LANCASTER Town Hall saw plenty of drama for the county council elections.

A former county council chairman lost his seat, another was decided by just 37 votes after two recounts, and the Green Party's progress reached another landmark with the election of their first county councillor.

The most exciting race came in the Lancaster rural south ward, currently held by Lancaster Mayor, Liberal Democrat Cllr Pat Quinton.

The first count saw long serving Lancaster rural north Conservative Cllr David Wood take a lead of just 10 votes.

Cllr Wood, who switched to take on Cllr Quinton at this election, received an extra 27 votes which had been inadvertantly given to Green candidate, Tony Pinkney.

Another count was completed just to be on the safe side and, in the end, Cllr Wood claimed victory by just 37 votes from Cllr Quinton and just 249 votes ahead of Labour's Ian Hilton.

The only other ward to change hands was Lancaster City, where the Green party came from fourth to first, unseating Labour's Cllr Bob Clarke.

It capped a memorable day for the Greens, who also forced their way into second place in Lancaster East.

Across Lancaster and Morecambe they picked up far more votes in the county elections than in the General Election.

Winning candidate Jonathan Sear gave his thoughts on the situation: "The local area is small enough that a good local candidate who can get things done can beat the first past the post system. You can get through to everyone. That isn't possible at a general election."

Elsewhere in the area, most councillors were returned with few problems. Labour's Nikki Penney (Skerton), Jean Yates (Heysham) and Ruth Henig (Lancaster East) won comfortably.

Albert Thornton had a harder time in Morecambe East, ending with a majority of less than 300 from Conservative Penelope Burton.

In Morecambe West, Derrick Stanley held on, while Independent David Kerr and his former MBI colleague Mark Turner battled it out for last place, a particularly bitter contest especially after Cllr Turner had complained about Cllr Kerr to the returning officer (who was then duty-bound to notify the police) for failing to include the words 'printed and published by' on his leaflets.

Conservative Cllr Sarah Fishwick kept Lancaster Rural North while fellow Tory Anthony Jones held on to Lancaster Rural Central.