AS election night wore on in the city the mood of Gary Long, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in Nottingham, turned from disappointment to anger.
From the moment the first ballots in his Leen Valley ward spilled on to the counting tables at the Harvey Hadden Leisure Centre, it was clear he and his party were in for a difficult time.
And by the early hours it was apparent that the result was worse than he had imagined – all six Lib Dem councillors were being swept away on a red tide of Labour votes.
It was not just the Lib Dems. The Tories lost two of their seven seats to Labour, including their leader, Andrew Price, on an extraordinary night which saw Labour take 50 seats, up from 42 in 2007.
Labour's opposition in the city has fallen from 13 councillors to just five Tories.
Mr Long wasted no time in pointing the finger of blame, and he was the first regional Lib Dem leader to call for Nick Clegg to resign.
"This is clearly national," said a shell-shocked Mr Long. "I am proud of the campaigns Lib Dems in Nottingham have fought. I blame Nick Clegg and the man should resign straight away. I have worked with five excellent Lib Dem councillors in Nottingham and I don't think any of them deserved to lose on their local record.
"Nick Clegg is trying to make it look like there is no disagreement between us and the Tories within the Coalition Government so we are being blamed for everything. He made a complete mess of the tuition fees issue and lost the trust of the majority of the people of Nottingham."
Mr Long, who has been a councillor for 18 years, admitted he and his colleagues were "devastated" by their defeats. He fears the near total domination of the Labour Party will not be good for the city.
"There was already a lack of challenge to the ruling group and now there is even less," he said. "The Lib Dems in Nottingham have been instrumental in bringing to the public's attention secret reports into council performance, a lack of investigation into the housing scandal, the use of consultant Harold Tinworth, and highlighted the need for investigation into the Future Jobs Fund. They are important issues but it will be much more difficult to do that scrutiny from outside the council."
The Conservatives face the tough task of holding the Labour council to account with one tenth of the councillors.
They will not qualify for a taxpayer-funded researcher, will not be able to cover the nine portfolios within the executive and won't be able to field a representative on all council committees.
Councillor Georgina Culley, deputy leader of the Tories, who was re-elected in Wollaton West, said: "Having been in a similar situation before I know it's very difficult for us to put opposition up, but we will do our best.
"We're not down and we're not beaten, this has only made us stronger. Our concern is that it will be that much tougher than it has been in terms of what support we have to be able to hold Labour to account."
She said the group will meet on Monday to discuss where they go from here and make decisions on the leadership.
Talking about Labour's landslide in the city, she added: "I think that Labour fought a very dirty campaign, they have for many years. They make accusations and put out literature claiming we're doing things that we're not going to do, for instance saying we're selling off the Theatre Royal – we've never even discussed it."
But Councillor Jon Collins, leader of the Labour group, put their success down to an effective campaign.
The formidable Labour campaign machine in Nottingham swung into action and targeted known supporters and got them out to vote.
They took advantage of the party's standing in the national polls, which was up seven percentage points, comparted to 2007 when elections were last held.
Labour went on the offensive in Leen Valley, Wollaton East/Lenton Abbey and Bridge (The Meadows), where the party gained five of the six Lib Dem seats.
Mr Collins said: "And that [campaign], together with what is clearly a national dislike of the way the Liberal Democrats have put the Conservative party into office nationally and even at the expense of most of their election pledges has led to a dramatic fall in Liberal Democrat votes and helped us take all of their seats in Nottingham," said Mr Collins.
But he denied that a lack of opposition could be damaging for the city. "There will be less opposition because there are fewer opposition councillors but that doesn't mean that it will lead to a less effective government or less effective or open decision-making. The onus is on us to ensure that the decisions are clear, rational and open to public scrutiny."
Privately Labour members recognise such a huge group, and such domination, may bring its own problems.
"You can be too safe," said one old hand.
There are concerns, about a "lack of challenge" to policy and decisions, further centralisation of power in the hands of a small number of executive members and questions about how to keep members of such a large group occupied, since there will not be enough official positions to go around.
But a new generation of often young and able Labour councillors are now taking their place on the council.
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