THE Labour council faces its biggest challenge yet in holding its own after winning by only two seats in the Gravesham elections.

The Conservatives took three seats away from the leading party leaving the result as 23 seats to Labour and 21 seats to the Conservatives.

The three wards that have shifted to Conservative hold are Riverview, Whitehill and Central.

The leader of the council, Rosemary Leadley, said at the end of the count: “I want to make a special mention to those that lost seats in tonight’s election results.

“We have all worked very hard and the Labour council will take notice of what the people of Gravesham want and will pay particular attention to the open spaces in the area.

“Good luck for the next four years.”

The leader of the opposition Michael Snelling said: “In four years time I will be making the first speech as leader of the council.

“I will be pushing for more cash to be put into tackling law and order.

“People don’t vote anymore because they don’t think local councils will change things for the better and partly because of the centralisation of Government taking away power from local councils.”