Meet the Greens, Liverpool's new opposition party

MEET the Greens, Liverpool City Council's official opposition from today after the Lib Dem meltdown in the city continued.

The duo of Green Party councillors in St Michaels, John Coyne and Sarah Jennings, saw the group's size double to four.  Tom Crone won St Michaels, previously an independent seat, and in Greenbank, Sefton Park Meadowlands campaigner Lawrence Brown snatched the seat from the Lib Dems.

The Lib Dems, once in command at the Town Hall with 70 councillors, now fill a tiny corner of the council chamber with just three members, group leader Richard Kemp, his wife Erica Kemp, both in Church ward, and over in Woolton, Cllr Barbara Mace.

It was a good day for Mayor Anderson who saw his Labour group making five gains at the expense of the Lib Dems. They took Cressington, Church, Childwall, Woolton and Mossley Hill.

Turnout in Liverpool was 30.7 per cent.

The two biggest scalps were veteran Lib Dems Malcolm Kelly in Woolton and Pat Maloney in Childwall.

In yesterday's poll, the Lib Dems didn't win or hold onto a single seat. Instead they were battered at the ballot boxes, even beaten by UKIP in a number of wards.

Last year, Labour won in Woolton by a small margin, and during most of today's count it seemed to be close. But Malcolm Kelly ended up just over 200 behind his Labour challenger.

Labour also attacked the Lib Dem heartlands of Church and Childwall where half a century ago Cyril Carr, helped by Sir Trevor Jones, started the revolution that eventually saw the rise of the Lib Dems, then known as the Liberal Party.

The line up of the council now stands at Labour 79, Green Party 4, Lib Dems 3, Liberal 3, Independent 1.

Although the Lib Dems have three councillors, they will effectively be reduced to two as Cllr Erica Kemp is about to be installed as Lord Mayor, taking over from Gary Millar.  By convention the Lord Mayor takes a back seat from politics during his or her year of office.

UKIP did spectacularly well in the city elections, fighting in 19 of the seats up for grabs. In 15 of them they came second:  Belle Vale, Clubmoor, County, Croxteth,  Everton, Fazakerley, Kensington & Fairfield, Knotty Ash, Norris Green, Old Swan, Picton, Riverside, Warbreck, Wavertree,  and West Derby.

And although they did not win any actual seats, more people voted for them than for the beleaguered Lib Dems.  

The result consolidates Labour's grip on power, and in reality ensures at least a decade of Labour rule, possibly even longer.

In Cressington, one-time Lib Dem Mossley Hill councillor Lynnie Hinnigan won for Labour.  She stood down after defecting and her success in the adjoining wards brings her back into front-line politics.

In Church Ward, where Labour won with a margin over the Lib Dems of 101 votes, one of the candidates was John Bradley, father of former council leader Warren Bradley. He came last out of five candidates, polling  190 votes - beaten even by the Conservative candidate.

For the Lib Dems it is over 50 years since they had such a low number of councillors in Liverpool.