The Conservatives should set themselves a target of running Birmingham City Council again within three years, according to their new group leader.
While nationally the Tories are stumbling in the polls, in Birmingham they ended up gaining two seats in the local elections.
Much of the credit for their success after three years of electoral setbacks has been handed to Coun Robert Alden who became the first new leader of the Birmingham Conservative group for 11 years this week.
He replaces former council leader Mike Whitby who has recently been elevated to the House of Lords.
But it was during his three years as deputy leader in charge of campaigns that Coun Alden made his mark 鈥 inspiring the Tories to success in places like Kingstanding where they had not held a seat for more than 40 years.
The focus is now on local issues, like the 鈥榞arden tax鈥 and cleaner streets.
Coun Alden said: 鈥淲e were quietly confident going into the election. It has been a difficult few years, with the Government fixing the mess we were in. We defended seats like Harborne and Northfield where we were vulnerable and picked up two more.
鈥淢ay 22 marked the beginning of the fightback. If we gained control in 2015 that would be frankly astonishing but realistically we should be aiming for two or three years time.鈥
Labour found the Tory campaign relentless and far too aggressive in its use of personal attacks on rivals 鈥 particularly in the February Kingstanding by-election where candidate Lorraine Owen was under fire for not being local enough.
But Coun Alden was bullish: 鈥淲ell, Labour would complain. They lost.鈥
The party now has 31 of the 60 seats needed to take control of the council. Even under Lord Whitby at his peak they needed a coalition with the Lib Dems for control. This is something Coun Alden could see happening again in future.
He is not too worried about the national situation and takes a pragmatic approach to policy, something he shares with Lord Whitby who was occasionally accused of socialism by more ideologically minded colleagues.
He said: 鈥淲e are a local political party and should be focused on the local authority getting its services right for citizens.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about how we look after the people of Birmingham, when we were in charge of housing we improved the quality and quantity of council houses.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to be pragmatic in local politics.鈥
Coun Alden, the son of fellow Tory councillors John and Deirdre Alden, was first elected to the Erdington seat in 2006, aged just 23 鈥 the youngest councillor at the time. He contested the 2010 general election there losing to Jack Dromey but is due to challenge the Labour MP again next year.
He became the most prominent of a group of younger councillors and by 2011 became Conservative deputy leader and chairman of a backbench scrutiny committee.
With the Tories consigned to opposition in 2012 and Lord Whibty increasingly taking a back seat, Coun Alden has flourished as de facto leader of the group and was unopposed in his election to leader this week. With his long hair, goatee and bright shirts he stands out among the crowd of clean-shaven suit-wearing politicians and has no plans to 鈥榮marten up鈥.
鈥淏irmingham is a young city, the council should reflect the city we live in,鈥 he argues.
In the immediate term a shadow cabinet is due to be announced this weekend 鈥 but no word as yet on whether his parents will be among them.
As well as the opposition role in 鈥渉olding the leadership to account鈥, Alden will ask his shadow cabinet to come up with fresh ideas.
Immediate concerns are the ongoing 鈥榞arden tax鈥 row and cuts to street cleaning.
Coun Alden believes Sir Albert Bore鈥檚 appointment of Lisa Trickett as cabinet member in charge of refuse collection means there could be a change of tack in future.
He also argues that removing the cabinet post for children鈥檚 services and rolling it back into the education remit by Labour in 2012 was a mistake.
He said: 鈥淭hey had an improvement plan, they said there would be consistency, and then they chop and change everything. They have taken their eye off the ball.
鈥淓lectorally, it is not the biggest thing but in reality this is the most vital issue for children in this city. We have to get it right.鈥
On Trojan Horse, the allegations of Islamification in city schools, he accused the council of being in denial to begin with and then sniping at the Government and Ofsted in private briefings which later became public.
鈥淲hat happened is we now have this tit for tat thing with government. The council seems more interested in its public relations than in helping the children of Birmingham. I鈥檓 not saying that the current leadership doesn鈥檛 care, but the way they behave does not show that.鈥
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