Beyond my wildest dreams

We always knew that winning control of Sheffield was a real possibility, despite the (now ex-) Tory councillor saying in her leaflets that the Lib Dems couldn’t possibly take control. But the result of Thursday’s election was absolutely stunning. It wasn’t just the upper end of what we expected, but the upper end and then some. The best examples of how big a win it was are:

• In 2007 we held East Ecclesfield with a majority of 74. This year we won by 692.
• In 2007 we gained Hillsborough from Labour by 491 votes. This year we took our second seat in the ward with a majority of 1,119. As a result the Lib Dems elect another blogger - Joe Taylor - and someone who I think will go a long way in the council group.
• Last year Gail Smith reduced Labour’s majority in Mosborough to 349. This year in a double-vacancy not only did Gail Smith and Chris Tutt become the Lib Dem councillors for the ward, but Gail got 791 votes more than the highest placed Labour candidate. It was particularly good to see us win this ward at last as we have long thought it was somewhere that should be good territory for the Lib Dems. It is also the ward I stood in ten years ago as a paper candidate.
• Finally, the most amazing result was in Walkley. Last year Penny Baker gained the seat from Labour with a majority of just 36. Despite a huge campaign from Labour that included some nasty and scaremongering literature, Lib Dem Diane Leek won with a majority of 780. Although we have had councillors in Walkley for around 15 years we have never managed to get a large majority, this year was the exception. Diane is also hugely popular in the party in Sheffield, and so everyone was really pleased. The final irony in this result was that the defeated Labour candidate Veronica Hardstaff, who is a former councillor for the ward, is the sister of Chris Tutt who we elected as a Lib Dem in Mosborough.

For me though the best result was in Dore & Totley where Colin Ross beat Anne Smith, the last Conservative in the city. We all went through a rollercoaster ride of emotions at the count as each ballot box made us change our view as to whether we would win or not. But winning this year has not only rid Sheffield of the Conservatives, but it has also ended the view that we are never able to win the final seat in Dore & Totley. This was our fourth attempt at defeating the final Conservative in the ward. In fact in the past we have even managed to win the ward by more than 2,000 votes one year, but then lost by 300 the year after. It just never seemed possible to win that last seat. When I started working for Sheffield Hallam Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg said to me “whatever you do, you have to make sure we hold on to the last Lib Dem seat in Dore & Totley”. Well, here we are three years later and not only have we held on to the last Lib Dem seat, but gained the other two as well. I am also really pleased for our new councillor in the ward Colin Ross. He was councillor for Dore & Totley until 2004 when he lost his seat after a very personal campaign against him by the Tories. This year he had to endure another negative onslaught from the Conservatives, but he won anyway without having to stoop to their level. We had so much ammunition we could have used against Anne Smith, but we decided not to use it.

The other surprise in this election was how well we did in Darnall and Arbourthorne wards. Although we had a very keen and hardworking candidate in Darnall who we thought could do well, it was still impressive to see him move us from third to second and cut Labour’s majority from 1,111 to 555. In Arbourthorne it was an even bigger shock as we never even delivered a leaflet and yet cut the Labour majority from 1,269 to 512.

So now the elections are over, the hardwork starts. The Liberal Democrats have an extensive and interesting manifesto that will both make the city a lot greener, but also make a transformation in the way it is run. There are some exciting times ahead.