Several longstanding Forest of Dean councillors have reflected on losing their seats at last week’s county council elections and have said “they could see it coming”.

Among those to lose their seats was Cinderford’s Graham Morgan. The veteran councillor, a former union rep, was first elected to Shire Hall in 2001.

“I had an idea that would happen,” he said. “They were put off by the main parties.”

He said the Reform candidate who won his seat told him he was a paper candidate who had not long moved to the town.

“They put themselves forward not knowing what they’ve let themselves in for,” he said.

Cllr Morgan, who will continue as chairman of the town council, said he felt sorry for his colleague Steve Robinson “who will be like Billy no mates” as he’s the only Labour councillor left at Shire Hall.

He said his party had “shot itself in the foot” by cutting the winter fuel allowance. “They ain’t the party I first joined,” he said.

“They have got a lot of academics and lawyers now. When I joined it was all working class people who came up through the unions. Charismatic characters, really. Like Bill Price my mate who was MP for Rugby.

“We haven’t got characters like that any more. Common sense people.

“We joined it because it was the only salvation we had. All our fathers were miners, we were in the same boat together.”

Cllr Morgan said he had enjoyed his 24 years on the council and made a lot of good friends across the political spectrum.

“I’m a bit disappointed but I ain’t going to cry about it but I enjoyed the county,” he said.

“I’ll miss good friends like (Liberal Democrat) Bernie Fisher and (Conservatives) Terry Hale and Rob Vines.”

Former county chairman Alan Preest said he too could “see it coming” during the campaign.

“The previous two weeks you could see that nervousness about people I had not seen for a long time,” the Lydney councillor said.

“Our team did a lot of work but the votes just went the way they went. I’ve congratulated the winner Mark Howard and pledged to work together with him and Johnathan Lane (the Green Party candidate).

“I was 16 years as county councillor. I had a great time. My health hasn’t been the best of late and I’m 61 this year and still a district councillor.

“Life brings some more opportunities. No hard feelings. The vote just went elsewhere.

“There’s going to be some interesting debates ahead. I hope that common sense prevails.

“We have built a legacy of a solvent council as Conservatives. We’ve lost some great councillors like Graham Morgan and Carole Allaway-Martin.”

And Terry Hale, who had represented Drybrook and Lydbrook, said his party needs to regroup and see what went wrong and plan for the next elections.

He had been a county councillor for 12 years.

“My fear now is as the Lib Dems have got in we will be the poor relation in the Forest and lose our identity,” he said.

“We will really struggle to fight for our heritage,” he said. “We haven’t got the numbers.”