Breakthrough in the North | Tide turns in Wales | Mixed night for Lib Dems | Red Box blog | Analysis | Graphic: the election battlegrounds

Conservative councillors and their supporters woke this morning to Tory overall control of Bury council for the first time in 22 years.

After a nail-biting night, with the Redvales ward the final result to be announced with the Tories still needing a third gain to win majority control, the Conservative leader of the council, Bob Bibby, told Times Online he was delighted with the outcome of the poll.

“The three seats we won were our target seats, there was only one we didn’t get but we gave them a good run in that one as well,” he said. “The reason we did well is that we listened to the people of Bury. We were successful in keeping council tax down, we kept it under control and gave discounts to the elderly. And we extended the payment scheme for it.

"In addition, we looked at parking in the borough for people who just wanted to come in to the town centre for a short while, now they don’t have to pay for that.”

He added that voters had recognised that the party has changed under David Cameron and were now happy to vote Conservative.

The Tories have spent years trying to wrest power away from Labour on Bury council. In 2007, they made modest gains meaning that Labour was denied leadership of the council for the first time in 21 years.

Following yesterday’s election, the Tories have 26 seats in Bury’s council chamber. Labour are down to 16, after losing three seats to the Conservatives and one to the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems increased their seats by one to nine. Turnout was virtually the same as last year with 38 per cent of the electorate voting by postal vote or in person.

David Nuttall, the Tory prospective parliamentary candidate for Bury North, said: “We have worked really hard on this election so it feels very good to have won control of the council. But the real winners are the people of Bury who have voted for change. They voted in larger numbers than they did last year for Conservative candidates.”

David Cameron is visiting Bury today to thank Conservative councillors and supporters for their work.

Times Recommends

• Family cuts its waste to one binful a year
• Cameron can learn from Thatcher in 1979
• VAT is back ... and it's confusing