VOTERS in Hartlepool bucked the national trend by giving Labour two extra seats on the council.

Despite a poor national showing in Thursday's local elections, the town was able to provide some joy for Tony Blair.

The party was even able to take the Burn Valley seat, bringing Independent and former mayor Doug Ferriday's 35-year service to an end.

Labour's traditional strong vote held firm and the party, which also picked up an extra seat from the Liberal Democrats, took its total to 27.

Labour now has a distinct majority on the 48-seat council, after the Lib Dems lost two seats and Independents lost two and gained one.

There was joy in another political direction. The North-East's first UK Independence Party (UKIP) councillor was elected in Hartlepool, when Stephen Allison snatched the St Hilda ward from the previous Independent incumbent.

Councillor Allison, who beat the Conservatives into third place in the town's parliamentary by-election in 2004, had previously served the ward as an Independent before defecting to UKIP.

He said: "I believe I am the first of what will become many UKIP councillors, both here in Hartlepool and the North-East.

"People say of the smaller parties - the new parties, such as ours - that we can't win seats. But we have proved that we can, and once you have proved that, then credibility starts to increase, and I am convinced that next year we will get more."

Coun Allison's delight was shared by Labour group leader Robbie Payne, who was hoping the fiasco of foreign prisoners being wrongly released and John Prescott's affair would not damage the party's vote in the town.

Following the result, Councillor Payne said: "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a much better result than I expected or hoped for.

"The people of Hartlepool have looked beyond the headlines of the past nine days and voted on nine years of what the Labour Party has delivered, whether it be the minimum wage or free travel for pensioners."

Lib Dem group leader Arthur Preece said his party lost seats it was defending as a result of recent ward boundary changes and a split anti-Labour vote.

Mr Preece was bitterly disappointed, but not shocked, by the loss of long-serving Bob Flintoff, in the re-shaped Fens ward, and Jean Kennedy, in the Stranton ward, where she was defending a majority of just ten.

Victor Tumilty was the only Lib Dem to hang on to his seat, but did so in spectacular fashion, turning a majority of one into one of almost 300 in the Grange ward.

Councillor Tumilty saw off the challenge of former Labour group leader Moss Boddy and Independent and ex-Labour stalwart Keith Fisher, to record 627 votes