Labour Celebrating another win on Thursday night ( Photograph courtesy of Derby Evening Telegraph)

Despite attempts by the Tories to play down the significance of Thursday's election results it cannot be ignored that this was Labour's performance in Amber Valley for 10 years and the is a great building block to take control of the Council back in 2014.There were two losers on election night the Tories and the BNP.

The size of Labour's achievement can be seen from the fact that of the 24095 vote cast ( including the by election) Labour obtained 50.02%, the Tories 36.36%, Lib Dems 4.82%, BNP 4.41%, UKIP 1.61% Greens 1.37%, Ind 0.88% and National Front  0.41%. This could have a significant impact on the County Council elections next year.

There has been a lot of talk about a low turn out but at 33.28 % it was on par with previous elections and in 6 wards the turn out was higher than in 2008.

The average swing to Labour was 13.73 % which was very consistent across the Borough with the exception of Ripley which showed swings of over 20 % in both wards. A reflection of the residents concerns over proposals for the development of Ripley and sale of the Town Hall.

The defeat of Ron Ashton saw the first sitting Mayor to lose for 12 years .The last time a sitting non-Labour Mayor lost their seat Labour were back in control within a couple of years. A good omen.

One of the most satisfying result was the defeat of the deputy Mayor Jack Brown, who is also Chairman of the Amber valley Conservative Association. I suspect he now regrets inviting David Cameron to his ward prior to the election.

The defeat of the BNP, brought one of the biggest cheers of the night. Never,have a pair of Councillors been as ineffective as the two BNP members and it proves that the public were aware of this with both the seats they were defending seeing their candidates coming in 3 rd behind the Tories.

Although we did not manage to win all the seats necessary to take control some of those Labour candidates who did stand can feel very proud of their achievements with Tory majorities of only 34 in Heage, 63 in Belper North and if it had not been for the Green Party in Belper Central that would have been a Labour gain All three of these seats saw above average swings to Labour.

Dear Sir/ Madam

On behalf of Amber Valley Labour Group I would like to thank all the electorate of Amber Valley who in voting Labour made this our best election result for 10 years. Not only did you demonstrate your faith in us and our policies but also our commitment to making Amber Valley more accountable to you, the electorate.

With your support we will oppose development of green field sites as a first option, we will support the right of Amber Valley residents to make their voices heard at Council meetings and we will ensure that Amber Valley is run for the benefit of ALL its residents

Cllr Paul Jones
Leader
Amber Valley Labour Group

If they feel that the election of BNP candidates to Heanor did not have an impact of the image of the Town then they are more ‘right wing’ and out of touch than we thought.It was only through the efforts of the Labour Party and the community Group Amber Valley Campaign Against Racism and Fascism that the BNP were defeated.The Tories did nothing to oppose  the BNP in Heanor and are now whinging about a simple image on this website.

Now the election is over we can reveal that prior to the election the Tories used the social media through ‘Front’ organisations to try and whip up anti Labour  feelings in Heanor by posting comment,  only using their initials.This pathetic attempt did not go ‘ viral ‘ but ended up a damp squid and ignored by everyone  except their narrow band of acolytes.

It is a shame that they are attempting to use not only the social media but other methods of  intimidation to put forward their own agenda rather than realising that we should be working for the community as a whole. If they are really committed to developing Heanor as they claim then they should be open about it rather  than using these organisations as a Tory ‘front’ to try get their message across . Certainly the current Heanor Councillors and those elected on Thursday will be fighting for the whole of Heanor, regardless of who the vote for and no just for a small interested group who are only interested in promoting their vision as the only vision for the Town be it the BNP or Tory.

UNISON recognised the damage that Tory policies were doing to public services and had the following mobile advert in various locations in Amber Valley. Can you recognise them all

Labour not only won four seats from the Tories in Langley Mill & Aldercar, Ironville & Riddings ,Ripley and Ripley & Marehay  but came from 3rd place in Heanor East to win.

In the 10 seats they did win on the night Labour received over 50 % of the votes cast in 7 of the 15 seats .The Tory vote fell in all but one of the 15 seats and in all but two seats Labour had a double digit swing