Bury is well-known for close-run election counts and when Labour’s John Mallon snatched victory from a sitting Conservative candidate by just 19 votes, the relief was plain to see.
Despite close calls in other wards on a day of drama on Friday, Pilkington Park was by far the closest-run race – and tensions were high when a recount was announced early in the afternoon.
Red and blue were on tenterhooks as the result was announced – unsurprising, since in 2012 the Tories won by only 45 votes.
Roles were reversed this time out and Cllr Mallon pipped Tory incumbent Bernie Vincent to the win.
“It was very unnverving when they announced the votes were being recounted,” Cllr Mallon said, “and we won by a margin of 19! It was a very close result, but after the last three years 19 feels like a massive majority.”
Labour’s results in Bury were overall just as expected, with Labour not only standing strong but increasing its majority by three seats.
As nationally, the Tories and Lib Dems both lost seats following nationwide Coalition concerns.
Bury’s Labour council leader, Councillor Mike Connolly, made a point of saying how pleased he was for Cllr Mallon.
“After all the work John Mallon has been doing he really deserved it,” Cllr Connolly said.
“It’s been incredibly close over the last few years in Pilkington Park – we lost by just 45 votes in the last local election.”
Other successful Labour councillors were also expressing their support for Cllr Mallon.
Councillor Mary Whitby successfully succeeded Councillor Ken Audin, who stepped down this year.
She said she was very pleased for Cllr Mallon, as did Labour’s candidate for St. Mary’s, Eamonn O’Brien.
Cllr O’Brien said: “We’ve all worked very hard and a lot of us have had good results today. It was really good to see.
“We’ve been working towards this for three years now – you just work hard and hope that at crunch time it pays off.”
Cllr O’Brien added that he was very happy to have won his own seat in St. Mary’s, which was previously a Lib Dem seat.
Cllr Mallon didn’t want to comment on any of the opposition he’s just seen off, but did say: “In order to become a councillor you really need to want serve your community – if there are policies you don’t agree with, you become a councillor to make a difference, to have your say and to change things
“We all work so hard because we want our community to be in what we think of as the safest possible hands.
“Everyone has commented that it’s been a very fairly run race – there’s been no underhand comments or backstabbing – and that makes me even happier with today’s win.”
