The Liberal Democrats retained control of Three Rivers with a slightly reduced majority following the all-out elections.

This year’s elections saw all 39 seats on the district council up for grabs, with three representatives being selected from each ward.

The changes to the ward boundaries meant the council dropped from 20 wards to 13, losing nine seats in the process.

At the close of the count, the Liberal Democrats secured 23 seats, the Conservatives 13 and Labour three, leaving the ruling party with a majority of seven. The Lib Dems had a majority of eight seats under the old political regime.

The three main political parties had a clean sweep in all wards bar one; Oxhey Hall and Hayling.

The Liberal Democrats dominated Abbots Langley and Bedmond, Chorleywood South and Maple Cross, Dickinsons, Durrants, Gade Valley, Leavesden and Penn and Mill End.

The Conservatives had a clean sweep in Carpenders Park, Chorleywood North and Sarratt, Moor Park and Eastbury and Rickmansworth.

Concerns were raised by the Labour group after the redrawing of the boundaries, which had the potential to be most damaging to the smallest of the main parties in the district.

All of Labours three seats were gained in South Oxhey.

Despite a strong showing on the ballot list from the UK Independence Party, they failed to grab any seats in the district.

Oxhey Hall and Hayling was the last of the wards to be announced and tension was high at the count amongst party leaders.

The ward became the only ward to split its support, with the Liberal Democrats taking two seats and the Conservatives taking one.

Leader of the council, Ann Shaw, who was standing in Chorleywood South and Maple Cross, said: "Obviously we are absolutely delighted because it is against the national trend. We held our majority, we had excellent candidates and we have a good record and worked very hard and I think it shows that the local residents appreciate that."

Speaking about her feelings during the count, Councillor Shaw said she was nervous, adding: "We never take anything for granted. All you can do is work as hard as you possibly can and hope you get the right result."

Ralph Sangster, leader of the district’s Conservative group, said: "I feel exhausted. We have worked really hard in the last few weeks and I think that everyone has put in a great show. We’ve narrowed the gap which is what we wanted to do. We are a bit disappointed in Oxhey Hall; we were hoping to take all three, but we got one, and I think that gives us a lot of opportunity in that particular area.

"The closeness in the Oxhey Hall had us all a little bit on edge and we are pleased that we were not over whelmed by a swing to the UKIP votes.

"We were a little bit concerned in Penn and Mill End where there seemed to be a bit of a surge in the sampling that we did yesterday but at the end of the day they didn’t figure as highly as we were anticipating."