Richard Baum

Put simply, May 3rd was the greatest night of my life. To have received the votes of so many local people - their trust and hopes as well as their votes, was the most humbling thing I’ve ever experienced and gave me more opportunities to help the community. I have been grateful ever since and I will remain so. I hope the work I’ve done since builds on the work I did to get elected, and I hope I have lived (and will continue to live) up to your high expectations.

The election result saw me receive 1,424 votes to Cllr Keith Grime (Lab)’s 1,102 and the Steve Morris (Con)’s 789. I was duly elected your Councillor, and the Lib Dems also won in Sedgley (Steve Wright) and Holyrood (Wilf Davison). It was a fantastic night.

But it was only the start of the work. The election results meant that the Conservatives were the largest party and took control of Bury for the first time in 21 years. I was inducted onto the Council and took my place on the committees and other bodies to which I was now appointed.

Tony Blair resigned, obviously in protest at my victory, but the issues in the ward continued regardless. Construction began at Tulle Court and I liaised with residents and the construction company to make sure that fencing was adequate and noise and traffic kept to a minimum for local people. We ran “street surgeries” on Gardner Road, Agecroft Road and Lowther Road, and the story broke that the government had been thinking about congestion charging for Manchester…

I ran the Great Manchester Run and raised hundreds of pounds for the George House Trust. And my blog made it into the New Statesman! Exciting times!

Rick