Single-issue candidates in shock victories

Minority parties, including single-issue campaigns for hospitals and children's playgrounds, made surprise inroads throughout Britain.

In Worcestershire, an independent party set up to save Kidderminster Hospital won an overall majority on Wyre Forest Council at the expense of Labour, which lost five seats. The Kidderminster Hospital Health Concern Party made gains on the back of Dr Richard Taylor's success in the general election, when he unseated a minister, David Lock.

Dr Taylor said: "We have brought great awareness to the problem that there are a lot of smaller district general hospitals throughout the country that will be coming under threat because of shortages of staff. Purely locally, we have at last got the admission that what has been done here has been wrong and was done for financial reasons."

He said his group's councillors were all politically independent of allegiance, and that several of them already had experience of running the council in coalition.

"I suspect they are all like me and have voted for all three political parties in various elections. The difficulty is to work together and get a consensus for running the council."

Around the country, the Green Party, which suffered from an almost total publicity blackout in the campaign, lost five seats overall but more than doubled its share of the vote.

The Christian People's Alliance, which has never fielded candidates in local polls, fought 69 wards and saw the election of Alan Craig in Canning Town South, Newham, London.

The UK Independence party, which fielded 160 candidates, did not win any seats but said its share of the vote rose, including in Hartlepool where it won 25 per cent in one ward. "In Biggin Hill we forced Labour into fourth place," said a spokesman.

In Coventry, former Labour MP for Coventry South-east Dave Nellist – standing as a Socialist Alliance candidate – retained his St Michael's ward seat on the city council.

In Lewisham, south London, a party set up to campaign for a new secondary school, the Local Education Action by Parents Party celebrated the election of Helen Lefevere.

In north-west London, a party set up to save a playground won about 20 per cent of the vote. Michele Staniland, of the Save St John's Wood Adventure Playground party, stood for election in protest at a 40 per cent cut in their grant by the Conservative Westminster Council.

She said there had been a growth of single-issue parties over the past year because of disaffection with the Tories, Labour and Liberal Democrats. Ms Staniland, a teacher whose children use the playground every day, almost drew with Labour in the Abbey Road ward where she stood.

"This is the oldest adventure playground in London and the main parties did nothing when we went to them about the cuts," she said. "It's the first time I have ever been involved in politics in any way."

Other single parties that stood included the Save Arthur Simpson Library Party and the Fat Cat Party.