I stood for election as a councillor as I want to make a positive contribution to Adamsdown and Cardiff and saw it as an opportunity to do so in a different way, a change from being a campaigner for causes.

I didn’t make it and I can’t pretend that I was not a little bit gutted by this. I worked hard, built up a team, talked to people about what mattered,  got the twitter and Facebook accounts up and running, took too many selfies and lots of photos.  I wrote the copy for our newsletters, liaised with the printers, got the boards built and up. We ran a damn fine campaign. In the end it’s the votes that matter and there weren’t enough.

So one year later, how does it feel? As always as time passes things matter less and the things that happen as a consequence of not getting what you strived for end up being the right things after all. I got a great job working in the constituency, I get to remain a campaigner, to speak truth to power, to fight for what’s right unconstrained by the collective responsibility that comes with holding an elected position.

I’ve been able to get back into cycle campaigning, get reacquainted with my feminist politics and now as I take a break from local party politics I can ride my bike more too. Life’s all about getting the balance right.