I was honoured to be invited to the installation of the new Mayor of Bury on Wednesday. Councillor Peter Ashworth was sworn in as the new Mayor and I am sure he will carry out his Mayoral duties with great pride and dignity.

Yesterday, I paid a visit down to Crewe to help in the by-election. The response on the doorsteps is quite positive although it is also quite unusual. I guess most politicians are used to hearing the refrain of “We never see anybody here” well in Crewe at the moment the most usual response is “Oh dear not another one!”. Hundreds of campaigners from all parties are descending on what after all is quite a small town and I would have thought the local economy is receicing a real boost from all the election activity.

On Saturday I paid a second visit to Crewe to help in the by-election. Glorious wether again and I found lots of life long Labour voters who were quite happy to chat to us. Most will not change their voting habits this time but there is no doubt that some will. What is encouraging is that this minority seem ready to switch straight to voting Conservative. I guess many will simply stay at home and not vote at all.

On Sunday it was the Whit Walk after Church and again as the sun was shining brightly it was very well attended and hundreds of local residents came out to watch the band and the procession as we made our way through Tottington.
Later in the afternoon Sue and I attended a “Thank-you Party” at Prestwich Conservative Club which the Councillors organised to thank the hundreds of volunteers who had helped in the election campaign

Life in the Nuttall household has changed enormously for the past three days following the arrival of our new seven and a half week old dalmatian pup. We collected him Wednesday morning and spent the rest of the day introducing him to his new home. I don’t have any experience in canine matters but as far as I can tell he seems to have settled in ok.

Yesterday, Sue and I took him to his first Conservative coffee morning. Then in the afternoon I called in at an afternoon tea organised by the Bury Blind Society. In the evening I attended the Annual General Meeting of the Salisbury Conservative Club where I am a member.

Today, I have been over to Sheffield to attend a business meeting leaving Sue to take CeeCee to the V E T ’s for his first innoculation. This evening we have been to watch the Summerseat Players perform Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘Improbable Fiction’. It is not a play I have seen before but it certainly contains some clever humour and the audience clearly enjoyed it.

I paid my first visit of the by-election campaign to Crewe and Nantwich today. Glorious weather and I would guess the warmest day of the year so far. I joined in some canvassing and leafletting and then accompanied the Leader David Cameron and our Candidate Edward Timpson on a walkabout in Crewe town centre.

There is no doubt that Gwyneth Dunwoody was a much loved Member of Parliament but I certainly felt that lifelong Labour voters were far from impressed at the way that Labour have started the by-election campaign even before the funeral has taken place and have parachuted her daughter in from Wales to try and survive the by-election on the Dunwoody name. It was clear from my visit today that we already have an excellent campaign underway and in Edward Timpson a superb local Candidate who really deserves to win.

This evening I have attended a meeting of the Conservative Group on Bury Council as they set about organising the membership of all the various Council committees for the next year.

Tomorrow, we are scheduled to go and bring home our new dalmatian puppy. He is to be called CeeCee. Originally we intended to spell it just as CC. This was not short for Conservative Canine or Congeston Charge or Cubic Capacity or any of the other words ‘cc’ is an abreviation for. No in fact it is all because when Susan was very young and she saw a dalmatian she called it a ‘current cake doggy’ so Susan has always had her heart on a dalmatian called CC. We told the breeder that we had decided on this for a name and when she put the name up on the website she put it as CeeCee and Susan and I have decided that this will now be his official pet name. By a strange quirk of good fortune CC is also short for his Kennel Club name which is Caldecacre Cincinatti !

Now that the local election campaign is out of the way I can announce that Sue and I will soon be hearing the patter of tiny feet ! ……………. well paws !
Our new pup will be arriving this week so yesterday Sue and I went shopping for a long list of doggie related items so that we are ready for our new arrival. Our new four footed family member will be a dalmatian dog that we have bought from a breeder in Longridge near Preston. The main problem with dalmatians is that they are prone to deafness so we were especially pleased that last week we heard that our pup had passed its hearing test. I will be revealing our new arrivals name on Tuesday.

This morning after attending church I went to the Conservative Group’s Annual General Meeting where the main item of business is the election of the Group Leader and Group Deputy Leader. As we now control Bury Council they were in effect electing the Councl Leader and Deputy Leader and it will be no surprise that the existing post holders Councillor Bob Bibby and Councillor Yvonne Creswell were both re-elected unopposed.

At last I have been able to get away from the phone and bring my on line diary up to date. Yesterday was a long day, it was past 4am this morning before I finally got to bed and four hours later I was up to start planning today and the visit of our Party Leader. As the result as been widely reported it hardly seems necessary to recite it here but for the record we gained the three seats we needed to take overall control of Bury Council for the first time in 22 years. The crucial gains came in Radcliffe North Radcliffe West and Redvales. I would like to thank all those who played a part in this election campaign.

It had long been rumoured that David Cameron would visit Bury again if we were able to take control of the Council and overnight we received confirmation that the Leader would be back in Bury around 1pm. A huge media scrum awaited his arrival and all those Councillors and helpers who might have been hoping for a photo with the Leader were disappointed as the media crowded around and many of those shots are now appearing on all the National, regional and local media.

I have now got to start catching up on dozens of litle jobs that I have been putting off ‘until after the election’ !

The Conservatives now have the opportunity to show how we can change Bury for the better and make improvements that will benefit the residents of Bury Ramsbottom and Tottington. It will be a tremendous challenge and I am sure there will be difficult decisions to make. I am looking forward to helping the Councillors in any way I can but first I am looking forward on catching up on a full nights sleep!

I am not used to rising shortly after 5am but today is THE DAY ie polling day and so it means an early start. The polls open at 7am and are open until 10am. I urge everyone whereever they are in Bury to use their vote today and vote for your Conservative Candidate.

Not surprisingly I have spent the last couple of days campaigning. On a very wet Monday morning we had another visit from William Hague MP who helped us campaign in Ainsworth in Radcliffe North Ward.

On Tuesday after camapigning all day I managed to get a couple of hours off to attend the Kenyon Cup Final at Gigg Lane which is a long established competition between the smaller local amateur teams. This year Old Standians played Little Lever from Bolton and after drawing 1-1 at full time Little Lever won on penalties.

Yesterday, after campaigning I attended a meeting of Bury Rotary Club where the guest speaker was Bury’s Town Centre Manager Lisa Durkin. Lisa gave an excellent presentation about the challenges which face Bury during a time of rapid change.

Yesterday ( Sunday 27th April ) I attended the Gallipoli Day Service at Bury Parish Church. The Rector gave an excellent unscripted sermon explaining how the events of nearly 100 years ago ( 2015 will be the centenary of the ill-fated campaign ) contribute to what makes Bury Bury.

In the afternoon I called in at a couple of events being held locally. Firstly, the Wildflower Seed Sowing Day organised by The Affetside Link a small community group who do so much to keep the community spirit alive in the small village despite the closure of their primary school a few years ago. They are re-developing a wildflower area on the village green. Secondly, I called in at the Vintage Extravaganza organised by and held at Tottington High School. Lots of vintage vehicles on display some of which I had passed on my way into Bury for the Gallipoli Day service earlier in the day as they were making there way up to the School.

On Saturday I was out campaigning with two of our Regions MEP’s Den Dover and Saj Karrim. During the afternoon session we were joined by a journalist from The Times newspaper who was preparing an article about the local elections in Bury. The jounalist had been out with Labour the previous evening and now wanted to see things from our side of the campaign.