A jubilant Mike Fisher promised to "turn Croydon around" after his party snatched the council from Labour.

It became apparent soon after Labour lost all three seats in Addiscombe at 2.18am last Friday that the Tories had wrestled control of the town hall.

And before the end result was officially confirmed as his own seat in Shirley was declared safe Councillor Fisher took to the stage to congratulate his party for its victorious gain.

In his speech a visibly delighted Coun Fisher said: "It's been a very, very good night for the people of Croydon. This is the best result we've had in 20 years. We celebrate tonight but tomorrow the hard work really starts, turning Croydon around and making it somewhere people want to live, work, stay and bring up their children."

After a bitterly-fought campaign which saw Labour and the Conservatives wheel out senior party figures the extent of the Tories' success even seemed to surprise the man who led them.

Coun Fisher told the Croydon Guardian afterwards: "When we went into this election many of us thought we might come out the other side with a majority of two or three and we'd have been happy with that but to actually come out with a majority of 16 is exceptionally good.

"I think the national picture didn't help Labour but I think overwhelmingly there were two local issues that helped.

"One was the level of council tax and the second was crime and the fear of crime and the inability of the council to deal with that problem.

"Our priorities are to get to grips with some of those big issues, particularly the finances of the borough. We need to see just how bad the finances are before we can actually start making some real changes."