Amber Valley Council, part of Derbyshire, was one of the few places in the East Midlands to have elections this time round. The BNP contested two wards. The Local Election results for these two wards, were as follows.

Heanor West
Paul Jones (Labour) 607
Brian Edwards (BNP) 592
Judith Wooley (Lib Dem) 427
Jade Wiltshire (Tory) 273
Labour majority over the BNP: 15

Heanor and Loscoe
John Moon (Labour) 731
Paul Snell (BNP) 524
Jeaqn Parry (Tory) 327
Sally McIntosh (Lib Dem) 103
Labour majority over the BNP: 207

A group of us from Nottingham and Derby (see previous IndyMedia postings) organised three trips over to Heanor, during which we handed out more than 3,500 leaflets produced by Unite Against Fascism urging people to register to vote, and to use their vote against the BNP.

This effort was co-ordinated by Julie on 07834 364 529, should you wish to get involved next time.

There will be a next time.

We think that this time we made a difference of more than 15 votes. When things are this close, anyone who did anything can justifiably say their efforts made all the difference.
Thanks to all who helped with the anti-BNP leafleting operation. Without your help it could have been so different. We think our effort kept the BNP out of Amber Valley Council. We think that was worth doing.

We need to point out that Heanor is not a racist stronghold. We had a very friendly reception over there and, even from the raw results, something like 70% of the people of Heanor do not want the BNP.

Speaking personally, this continued fire-fighting is not the complete answer to tackling the BNP, especially if it means that the Labour politicians who have so badly let down the local population, just get re-elected. We need an alternative to New Labour but, in the mean time, keeping my personal opinions out of it, I want to join with everybody else who just wants to keep this lot out.

Thanks to everyone who helped this time. It was worth it.

John Shemeld.