WINCHESTER's heavyweight parties slugged themselves to a stalemate at the elections.

However, the Tories and Liberal Democrats battered Labour to near oblivion.

They first took a seat off each other and then pummelled Labour into third place in the two seats the party were defending.

City councillor Antony de Peyer garnered only 443 votes in St John and All Saints, the former Labour heartland of Winnall and Highcliffe. David Smith, its candidate in St Luke, covering the Stanmore estate, polled an embarrassingly low 148.

It means that Winchester now has only one Labour councillor, when in 1945 it returned a Labour MP, and six councillors as recently as the late 1990s.

Political annihilation is facing the local party when its council seat is up for re-election in 2010.

The collapse of the Labour vote allowed the Liberal Democrats to make an overall gain of seats for the first time in several years.

But the reality is that the political tide is still flowing in the Conservatives' direction. Despite defending ten of the 19 seats they lost none overall and keep a firm grip on the council.

Council leader George Beckett, speaking after the count at the Guildhall yesterday afternoon, said: "We have had two very good years and we cannot go on winning indefinitely. We have consolidated our position."

Mr de Peyer was too upset to discuss his defeat with the Daily Echo. However, Councillor Chris Pines, next year's mayor, said it was too soon to write off Labour. "There are always ups and downs in politics. But we can't deny that we are disappointed."

Mr Pines said the composition of Labour's local heartland was changing. "The demographics have completely changed. Stanmore was once a council estate. Now a fifth is student occupation," he said.

For the Lib Dems the wins against Labour cannot wholly disguise the fact that they could make no inroads against the Tories.

At least they did stop the run of losing seats at recent elections. The Lib Dems did oust Tory Murray MacMillan to win Compton and Otterbourne through Eleanor Bell. But they lost Owslebury and Curdridge when Robert Humby beat Ian Merritt.

Senior Lib Dem Kelsie Learney said: "We are pleased to have won the seats we targeted, apart from Whiteley" (retained by the Conservatives with a majority of just 19 and after a recount).

The Lib Dems welcomed to the council veteran campaigner Karen Barratt who helped delay for five years the famous Byron Avenue phone mast. Mrs Barratt said: "This is new territory for me. But I am not going on to the council for a quiet life."

Mayor Sue Nelmes held off the challenge of Winchester's first Muslim candidate Abdul Kayum. Former mayor and council leader Allan Mitchell narrowly failed to win back a council seat.