The Liberal Democrats have taken control of Three Rivers District Council.

The party managed to take a seat from the Conservatives in the key marginal ward of Gade Valley.

In the by-election last night, Liberal Democrats secured a massive majority with 60.9 per cent of the vote, followed by Conservatives with 19.1 per cent and Labour with 11.6 per cent.

UKIP secured 6.7 per cent and the Green Party had 1.8 per cent.

But turnout was poor, with only 20.75 per cent of the electorate voting. Councillor Alex Michaels won the election with 626 votes out of 1,028.

The election was called after Conservatives Leslie Proctor died in November.

READ MORE: Tributes paid to senior councillor who has died

The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, said: “We finished 2016 winning by-elections and tonight we have shown that the Lib Dem fightback is going from strength to strength.”

Councillors from the Liberal Democrats and Conservative Party were not available to comment and Conservative councillor David Sansom was unaware of the result.