Return of a former heavy hitter?

Pat Hackett, the former councillor for New Brighton, had been beaten at the polls by Conservative Sue Taylor in 2008. With no election in 2009, he also sat out the local elections earlier this year when his Labour colleague Pat Glasman beat incumbent Conservative Bill Duffey to regain the New Brighton seat for Labour.

With Conservative and Lib Dem coalitions facing tough choices over the next several months the former councillor is hoping to capitalise on what he anticipates will be increasing unpopularity of the ruling administrations locally and nationally, as well as a high turnout if the referendum on voting reform goes ahead - the high turnout in Wirral because of the natinoal elections on the same day was widely believed to have benefited Labour locally.

Next year Mr Hackett will be seeking to unseat New Brighton Conservative Tony Pritchard. As Pat Hackett put it: "It will be local against local."

The former cabinet member for regeneration played a key role in bringing the Neptune development to the town, and will be seeking to regain his place on the local authority as that development nears completion.