Trafford Conservatives were congratulating themselves on a relatively comfortable evening’s work in the only Tory-held borough in Greater Manchester.
But despite Trafford’s results appearing to mirror those of two years ago, the picture may well look very different come 2018.
Many safe seats for both of the top two parties may soon have a battle on their hands as seismic movements seem to be stirring beneath the surface of seemingly unremarkable results.
And Labour activists were also in bullish mood, with Sale Moor’s Mike Freeman delighted with his party’s 100% seat retention.
“The Tories have had a terrible night and they deserve it,” he said.
“This council is more interested in saving the pennies.
“We’re in a strong position. We’ve held every seat we set out to keep and made good inroads for two years’ time.”
The Conservatives were given a scare in Flixton as Labour came within 60 votes of taking the tightly-contested ward.
“It was very close but a win’s a win,” a relieved Paul Lally told MM.
“Flixton has always been a marginal seat and with these counts you never know until it’s done and dusted.”
Although keen to avoid suggestions of complacency, Mr Lally nevertheless admitted that he may have approached the contest differently in hindsight.
“I might have done a few things differently, maybe do some more focussed, targeted door knocking,” he said.
“But even if you do that there still might only be 60 votes in it.
“But we’ve got an intelligent bunch of residents who read the literature and vote how they think it should go.
“There was a large UKIP result, too, and we’ll have to deal with that”
The Green Party also enjoyed an upswing in Altrincham, placing second in the Conservative stronghold.
The party’s most successful candidate was Daniel Jerrome who was full of praise for his party’s hard work on local issues.
“It’s a really good result for us. We’re really building a platform in Altrincham,” he said.
“We’ve gone out and campaigned on the issues that people have told us matter to them.
“We have bitten into the Conservative majority and we’re going to keep biting into it. We work so hard and we’re going to keep working hard until we get success.
“It shows other wards that the Green Party can really make a difference.
“We’re all about local issues and we believe we’re on the up.”
Image courtesy of Graham C99, via Flickr, withh thanks
