The Conservatives had a night to forget in Winchester as a Green politician had a Tory feeling blue on local election night.

The voices were loud and clear in the valleys on Thursday as the Liberal Democrats increased their hold on the Winchester City Council chamber, taking 33 out of 45 seats.

The Central Meon Valley contest provided one of the biggest shocks of the night with Green candidate Suzanne White romping home with 1,717 votes.

She denied Conservative candidate Linda Gemmell a comeback as the former city councillor trailed with 960 votes, while Eric Bodger (LD) and Oliver Hirsch (Lab), collected 579 and 80 votes, respectively, with 44 per voter turnout.

The seat was one of four the Conservatives lost on the evening with Alresford & Itchen Valley being another.

Claire Pinninger had a comfortable win for the Liberal Democrats, securing 1,768 votes, with Fiona Isaacs (1,283 Con), Dave Westley (148 Green) and Tessa Valentine (Lab 79) trailing.

There was also a shock in normally true-blue Denmead with Liberal Democrat Michael Bennett defeating long-serving Tory councillor Mike Read by just 20 votes. The former secured 1,006 votes to Mr Read’s 986.

The result left the Conservatives with their lowest ever number of seats in the Winchester council chamber with a delighted Liberal Democrat leader, Cllr Martin Tod, hailing a famous night in their history. He put some of their success down to campaigning, but admitted the national mood was a likely contributory factor.

He said: “We’ve got so many great new councillors joining the team and I think a lot our success is down to the record of our councillors on the ground.

“But there is definitely a factor that people are sick of the Conservative government and that there is a real desire for change. I’m meeting a lot of people who are just at the end of the line as far as the Conservatives are concerned.”

His Conservative counterpart, Cllr Caroline Horrill, admitted her party is in a “difficult political situation” nationally.

She said: “A lot of people are disenfranchised with politics and I felt it on the doorsteps.”