That's Councillor Baldock to you !

Here are the results of the Kensington and Fairfield ward elections on Liverpool City Council on May 4th 2006

Candidate Party Votes %
Councillor Louise Baldock Labour Party 1127 45%
James Kendrick Liberal Democrat Party 955 38%
Elizabeth Susan Pascoe Liberal Party 180 7%
Paula Ann Rice Green Party 152 6%
Francis Dunne Conservative Party 88 4%


Details
Number Total votes 2502
Ballot Papers Issued 2510
Number of ballot papers rejected 8
Number of postal votes sent 622, returns 352
Electorate 10355
Turnout 24%

I took all that from the Liverpool City Council website www.liverpool.gov.uk

You will see that they have changed my description to incorporate the word "Councillor".

How proud am I? How thrilled am I? How humbled am I to have been trusted enough to be elected in the place of a LibDem with 19 years service, what an amazing result.

I know it will be very hard to truly bring the pride back into Kensington and Fairfield but I am ready.

My agent was amazed by the sheer numbers of ordinary voters who were willing to feature on our leaflets as supporters, there must have been well over a dozen who were not party members, not known to the party before, not political, but real local people who wanted a councillor who wanted what they wanted.

I think they deserve at least half the credit for the result.

It felt like a carnival day yesterday, people were going to vote with a smile on their face, keen to shake my hand and hug me when I knocked on their doors to make sure they were going (generally they had already been)

The support from local Labour Party members in the constituency was wonderful, we were small in number but incredibly dedicated. Frank, Dave and Dave alone have probably delivered 50,000 leaflets and direct mail in the last five months, Wendy, Claire, Janet, Bora, Sharif, Sara and Tim stood shoulder to shoulder with me on the doorsteps, while Peter showed flashes of genius as my leaflet designer. In the last week our Labour leader Joe brought his whole family to work on my campaign and our MP Jane has put in hours and hours, in her free time, she is a wonderful representative for the Labour Party, never too proud to deliver leaflets or knock on doors, make the tea, be part of the team.

They are the rocks on which our Labour Party has been built and with a team like that, who could lose?

(I know it all sounds a bit cheesy, but I really do mean every word)

The photo is of Councillor Doreen Knight and me on the steps of the Municipal Buildings as we went to be sworn in. She and I along with Councillor Anna Rothery gained our seats from the LibDems, three more women on the Labour group!