SIX Liberal Democrat seats were ‘swept away in the national tsunami’ of ill feeling against the party.

Clr Ian Marks said the national tide of feeling in the country was the main factor which saw the Lib Dems slump to its worst electoral performance in more than a decade.

Five current councillors were unseated while the party also lost Alan Litton’s former seat in Great Sankey South – he stood down at the election.

Three seats of the seats the party held – Appleton, Stockton Heath and Lymm – were by narrow margins with Clr Marks himself clinging on to his seat by fewer than 200 votes.

He said the national picture had contributed greatly to the defeat.

“If I felt we had done a bad job then I would have looked at my own position.

“But it is completely clear there was a tsunami sweeping through and it swept us away,” he said.

The party now has 17 seats on the council, its lowest number since the early 2000s and has lost many of the seats it worked painstakingly to win, seizing control of the Town Hall with the Tories in 2006.

But he remains supportive of the national leadership.

“We have achieved a lot nationally in Government, we just have to get that message across. And we will be asserting our differences with the Conservatives from now on,” he explained.

Legacies of five years of running the council are easy to see, according to Clr Marks.

“We have made the council very much more business like and achieved savings of more than £30 million.

“And we have made it much more consumer focused with things like the opening of the Contact Centre – which was very important for me.

“Orford Park is the biggest legacy from the Olympics outside London and we have really put Warrington on the map both regionally and nationally.

“People do know about Warrington now.”

And he said the Lib Dems are already preparing for life on the opposition benches.