AS the dust settles on Farnworth and Kearsley First’s remarkable election success the fledgling party is planning its next move.

Maureen Flitcroft and Julie Pattison took seats from Labour in the Farnworth and Kearsley wards respectively on a heady night for the newcomers.

The duo will join Paul Sanders — this week voted leader of the party’s council group — in the town hall chamber.

And party leader Peter Flitcroft says there is no chance of resting on their laurels.

He said: “Our priorities are the people of Farnworth and Kearsley and our next priority is the people of Bolton.

“In terms of how we line ourselves up to vote that’s our strategy— the people of the two towns and the people of Bolton.”

And the party chief says the most pressing policy areas have already been identified.

He continued: “In terms of policies, we are obviously looking at the state of our roads and the waste collection fiasco — the slim bin roll-out, that’s one of our main priorities.”

“We want to try to get the large bins back to the families so they can deal with that a bit better.

“You can see why people are tipping litter they don’t have the room or the transport to get to get it to the tips.”

But But Mr Flitcroft says his party is not going quite as far as the Tories, who are demanding the return of weekly collections of the grey household waste bin.

“Our first priority is getting the large bins back out there, we believe they are in storage at the moment, that might be the right compromise”.

Mr Flitcroft adds that potholes and the general state of the roads is also an issue his party is keen to address.

“Farnworth and Kearsley have 40 per cent of the most complained about roads in the borough, we feel strongly about that and we are going to push to get that escalated as quickly as possible.”

Bins and potholes are at the top of the newcomers’ agenda. But there is another issue on the party’s radar as councillors Flitcroft and Pattison prepare to take their place in the chamber for the first time.

“We are going to start pushing really hard for extra funds for the town and asking some fairly hard questions about the £100m for Bolton town centre — should that be spread out a little bit more fairly?”

The party has high hopes of making an impact after feeling the towns they represent have been overlooked and neglected for too long.

They believe the problems date back to the creation of Bolton Council under the Local Government Act 1974 — and there is no “quick fix” available.

The people of Farnworth and Kearsley have given the new party their backing at the ballot box.

But Mr Flitcroft says expectations are realistic and voters understand things cannot be changed over night.

He is not unduly concerned that a lack of immediate results could result in a backlash from those who have supported the party thus far.

“The people that we speak to understand this is a long term struggle,” he said.

“It’s about getting that bit of pride and passion back in our towns.”