Cambridge vote race

THIS week’s Visiter previews what is likely to be the most closely fought battle for a council seat in Southport on May 1 – that in Cambridge ward.

For a number of years there has been something akin to stasis in the town’s political geography. The Conservatives hold three councillors apiece in Ainsdale and Dukes wards (a generally affluent southern coastal strip) with commanding majorities – in Ainsdale Cllr Terry Jones led his nearest rival by 1,400+ votes in 2007. For the Lib-Dems, Kew and Norwood are A-1 bastions while their positions in Birkdale and Meols (majorties 584 and 827 in 2007) are also sturdy.

Only in Cambridge ward (covering roughly the Marshside and Hesketh Park areas) have seats changed hands at the last two local elections. Both occasions were Lib-Dem advances over the Tories.

The experience, particularly of 2007, backs the view that local factors count particularly strongly in Southport politics. Remember, across England the May 07 polls were a real boost for David Cameron – the Tories made net gains of 911 councillors Poor Ming Campbell had to stomach a net Lib-Dem loss of 246 seats. The more acerbic have characterised Southport’s political culture as insular. One well-known and liked Southport figure once told me with waspish humour that his fellow townspeople seemed more het-up about wheelie bins than the prospect of war with Iran.

It is still early days in the lead up to Sefton’s ’08 elections and both leading Cambridge ward candidates, Aidan McGuire (Lib-Dem) and Cllr Tom Glover (Tory), declined to give too much away about their campaign platforms. But their headline messages to voters already seems clear. Rather than emphasising divisions over policy, their pitch centres on how effectively they can represent residents. Cllr Glover accuses the Lib-Dem Cambridge team of trying to steal his thunder on a host of initiatives, including local traffic safety schemes. It is up to voters and readers to make their own mind up on his pointed references to Mr McGuire’s marriage partner and demands of his young family and career.

There are parallels here with the wider situation in Sefton. The parties each have fortress areas – the Tories in Formby, Labour in Bootle and the Lib-Dems in the eastern parishes. Only some Crosby/Waterloo wards offer real three-way pitched battles for a seat in the chamber. And how much ideological content is there to the political bust-ups we see? Two events this week seem to be illustrative. On the one hand, Conservative leader Cllr Paula Parry (who represents Blundellsands in Crosby) has demanded action against a section of the Lib Dem ranks on Southport Area Committee she says is haranguing her deputy and prospective Tory MP Cllr Brenda Porter. But over the annual budget exercise – integral to setting the council’s policy priorities over the next 12 months – there are signs the parties may be heading for repeat of last year’s debut three-party consensus.

Let’s not get too carried away. Real shifts in the political terrain do happen. It was only six years ago the Southport Party captured three seats on the back of a wave of voter dissatisfaction with the status quo. In Kew, the then-Lib Dem leader of Sefton Council, David Bamber, was handsomely defeated by one of their number: 23-year-old James Grundy. But the catalyst in 2002 was a whopping 9% council tax hike. Both Lib-Dem and Tory leaders are promising a below-3% increase this year – with 2.75% apparently one figure mooted.

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