Now the dust has settled following Thursday’s Elections it goes without saying that it really wasn’t a good day for us.

On the plus side Labour lost in Willenhall North and on any normal election day our 1285 votes would have seen us storming to victory. However with the General and Local Elections being held on the same day the shear spending power of the Tory machine swamped our efforts to get the local message across. That same bottomless pit of Tory cash also saw us lose a hard working local councillor Dan Barker in Short Heath who came a gallant second with 1321 votes losing by just 160 votes.

In both Willenhall North and Short Heath Wards the Tories won on the back of their national campaign returning two unknowns who as far as we could see only got the briefest of mentions in a couple of national leaflets which cascaded like confetti through letter boxes across New Invention and Short Heath.

Labour also fared badly in the Local Elections losing control of Walsall Council having lost three seats bringing their total down to 27 out of the 60 seat council. The Tories moved up within striking distance with 25 councillors who will now need to talk with UKIP and the Independents in an attempt to put together an administration.

And what of us Liberal Democrats? Well we still have 2 Councillors, Doreen and Ian Shires. We need to get on with the job of representing the residents of Willenhall North and Short Heath and rebuilding our teams across Willenhall. That task began today, Liberal Democrat Campaigner Carol Fletcher held our usual Saturday morning Advice Surgery at New Invention Library, Business as usual, the fight back starts here……