WESTHOUGHTON’S newest Conservative councillor said she feels like she has “won five world cups” while a senior Labour cabinet member has paid an emotional farewell to his council seat.

Debutant Zoe Kirk-Robinson was victorious for the Tories in Westhoughton North and Chew Moor, leading to an exit for prominent Labour character Christopher Peacock.

It was not all bad news for Labour, who also feared potentially losing a second seat in the ward, made available by the resignation of Councillor Sean Harkin.

The party managed to retain that seat with candidate Anne Graham victorious and Tory Christine Wild missing out.

The seat was always set to be a hotly contested affair and the increasing rivalry between the two parties resulted in a slanging match when Labour accused Ms Kirk-Robinson of sending out “foul and abusive” messages on Twitter.

But the story did nothing to deter the Tory candidates’ progress as she scooped more than two and a half thousand votes.

Speaking after the result, she said: “I think this is a massive vote of confidence from the people of Westhoughton that they want change and they want an improvement in the area and that is what I aim to provide.

“We had very good responses on the doors during what has been a very long campaign, we did our very best."

Reflecting on her own achievement and her parties victory in the Bolton West Parliamentary seat, she added: “It is like winning five world cups at once, I couldn’t ask for any better — I think people have realised that we are the best choice to fix Britain."

She added: “Of course I’m nervous about joining the council, I think you would have to be daft not to be — but I am ready to do everything I can.”

An emotional Christopher Peacock, who had held the cabinet position of member for Adults Services, paid tribute to the residents of Westhoughton that he has served for the past four years.

He said: “It has been an honour and a privilege to serve Westhoughton. Four years ago I didn’t expect to win at all — I came here and thought that I would just put up a good fight but I won it and have spent the last four years working as hard as I can."

“I want to thank the people of Westhoughton for the last four years because they have been fantastic.”

Mr Peacock did suggest he had suffered because his name was the second Labour candidate on the ballot sheet.

He added: “A lot of studies that have been done that show that candidates that are higher up the ballot paper are more successful and it is to be noted that both the conservative and the Labour candidates at the top of the form did better.”