CORNWALL'S new unitary authority will be a hung council after the Liberal Democrats saw their share of seats almost disappear in the county.

Some of the biggest names from the old county council were voted out by the electorate and only two members of the former ruling Lib-Dem executive have survived. Councillors at the forefront of controversial policies such as Newquay Airport, the fire service and healthcare in Cornwall, have all lost their seats.

The winners were the Conservatives, who have taken 50 out of the 123 seats in the new Cornwall Council, the independents who took 32 seats, and Mebyon Kernow (MK) with three members, will be sitting in County Hall for the first time.

One of the new MK members is Stuart Cullimore, a victim of personal abuse in a campaign leaflet highlighted by the Western Morning News.

The Labour Party is now wiped out on the county council. The Lib-Dems admitted it had been a "disappointing" day, while the Conservatives said their victory was tempered by bad feeling on the campaign trail over the Westminster expenses scandal. Among the many Lib-Dem seats lost yesterday were Andrew Mitchell who, as portfolio holder for the economy, was responsible for Newquay Airport, which was forced to close before Christmas when the council took over its running.

Mr Mitchell said last night: "It could well have been payback for the airport – the opposition certainly made a lot of it. I'm disappointed the report into what happened did not come out earlier and I don't think there will be any blame to apportion to political leaders."

Ken Yeo, former executive member for public protection, had also come under heavy criticism over plans to cut 24-hour fire cover at Falmouth and Camborne fire stations. Mr Yeo lost his seat at St Newlyn and Goonhavern to Jinny Clark, Conservative. Eric Parkin chaired the health and adult social care overview and scrutiny committee, which recently gave the go-ahead to plans to move some cancer surgery from Truro to a centre of excellence at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth. Mr Parkin was beaten into second place in Torpoint West by Tory Mike Pearn.

Matt McTaggart, former portfolio holder for highways, and Roger Bonney, ex-chairman of the planning committee, have both been voted out.

Lord Teverson, the former MEP, won his seat at St Mewan for the Lib-Dems. Ann Kerridge, Lib-Dem leader at County Hall, said: "There's been a bit of disappointment today. There are a lot of councillors who I respect who won't be there in the new council but it will be good to see new people." Mrs Kerridge said that the fundamental issue of whether it was right to change the system of local government in Cornwall had been brought up on the campaign rounds.

She added: "There were a certain number of people who were very upset about it."

Jim Currie, leader of the Conservative county councillors, said the Lib-Dems' downfall had been their over-ambition: "The last administration has left us with a legacy of problems and the public have decided that they are going to give us a chance to do better. The Lib-Dem problems came from having plans that were over-ambitious and lacking the capacity to fulfil them."

Mr Currie said that a hung council could be a good thing for everybody in Cornwall. "The last administration from 2001-2005 was a hung council and it was very successful."

He said the atmosphere on the campaign trail had suffered from the current MP expenses row.

"The majority of voters have not been affected by the situation in Parliament but a large minority have been and it has been very difficult communicating with the public. You never know who is going to give you a hard time – which we don't deserve because it's not our doing."

Pam Lyne, leader of the independent group, said it had been a "good day". "It's about what I expected for the independents and it's what I expected for the Lib-Dems. I could not see how they were going to get public support after four years of control.

"All in all, I'm pleased the independents have done so well – it will be beneficial for the people of Cornwall to have people working for their benefit rather than for a political party."

All party leaders said they would now be speaking to councillors to decide the best way forward for the council.

Mebyon Kernow picked up three seats – in Callington, St Enoder and Camborne South.

The latter saw a particularly hard-fought campaign with revelations this week of a leaflet sent out by the Lib-Dems referring to the Mebyon Kernow candidate in an abusive way.

Mr Cullimore took the seat with a margin of just 20 votes.

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