LOCAL ELECTIONS 2010: On your case ‘I will peer over leader’s shoulder’ - Lib Dem's Terry Stacy vows to monitor new council leader Catherine West

Published: 14 May 2010
by ROISIN GADELRAB

LIB Dem group leader Terry Stacy is threatening to watch over the shoulders of new Labour council leader Catherine West “every single day”.

Mr Stacy, who was this week clearing his desk at the leader’s office to make way for Ms West, said: “I will be peering over Catherine West’s shoulder to make sure she delivers on every single one of the promises she and her colleagues made. And there are a lot of them.”

The Lib Dems managed to win only 13 seats out of a total of 48.

But Mr Stacy does not believe the party’s poor polls performance was a result of its record in office. He said: “We were caught between a rock and a hard place. It was a local election campaign that was caught up in a national campaign and that had an effect on us. 

“While it’s great there was a massive increase in turnout, it worked against us. The Lib Dem vote went up across every single ward. 

“The reason we didn’t win was because people decided to waste their vote on the Tories. We’re very proud of our 10 years of running the council. You can walk around the streets and see the difference.”