2006 St Albans City and District Council election

[3] The Liberal Democrats hoped to win a majority at the election and complained about decisions being delayed by the opposition parties.

[3] The Liberal Democrats regained overall control of the council that they had lost at the 1999 election after making a net gain of 2 seats.

[2] The 3 defeats for Labour included one in Sopwell ward, which they lost for what was described as "the first time in living memory".

[8] The winner in the ward was decided by getting the 2 candidates to pick the longer pencil resulting in the Liberal Democrat Judith Shardlow defeating the Conservative former mayor Keith Stammers.

[4][9] Meanwhile, the Conservative group on the council was reduced, when councillor John Newman, left the party to sit as an independent councillor after having recently being replaced as Conservative group leader on the council by Teresa Heritage.