As counting continues to expose the scope of voters desertion of the government in Saturday's council elections, the Labor party has claimed the ballots as a verdict against not just forced council mergers but what it describes as an "overdevelopment agenda" the government must drop.

Preference flows continue to be allocated for the more than 45 councils that took more than one-third of NSW voters to the polls on Saturday, but they are progressively revealing voters are moving away from the Liberal party, especially in key parts of its heartland.

Ryde Labor councillor Jerome Laxale with NSW opposition leader Luke Foley and candidate Peter Kim on Sunday.

"What we saw yesterday across NSW was the Liberals receive a hiding," a triumphant opposition leader, Luke Foley, said on Sunday in Ryde, an area where the party achieved a close to 15 per cent swing in a council the Liberals controlled outright following the last election. "They forced mergers, they rigged boundaries and people across NSW punished them."

Fresh results on Sunday morning reveal further Liberal losses in Waverley Council, where the party lost its majority on the council, reduced from seven seats to five.