THE Chester-le-Street ruling Labour party is settling into a new term in office, after surviving an election that elsewhere in the region spelt disaster for the party.

Labour's strong majority in Durham and York was toppled for the first time in about 20 years, while in other districts such as Derwentside and Sedgefield, Labour had their majority severely dented.

But in Chester-le-Street the Labour Party maintained its tight grip on the council and lost only one seat, leaving it in control with 29 out of 34 seats.

Part of the reason for the status quo was that in more than half the seats there was no contest.

No-one stood against the existing Labour councillors in eight of the wards - Chester West, Edmondsley and Waldridge Ward, Grange Villa and West Pelton, Kimblesworth and Plawsworth, Ouston, Pelton Fell, Sacriston and Urpeth.

Despite this, there are many new faces, with about half the Labour candidates new to the council.

The Liberal Democrats, who have secured massive gains in other councils in the North-East, did not field any candidates to fight the Chester-le-Street election.

Fiona Hall, regional spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said this was because they felt the party was stronger in other parts of the county.

She said: "Historically there's some parts of County Durham where we're stronger than others, but now even where there's places where we haven't been particularly strong we're seeing our vote increase."

Giving a hint that the next election in Chester-le-Street may see more Liberal Democrat candidates, she added: "I certainly expect that kind of progress to continue, there aren't any 'no go' areas any more."

The biggest gains in last week's elections were for the Independents, who gained three seats, leaving them with four councillors on the council, one of which is former Labour councillor and chairman, Coun Bill Laverick, who was re-elected as an Independent member.

Conservative councillor Peter May retained the party's single seat on the council in the North Lodge ward.

Last week's election hailed a number of firsts for the authority, as it was the first in the country to pilot a postal vote with e-counting in an election staged jointly with Derwentside and Wear Valley councils.

In line with other local authorities that staged postal voting, the council secured a 20 per cent increase in the number of people who voted, with about 50 per cent of the electorate voting.