Council leader Keith Mercer did not have the "easy meat" target of sitting Labour councillors to conduct his own turkey shoot, but he must be well pleased to have increased his party's majority over the Lib Dems by another three seats. The Tories now have 25 councillors, compared with the Lib Dems' 12.

This must really rankle the Lib Dems, after their hard campaigning on all sorts of issues during the past year. They were able to crow "We told you so", after the Tory administration finally decided it couldn't afford a leasing deal with the developers to site Worthing's Aquarena replacement within the proposed Teville Gate leisure and homes complex.

Then there is the business of the cycle lane along the western promenade. The Lib Dems have fought for a couple of years to get the Tories to allow cycling on the prom. And recently, the Conservatives relented to allow cycling on at least part of the way.

Two "winners" for the Lib Dems — but not enough weight behind them to reverse, or even dent, the Tories' council majority.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the recent borough budget gave Worthing an average household council tax bill of £1,160, the lowest in West Sussex.

The Lib Dems will be hoping for more success in this direction with their attacks on the costs of setting up shared services with Adur District Council. Will they mean a higher council tax bill? We must wait and see.

And talking of vote-winning issues, the Stop! Durrington's Overdevelopment — Save Titnore's Trees party must be a trifle disappointed by garnering only 99 votes in Northbrook ward, just six more than the British National Party.

I would ask, where were all the "green" voters in Northbrook on Thursday? In fact, where were the voters? Only 26 per cent of the electorate voted, which, I suppose, is marginally better than the wretched figure of 22.09 per cent recorded in 2006.

Voters can be a fickle lot, however. The Lib Dems have had their turn in running Worthing's Town Hall during the past 10 years, and the Lib Dems and even Labour have had a hand in controlling affairs at neighbouring Adur.

And it was only 11 years ago that the Lib Dems were in charge of West Sussex County Council with 34 seats, as against the Tories' 26, Labour's 10, plus one independent.

Now, the county Tories have a majority of more than 20 seats. And in Adur, after Thursday's elections, there is only one Lib Dem councillor and two independent members, as against 26 Tory councillors.


Harking back to Labour's unpopularity, I note that the British National Party notched up 233 votes in Selden ward on Thursday — 100 more than the fourth-placed Labour candidate. Now that's a real one-in-the-eye for Gordon Brown's policies.