing one seat to the Conservatives.
However they still hold six seats on the counil, having taken one from the Labour Party.
Stuart Caddy, Labour’s Burnley Council leader said he was delighted by the BNP’s failure. He told The Independent that: “This has taken three years of my life, but it is a fantastic achievement.
“I repeatedly said a BNP vote was a wasted vote.”
