Cllr Iain Lindley – Prospective Conservative MP for Worsley & Eccles South
Spent this morning gardening with volunteers from Friends of Walkden Station – hauling 3 huge planters together with ballast and compost up the steps and then adding the plants.
It was hard work but well worth the effort as the end results look excellent.
A huge thank-you to all the FOWS volunteers and particularly to Angela and Neil who were co-ordinating the gardening efforts!
A few comments on the Walkden South election result. I’m delighted that Nicky has joined Les and I on the Council, and that a ward which had never elected a Conservative before 2004 now has a full complement of 3 hard-working Conservative Councillors.
A huge thank-you to all local residents in Walkden South who turned out to support Nicky – and a big pat on the back to all residents who turned out to vote. At 40.3% only one ward (Worsley) had a higher turnout in the entire City of Salford.
CAVANAGH, Tommy (BNP) 336
OGDEN, Pauline (Liberal Democrat) 458
RYAN, Brendan Patrick (Labour) 815
TURNER, Nicky (Conservative) 1649
Turnout 40.3%
Conservative Majority 834
Here’s a graph of the Citywide vote shares. It’s neck-and-neck between Labour and the Conservatives across the whole City of Salford.
Next year it’s the European Elections and there must be a real possibility that the Conservatives will outpoll Labour across the City. I doubt this has ever happened before – anyone care to let me know?
I know that your Conservative Councillors (now all 13 of them!) will continue to listen to the concerns of all local residents - from Kersal to Cadishead and from Langworthy to Little Hulton. Labour have no moral mandate to run this City any more and we will challenge their poor decision-making at every opportunity.
I’m delighted by the results from across the country, but I’d particularly pleased that three friends and colleagues have been elected.
In Chester, a friend of mine from University Tom Parry was elected to the City ward of the new Cheshire West authority. Tom missed out on election to Chester City Council by a handful of votes last year and I’m delighted that he has been successful this time.
Closer to home, some excellent news from Wigan. James Grundy has been elected to the Lowton East ward on an unbelievable swing, and Sean Ell has been elected as the new Conservative Councillor for nearby Astley Mosley Common. James and Sean are the first Conservative Councillors in east Wigan (Leigh and Tyldesley) for three decades and I am absolutely over the moon that their hard work has paid off. Fantastic.
Congratulations to all our successful Conservative candidates across the country.
Just realised I never actually linked to the results… here they are…
http://www.salford.gov.uk/results
I’ll post a percentage breakdown when I get around to it!
I’m going to make another post about the overall vote shares across the City – they are truly astonishing. Remember this is Salford City Council – a supposedly rock-solid Labour Council that only 10 years ago was electing 57 Labour Councillors out of a total of 60 and no Conservatives at all.
Conservative 17472 (34.00%)
Labour 17899 (34.83%)
Liberal Democrat 10949 (21.31%)
We hear a lot of guff from Labour and the Liberal Democrats about Conservative performance in inner-city authorities. Well, here is a genuine northern City authority and the Conservative and Labour vote shares are separated by 0.83%. I wonder what Hazel has to say about that…
It’s been a fantastic night for the Conservatives in Salford. We have three new Councillors – in Walkden South, Eccles and Cadishead wards – and our vote share is up all across the City.
Labour have lost 6 seats, 3 to us, 2 to the Liberal Democrats and 1 to Community Action – the latter in Irlam where GMPTA Chairman Roger Jones collapsed into third place. They have failed to win a majority of seats contested and they have lost their moral mandate to run Salford City Council.
Even more startling are the vote shares across the City:
Con 17472 (34.00%)
Lab 17899 (34.83%)
LD 10949 (21.31%)
Across the whole of the City of Salford, a Labour heartland Council which has had a Labour majority since it was created, the Labour lead over the opposition Conservatives was a mere 427 votes – 0.83%. It is a disastrous result for Labour. In the wards making up the new Worsley & Eccles South Parliamentary constituency, Conservatives lead Labour by a whopping 12%.
More tomorrow!
At Broadway polling station. Weather fine. Polling steady, becoming more brisk. No sign of Labour.
The weather is currently quite pleasant, but was a bit patchy earlier with some rain – a big improvement on the forecast which was not good at all.
Voting in Walkden South is steady with the best turnout at James Brindley (polling district JE).
Saw Barry the Anarchist leafleting for LibDem candidate Martin O’Neill on Folly Lane in Swinton while passing through. No sign of any other party here in Walkden or in Eccles where I popped by for an hour earlier in the day.
Conservative Party News
Liberal Democrats – Patronising Here!
Interesting to listen to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg trying to spin the results yesterday – he talked about the Conservatives making no progress in (I paraphrase, I’ve been trying to find the video and haven’t yet succeeded) the “big important northern cities”.
Clearly the Liberal Democrat leadership do not feel that Salford, where we gained 3 seats and polled as many votes as Labour across the City, is an important northern City. Presumably the Liberal Democrats are happy to talk down to other northern Cities like Wakefield (7 Conservative gains) and Sunderland (5 Conservative gains).
The Salford Liberal Democrats had a decent night on Thursday, gaining 2 seats from Labour and holding on to the 2 wards they were defending, so it must be a real kick in the teeth to hear how dismissive their Party Leader is about the City in which we all live.