Recent events have threatened to upset Sefton Council’s tranquil balance. Ben Schofield reports

STRETCHING from Bootle to Southport, Sefton has possibly the most diverse constit-uents of any Merseyside borough. The industrial south is a Labour heartland, while the “classic resort” in the north is home to Liberal Democrat and Conservative voters.

Such is the mix of views, no party has had overall control in Sefton for 22 years.

The 10-strong cabinet is as evenly balanced as possible, presided over by council leader and Lib-Dem Cllr Tony Robertson while its nine other seats are equally shared.

Although Cllr Robertson is un-likely to be dethroned, events have threatened to upset Sefton’s tranquil political balance.

He said a hallmark of his “era” would be the parties working together, adding: “Since 1986, the political parties had to learn how to get along with each other.

“The reality is we deal with situations, rather than kicking lumps out of each other.”

This has been borne out in the most recent financial cycles, with all the parties endorsing the past two budgets.

But tempers frayed over the handling of outgoing chief execu-tive Graham Haywood’s nearly £250,000 early retirement deal.

Cllr Robertson and his party refused to vote for the pay-off when it was brought before the council. It was only passed thanks to a combined Labour-Conservative vote and the issue has been used as a stick to beat those that supported it.

The final cabinet meeting before the elections saw senior Labour and Conservative members remonstrating about the issue being included in Lib-Dem leaflets.

Of the 66 seats on the council, 23 are up for grabs next Thursday – one in each ward and two in the Netherton and Orrell ward where there is a vacancy.

Conservative leader Cllr Paula Parry says that, although she doesn’t expect a great deal of change, she is hoping to make inroads into Maghull.

Cllr Parry, who recalls having a gun pulled on her after knocking on one door in her Blundellsands ward, earlier on in her political career, said: “We’ll be working on Maghull for a couple of years.

“Some residents there seem to have queries and they don’t have them satisfactorily completed.”

Her candidate in Park ward, which covers Maghull, is Martyn Ball, whose policies include offering the villagers of Lunt the opportunity to change the village’s name.

He says a recurring graffiti problem may be causing embarrassment for them.

Cllr Parry added: “We’ll make headway and I think Martyn will be there next time.”

The Conservatives are also campaigning on traffic issues in Maghull, as well as promising to monitor bin collection issues and tackle council inefficiency.

To take Park ward, Mr Ball will have to wrest control from sitting Lib-Dem Cllr Robbie Fenton.

Cllr Robertson, who is cam-paigning on decentralising council services, is confident Cllr Fenton will hold Park.

He said: “I’m not anticipating losing any seats in the Maghull area. The three seats are solidly Lib-Dem and have been for quite a number of years.”

He said council services should be monitored by those closest to where they are delivered.

“The decentralisation of services is probably our most prominent objective,” said Cllr Robertson, who has been leader of the council since 2004.

“What we are trying to do is to take control of important services from remote council officers and try get them deliver-ed to those who use them and to get the area committees to monitor the delivery.”

He said his group will also campaign against council tax in principle and are targeting the final seat in Southport’s Cam-bridge ward and a seat in Manor ward, Crosby, both currently in Tory hands.

Labour leader Cllr Peter Dowd is running his first elections at the head of the party. A good result, he said, would be to gain a couple of seats.

He is hoping his messages on tackling disorder, focusing on schools and the environment, and seeing through a £280,000 park ranger service is resonating on the doorstep.

He said: “I think they are going down very well. People like to know they are getting a fair share of the pot.”

The Labour party heartland in the borough is centred around Bootle and Cllr Dowd says he hopes to push northwards into Crosby, which is in Blundellsands wards, and Victoria ward.

This brings him nose-to-nose with both the Conservatives and the Lib-Dems. To take Blundell-sands, Labour’s Constance McCarthy will have to unseat Conservative heavyweight Cllr Paula Parry.

A handful of other parties are also running in Sefton.

The UK Independence Party is putting up 15 candidates, with the Communist Party of Great Britain, The British National Party and The Green Party also fielding candidates in some wards.

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