The Labour Party snatched a seat on Gloucester City Council, bucking the national trend. Tory councillor for Matson and Robinswood Stuart Wilson lost out to Labour candidate Kate Haigh by 122 votes.

The new councillor polled 1,066 votes, with Mr Wilson in second place with 944.

Matson and Robinswood was the only seat out of 11 to change.

The rest stayed the same, with the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives each winning four seats and Labour winning three.

The city could see a dramatic shift in the balance of power if the Lib Dems, with their 12 seats, form a coalition with Labour, which has nine, outnumbering the Tories who have 15 seats.

The Conservatives yesterday chose Paul James as their new leader following the decision by city council and party leader Mark Hawthorne to stand down.

The Tories held on to his former seat with incoming Kathy Williams polling 1,884 votes.

Another victory was for Barton and Tredworth councillor Harjit Gill, who kept his seat after a controversial battle with Liberal Democrat candidate Shabbir Ahmed Bham.

Mr Bham - who refused to talk to The Citizen following his defeat by 199 votes - caused a stir when he posted leaflets appealing directly to the Muslim community to vote for him.

Amid cheers from all parties, Coun Gill said: "Barton and Tredworth is such a good area and we have many different communities which are united.

"This has showed that one person cannot divide when people are together.

"It was dangerous for the community. And Muslim people were just as upset as anyone else."

There was an overall turnout of 34.8% for the Matson and Robinswood ward, which has 7,256 on its electoral roll.

Mr Wilson said he was disappointed because he felt people had forgotten to vote on local issues.

He said: "It's always been a close call here, it was when I won the seat four years ago.

"I won by a couple of dozen votes then.

"I'm going to dust myself off and I'll be back in a short time."

Kate Haigh said she was pleased that four years of legwork by her team had paid off.

"Anti-social behaviour is a big issue here," she said.

"But so is recycling and garden waste - it's a green and leafy place.

"I think the important story here is that Labour has bucked the national trend."