BOLTON’S Tories say there no ‘no-go areas’ for them at May’s local elections, as they bid to cut Labour’s majority.

Brandon Lewis MP, the party’s chairman, visited Westhoughton yesterday to launch the Tory campaign for the May 3 poll.

After taking a council seat from Labour in January’s Hulton by-election, Mr Lewis is confident that success can continue — but admits it will be a ‘difficult’ set of elections.

He said: “The by-election win here a few weeks ago highlights that people want something different. They want people who care about the area and want to move it forward in the way that the Conservatives here do.”

The former housing minister defended the government’s decision to overturn council decisions and allow the building of hundreds of homes on Westhoughton’s greenfield land.

He said: “If you have a good local authority, and this is a good reason to vote Conservative, that is looking to work with the government and deliver a good local plan that delivers the infrastructure local people need then you end up in a much better position.”

Mr Lewis added: “The council, some people might argue, could be looking to make political decisions about what they think is popular in the short-term. What we need to do is look at the long-term.

“If we don’t provide the housing people need where there is a shortage then our children and grandchildren will not be able to live in the areas where they want to work and where they have been brought up. That is something we will never be forgiven for.”

Cllr Greenhalgh said May’s poll — the first full set of local elections since the Asons grant scandal that engulfed Bolton Town Hall — is a ‘referendum’ on Labour decisions and that there were no ‘no-go’ zones for his party.

He added: “The result in Hulton was phenomenal for us — it was against the tide. This Labour council is probably at its most unpopular in its history. The change of leadership does not change anything, it is just a different set of clothes and the same policies.”