Tomorrow evening we’ll know the result of the stock transfer vote, and it could go either way. When we’ve been talking to people on the doorstep most people have wanted to stick with the Council as the landlord, but there has been a lot of pressure on tenants to vote for transfer.

For every one pound that the “No” campaign has spent, the “yes” campaign has spent over ONE THOUSAND POUNDS. It hasn’t been a very balanced debate.

It has also been a very bitter campaign, with allegations of bullying and lies from both sides, and I think most people involved are looking forward to the result being announced so that we can start moving forward.

Stock Transfer has hung over the Council since Jude and I moved into West Lancs four years ago, and from all accounts, it was controversial for a number of years before that. So it is surely time to move on.

If the tenants have voted to transfer, then those involved in the “no” campaign, myself included, will have to accept the result and work with Arena / West Lancs Homes to make sure the improvements that have been promised are delivered.

If the tenants have voted “no”, then the Council must take on board the budgets and finances that have been proposed by the Labour Group that have shown that we don’t need to lose staff as they have threatened. The worst thing they could do is copy the lead of Sefton where staff was made redundant and then start the whole stock transfer voting process again.

Either way, we all need to start building bridges after the ballot because if things are to improve, we all have to work together.