The Liberal Democrats are ‘not in active talks’ with Labour to form a coalition at Durham County Council, a councillor has said.
It comes after the ruling Labour administration lost its majority at the local authority for the first time in almost a century.
Labour fell short of the 64 seats needed for outright control, winning 53 - a drop of 16 - while the Conservative group numbers jumped from 10 to 24.
The Independents won 21 seats, up nine, and Liberal Democrats gained two, winning 17 seats.
Coun Elizabeth Scott, who was re-elected for Neville's Cross Ward, said the Liberal Democrats were not speaking to Labour about forming a coalition.
She said: “There are many different options on the table at the moment but there are not any active discussions with Labour.
“Options might be a Labour coalition with someone else, everyone else in a coalition together, or another option is there is no coalition with anybody.
“The only thing I can say is we are not having active talks with Labour.”
Coun Scott said there were a number of reasons why voters turned their backs on Labour, including the new multi-million pound headquarters currently being built in the city.
The £50m headquarters received more than 1,000 objections from members of the public but was still approved by the Labour administration.
She said: “They have not listened to people for a very long time. I think they have really taken things for granted, taken the voters for granted.
“I think things like how they treated teaching assistants three years ago was really damaging for them.
"The DLI Museum is a really big issue still, I think the new County Hall was the death knell for them.
“More than 1,000 people objected to that and they completely disregarded it.
“They seemed to think they could do what they wanted to do without respecting the people who voted them in and they are paying the price.”
The popularity of the Liberal Democrats also saw the group increase its number of councillors on the City of Durham Parish Council, winning 11 of the 15 seats.
Coun Scott said: “I think we have a good reputation. We stick up for what residents believe in and at parish level people have seen that. We have taken a stand against Durham County Council.”
On Monday, Coun Simon Henig resigned from his position as leader of the Labour Group saying it was “time for someone else to lead us through this next phase”.
Coun Henig, who represents Chester-le-Street West Central, became leader of Durham County Council in 2008.
