The Conservative party has taken overall control at Monmouthshire County Council in a night which saw the administration increase its holding by six seats.

With the Tories picking up 25 of the 43 available seats their Lib Dem partners suffered the shock loss of group leader and deputy leader of the authority Councillor Phil Hobson, while Labour lost one of the seats it previously held bringing its total on the new shape Council to ten.

Independent representation saw the biggest drop with just five councillors now in place rather than the ten before the election with the Lib Dems maintaining its holding of three.

The biggest Tory shock of the night saw Councillor John Prosser of Abergavenny’s Priory Ward losing his seat to Labour challenger Tudor Thomas by a margin of just three votes.

Council leader and deputy leader Peter Fox and Bob Greenland were both returned with safe majorities with a ’shocked’ Councillor Sheila Woodhouse taking the Grofield seat previously helped by Lib Dem Douglas Edwards.