THE leader of Dudley Council says he’s “confident” the Labour Party will retain control of the authority after next week’s local election.

Dudley Conservatives have been in buoyant spirits about their chances of regaining control of the council, which they lost to Labour in 2012.

But Councillor Pete Lowe, leader of the authority, remained upbeat about Labour’s chances of keeping its grip on the cash-strapped council, which faces an ongoing battle to maintain services against falling funds, when voters go to the polls next Thursday (May 5).

He said: “We’re confident we’ll remain the largest party. People we’ve been speaking to on the campaign trail are feeling confident and we’re very confident we’ll have a better night at the local election in 2016 than we did in 2015.

“We’re trying to run a positive campaign on what we’ve achieved locally.

“We’ve invested the limited funds we’ve got to help protect the most vulnerable in our community and we have the lowest council tax in the whole of the West Midlands - despite £50m worth of cuts.”

Voters in Wordsley, Kingswinford North and Wall Heath, Amblecote, Lye, Wollaston and Stourbridge Town, Belle Vale, Halesowen North, Gornal, Upper Gornal and Woodsetton, and Netherton could hold the key to determining which party wins control of the council as these have been declared by Labour as the most likely to change colour.

UKIP, meanwhile, are bracing themselves to hold the balance of power on May 6 - with Paul Brothwood, UKIP group leader on Dudley Council, predicting no party will succeed in winning overall control.

He said: "The Tories are a busted flush locally and Labour the same - we're expecting them (Labour) to lose a significant number of seats in Dudley. I think UKIP will hold the balance of power."