Waveney's Liberal Democrats admitted they were 'hammered' in Waveney's parliamentary and local council elections – and hit out at the national party's targeting strategy for damaging their vote in the area.

The party scored one of its worst ever results in Waveney this year, scoring just two per cent of the vote with 1,055 votes.

That was an even lower number of votes than some candidates scored in district council seats, which have a fraction of the number of voters.

It meant the party lost its £500 deposit – those standing have to score five per cent of the vote to have the money returned – and to add further insult to injury, it came last behind the Green Party.

Waveney parliamentary candidate Steve Gordon had admitted before the election that the Liberal Democrats stood little chance in the seat, saying: 'For years it has oscillated between Labour and Conservative and, quite frankly, it's unlikely to be anything other than those two.'

However the result was even worse than the party had fared in previous years, with its share of the vote slumping by 11 per cent from what it got in 2010.

It had also fielded just three candidates in the district council elections, and Mr Gordon was only selected to fight the seat little more than a month ahead of polling day.

Liberal Democrat activist Adam Robertson, who stood as a candidate for Pakefield in the district council elections, said the result was partly down to the fact the party had been in coalition.

'We've taken a lot of flak as the junior partner,' he said, highlighting tuition fees as a particularly issue that had affected the Liberal Democrats' popularity.

But he also criticised the 'bad party organisation, by focusing everything on our target seats'.

'We've put up a good fight but what else can you say – we're going to get hammered,' he added.

Doug Farmer, Mr Gordon's agent in the election, said early on during the count at Lowestoft's Waterlane Leisure Centre: 'It's not looking good.

'The reality is that since 2010, we've been polling at about two to three per cent. We've lost the protest vote and the Tories have managed to take the credit for most of the good things done in government.'

He admitted that the Liberal Democrats' broken promise on tuition fees had been a 'big issue' amongst voters – but said the other parties had got away with broken promises of their own.

What do you think of the Liberal Democrats' performance? Email: andrew.papworth@archant.co.uk