Victory - at last!

Some of "Team Northenden" celebrating at the town hall on the evening of the count at 2am.

Victory! We now have a Lib-Dem Councillor representing Northenden, Northern Moor and Benchill.

It's been a long and difficult campaign, but after almost 4 years of hard work and relentless effort, the good people of Northenden Ward have voted in their first ever Lib-Dem Councillor.

It is also the first Lib-Dem to be elected to either Manchester or Trafford Council within the constituency since it was formed in 1997, and I believe the first ever Wythenshawe Liberal or Lib-Dem Councillor.

The work started in September 2004 when Mark Clayton (now Councillor in Didsbury West) started campaigning. He put a huge effort into setting up the ward campaign back then. Martin Eakins joined the "core team" a year later in September 2005.

Mark was selected as the prospective Lib-Dem candidate for Didsbury West, his home ward, later in November 2005, when Martin took over as lead campaigner. In 2006 Martin stood in the local elections as the Northenden ward candidate and almost doubled the share of the vote.

He stood again in 2007, coming within almost 100 votes of winning, and finally in 2008 won by a mere 8 votes (1562 vs 1554). It doesn't come much closer than that, but it has been known.