I SUPPOSE I should start by declaring my interest – as a Labour member, I have had a ringside seat for the last three years, allowing me to watch in despair as our CLP has steadily crumbled.

We have gone from being a serious political force working for the good of our town to a parody of ourselves.

Labour in Warrington North used to be a juggernaut, steamrolling over our political opponents, winning council seats and returning a Labour MP with a near 10,000 vote majority.

CLP meetings are a joke, monthly gatherings are now an exercise in naval-gazing, discussion is stifled, criticism is silenced and our 10,000 majority is now just over 1,000.

We lost 10 council seats at the last elections and we have no plan about how to win them back.

We have won recent parish council elections by single figures, yet our candidates used to be elected to those same wards by hundreds.

There are barely any leaflets put out these days. I cannot remember when there was last any door knocking.

At the same time, our council is a mess, and I am ashamed to call it Labour.

We invested in an energy company which promptly went bust and buses were on the roads without MOTs.

Any other politician would have taken responsibility and resigned, but like Boris Johnson, our deputy leader apparently does not know the meaning of the word ‘integrity’.

Our involvement with Redwood Bank is dubious at best and the auditor’s report into Town Hall finances is damning.

The council seems paralysed with indecision, failing to deliver on its promises. Where is the promised travellers’ transit site?

It is forced into embarrassing U-turns when public opposition reaches a crescendo as it did over the Orford low traffic neighbourhood.

Yet the current set of councillors and CLP officers seem to ignore all of these sore spots and carry on as if nothing is wrong.

The local machinery has grind to a halt. Everything now revolves around the ego and self-absorption of Russ Bowden and Cathy Mitchell, at the expense of everything else.

Meanwhile, Warrington’s most disastrous MP remains in situ. Charlotte Nichols has dragged Labour’s good name through the mud from day one. She is totally ineffective.

Enough is enough. Left with no alternative, I am making a public appeal to Charlotte Nichols, Russ Bowden and Cathy Mitchell: you have failed us for long enough.

For the good of the town, for the good of all Warringtonians, and for the good of the Labour Party – go!

BRENDAN MURRAY

Locking Stumps