FORMER Forest of Dean Council leader Patrick Molyneux has lost his seat on the authority after a long career at the Coleford council offices.

Mr Molyneux as defeated in the local council elections by the Green Party’s Chris McFarling who was the cabinet member for the environment on the Rainbow Alliance in the last administration.

Cllr McFarling won by six hundred votes in the two-candidate contest at St Briavels and, in his acceptance speech, he said: “I would like to thank Patrick for standing against me again.

“The last time he beat me, he said ‘Better luck next time’.”

Mr Molyneux will, though, not be lost to local politics as he continues to hold a seat on the Gloucestershire County Council.

It was the sixth victory for the Green Party as the election count for the 21 seats and 38 councillors went into the latter stages on Friday afternoon.

UKIP’S Alan Grant became the second district council cabinet member to lose his seat after deputy leader Roger James as he was defeated in the Pillowell ward by Green candidate Andy Moore.

But two other cabinet members, Paul Hiett and Richard Leppington, have managed to survive the cull as the changing of the guard continued with avengeance.

Mr Grant was the cabinet member for planning policy and wellbeing on the Rainbow Alliance of the previous administration but lost out in his Pillowell ward to Green Party candidate Andy Moore.

And as the results rolled in, the Greens and Independents were taking seats off the main two parties.

The Independents were on six after around half the wards were declared, which is more than they had in the Rainbow Alliance, while the Green Party had surged from two councillors to five with more possibilities to come.

Cllrs Leppington and Hiett won in Bream with Leppington, standing without a party name as the Forest Independent Alliance he belongs to, which is the new name for Forest First, is not a registered party.

Therefore, Cllr Leppington will add another independent ward to the council.

One interesting story was the election of returning councillor Andrew Gardiner and his grandson Thom Forester in the Mitcheldean, Ruardean and Drybrook wards.

Meanwhile, Labour activist Zac Arnold, who was arrested earlier this year outside Lydney Town Council’s offices, lost out in his bid to take a district council seat in Lydney East, although he is expecting to win a seat on the Town Council when the votes are counted on Saturday.

Last year’s deputy chairman, Cllr James Bevan, who was a Conservative before standing in this election as an independent, was one of three winners at Lydney East.

Conservatives Alan Preest and Claire Vaughan were both elected.

As the results began to draw to a close, the largest group was the independents who had 11 elected members, while the Conservatives had dropped dramatically from 19 councillors in the previous administration to just three before the last four results were declared.