On 3rd May I marked the 30th anniversary of my first election as a Liberal Councillor for Smithills Ward. In those days it had been a relatively safe Conservative seat, but we managed to grab it by a close 151 votes. This year one of the ways I marked the anniversary was by casting a postal vote for the Liberal Democrat candidate, Andrew Martin.

The political scene in Smithills has changed a lot since then 1984. Boundary and demographic changes and the formation of the Coalition Government means that the Conservative vote has dwindled and the main challenge now comes from Labour. In the last election (2012) Labour came within 46 votes of their first ever win in Smithills – far too close for comfort.

We went into this year’s election with Smithills having the lowest majority of any ward in Bolton and with a new candidate. Smithills was one of Labour’s main targets for a gain, and they poured massive resources into it.

Despite the ‘UKIP factor’ (they got over 800 votes in Smithills) the Liberal Democrat vote actually went up compared with last time, while Labour, the Conservatives and the Greens all went down.   

In the circumstances, this was a fantastic result. I would like to thank everybody in Smithills who voted – once again, Smithills had the highest turnout of any ward in Bolton.

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