THE Conservatives have taken control of Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council after gaining six new seats in Thursday's election.

The losers of the night were the Liberal Democrats who lost seven seats - among them the Mayor and Mayoress, Stephen and Janis Cresswell, who lost their seats in the East Peckham and Golden Green ward to Conservative candidates Elizabeth Holland and Howard Rogers.

Mr Cresswell, who has held his seat for six years, said: "I knew it was going to be close but when I saw the votes going against us I realised it may be all over.

"There has been quite a swing and it was not a case of being upset but facing reality - I have really appreciated the last four years but this time the voters did not want to know."

The Conservatives now hold 33 of the council's 53 seats, the Liberal Democrats 13 and Labour seven.

In the new West Malling and Leybourne ward all three seats were won by the Conservatives including the council's Conservative party leader, Cllr Mark Worrall, who earned a comfortable victory with 1,253 votes.

Trailing behind him were Conservative comrades, Brian Luker with 1,134 votes and Sandra Luck, with 1072 votes.

Cllr Worrall, who now stands to become leader of Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, hailed it an outright victory for his party.

He said: "I think we were talking about issues that mattered to people and our focus when campaigning was all about putting local people first.

"All of our people are both humbled and grateful that the public has put its trust in us and we will now do our absolute best to justify the responsibility they have given us."

There was a surprise Conservative gain in the traditionally Liberal Democrat Wateringbury ward, where Cllr Susan Levett (Lib Dem) lost the seat she has held for 11 years to new Conservative candidate Richard Brown. His was a narrow victory: he received 301 votes to Cllr Levett's 294.

The Liberal Democrats managed to keep complete control of six of their long-term strongholds, Aylesford, Ditton, East Malling, Vauxhall, and both Larkfield North and South.

The leader of Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council's Liberal Democrat group, Cllr David Thornewell, who held on to his seat in the Larkfield North ward said: "We won several seats in 1995 and 1999 with narrow majorities and this time the narrow majorities have gone against us. It's disappointing."

This year turnout was not significantly different to the last election in 1999, with 32.66 per cent of the 82,494 people eligible to vote doing so.

Four years ago, 32.87 per cent of the 80,255 people who could vote did so.