THE Liberal Democrats became the biggest party on Bolton Council in a night of shocks for Labour.

Labour leader Bob Howarth and his deputy, Guy Harkin, who have ruled the Town Hall for 24 years, were voted out as the Liberal Democrats gained seven seats.

But, for the second successive year, no party has overall control.

It is almost a three-way tie with the Lib Dems now having 21 seats, Labour 20 and the Conservatives 19.

It is expected that the Liberal Democrats will now try to form a coalition with one of the other parties to take control of Bolton council.

Lib Dem leader Cllr Barbara Ronson could become the council's first woman leader.

"It has been a terrific night," she said.

The shocks for Labour were repeated in council elections across the country. They looked set to finish in third place nationally.

In Bolton, both Labour and the Conservatives were stunned by the Lib Dems' surge from third to first place - just eight years ago they only had five seats.

Last night Labour leader Bob Howarth, who was defeated in the Crompton ward, admitted: "We have made mistakes."

There will now be a battle within the Labour Party to suceed Mr Howarth - the three contenders most likely to throw their hats into the ring are the present Mayor, Cliff Morris, Cllr Laurie Williamson and Cllr Frank White.

The outcome could have been worse for Labour - the woman chosen to be next Mayor, Labour councillor Prentice Howarth, nearly missed out on her prestigious position. She won her seat by just one vote.

In the early stages of yesterday's count at Bolton Arena, the Tories were highly confident they would steal power away from Labour. But in the end they had the same number of seats as before.

Before yesterday, Labour had 27 seats, the Tories 19 and Lib Dems 14. The controversial postal ballot system - which saw around 5,000 spoiled votes in the borough - was hailed a success with 42 per cent of voting slips being returned, matching last year's total, but bettering the 32 per cent turnout of 2002 when polling stations were in use. At the emergency polling stations in Halliwell and Rumworth - set up because of the non-delivery of hundreds of ballot papers -there were still queues at 10pm and police had to be called to keep the peace when the doors closed.

Kevin Meagher, chairman of Bolton South-east Labour Party, reflected upon a stormy night for his party.

He said: "Politics is about making choices and the people of Bolton have made their choice. We've fought a campaign on the issues not personalities.

"We've fought what we thought was a good campaign and have had a very proud 24 years running Bolton Council.

To read all our election news and view the results in Bolton, Bury, Wigan and Salford, visit our Election Results pages.