LABOUR leader Ed Miliband visited Kirkby-in-Ashfield yesterday to meet voters just three days before the local election.
He joined residents at the May Day Festival in Kingsway Park, where he asked about their main concerns and also played cricket with a group of children.
From there the party leader knocked on doors in Kirkby Mill View to secure more votes for the local candidates before delivering a speech to activists.
Ashfield has historically been a Labour stronghold but today only nine of Ashfield District Council's 33 councillors are Labour and Labour MP Gloria De Piero only narrowly won her seat last year, beating the Lib Dem candidate by less than 200 votes.
Speaking to the Post, Mr Miliband said: "It's a seat we won narrowly at the last general election. I want to see us take control of the council here. It's a tall order but we're fighting very, very hard to make it happen.
"Over time when you've been in power for 13 years you lose people on the way, over a number of issues, and I think that happened in this part of the country.
"Labour has new leadership, we're driving on from the past, we're talking about issues we care about."
He met various residents on the doorsteps; an 18-year-old first-time voter promised him a Labour vote while another man told him he has never voted for the party.
Mr Miliband spoke to a welfare rights worker and mother-of-two about her concerns over debt and repossessions and gave assurances to another man, who set up his own company two years ago, that the party was committed to helping small businesses.
Mr Miliband used the opportunity to stress the importance of the local elections, which are on Thursday.
Addressing a group of Labour campaigners, he thanked them for all their hard work and said: "These are important local elections, they're not any old elections, they're crucially important local elections that will define the direction of the country.
"I urge people to go out in these elections and make their vote heard.
"I urge people to send a message to the Government, to Nick Clegg and David Cameron, that they need to change direction."
He said the Government does not have a mandate for some of the changes it is making.
"People didn't vote for the changes in the NHS which were not in anyone's manifestos; they didn't vote for tripling of tuition fees, Nick Clegg told us he would do the opposite."
Julia Smith, 43, of Kirkby, who met Mr Miliband in the park, told him she was concerned about deprivation in the area.
She said: "We need to get some regeneration here. I'm born and bred here and I've seen it go down hill for a long time."
He also met 10-year-old Paisley Ward who told him she had taken a petition to Downing Street over the decision to end free swimming for under-16s.
Mr Miliband, who was impressed with the youngster's determination, said: "You should definitely join us as soon as you're able to!"
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