It may surprise some people in North Lincolnshire to know that the council boundaries extends west of the River Trent. Just over the King George V bridge lies a collection of villages and small towns known as the Isle of Axholme. This often overlooked part of North Lincolnshire provided the sole Labour Councillor outside of Scunthorpe after last weeks elections. Many parts of the Isle are not traditionally Labour areas. Indeed the Conservative leader, Liz Redfern, was elected from Axholme Central. But to take back the Council in 2015 it is places like Axholme North where Labour needs to win. The Isle faces a number of ways and sometimes it's connection to what goes on in Scunthorpe is not an obvious one. In the south of the Isle there is a greater affinity to Doncaster, due in no small part to its proximity to South Yorkshire and the number of families which make the move across the border. Further northwards Goole becomes closer to travel to than Scunthorpe. The Isle of Axholme was a constituent part of Boothferry Borough Council before the demise of Humberside, linking us with Goole, Snaith and Howden. This disconnection from Scunthorpe is often exploited by Tories. The election in the Isle was not an easy one. The Conservatives were well aware they lost control of the council in 2007 because of the Labour victory in the Axholme North. While our local Labour team had a small group of committed and hard working activists, we were consistently out spent and out manned by the Tories. They had shipped students from the other side of the Humber to help deliver leaflets, knock doors and sit on polling stations. The two candidates, Trev Barker and Paul McCartan, put in a sterling effort. There was a dramatically increased turnout from four years ago, thanks to the energetic campaign from Paul, Trevor and the whole team. This saw Trevor Barker's vote increase by around 200 from 2007. But the end result was a mixed bag. Trevor secured a decisive victory, but Paul was just short of being elected. On the night of the count it was an early set back for the Tories who were sure of a double win in Axholme North. Our result however didn't affect the outcome as the three Winterton seats swung the council to the Conservatives. While I can't speak for Winterton the tactic of the Tories in Axholme North was to make it a contest between the Scunthorpe Labour Party and the rural Conservative Party. They played on the misconception that rural tax payers money funds investment in Scunthorpe, the Baths Hall and the Pods coming in for heavy criticism. This was the same strategy they deployed in 2003-2007 that disastrously blew up in their faces when they realised that rural residents also visited the Film Theatre and the old Baths Hall. While there may be a few Labour councillors scratching their heads this morning about what went wrong one fact remains: it is still very easy for the Tories to play the villages off against Scunthorpe. Naturally as the Labour Group is mainly drawn from Scunthorpe it lacks both attachment to rural areas and an understanding of what living in a rural community is like. Therefore an impression is created that they don't care about us in Isle, even if this far from the case. But it remains true that there is an inward looking element to the Labour members in Pittwood House. The attitudes expressed by certain councillors about us countryside dwellers leaves a lot to be desired. I am not revealing state secrets when I say that help was not as forth coming as it should have been during the election for the Isle. This was a result of the close general election result for Nic Dakin in Scunthorpe last year and the need to ensure town wards didn't go blue. But there was not a recognition till it was too late that Labour needed the villages to keep their majority. Our win in Axholme North demonstrates that rural areas are not the sole preserve of the Conservative Party. Idyllic images of the countryside hide serious social problems. As in other parts of the country villages are increasingly being turned from working farming communities to commuter towns. This has been accelerated by the building of 'Ben Bailey' estates up and down the Isle, passed by a Labour controlled planning committee. The new estates have acted to widen existing social divisions in villages. It masks the extensive rural poverty in the Isle, with problems that sometimes mirror disadvantaged communities in Scunthorpe. Chief among these is unemployment which forces young people out of the areas they grew up in to find work. Transport links in the Isle are extremely poor and expensive in comparison to Scunthorpe. Lack of transport coupled with a shortage of local jobs creates barriers to employment for those who are most disadvantaged. Transport also limits the access of school children to further education in town and results in the isolation of the elderly. Affordable homes is another concern for villages with social housing being in short supply. These are not problems that the Conservative Party in North Lincolnshire will ever resolve, certainly not in my home town of Crowle. Apart from the slash and burn budget they will no doubt bring forward, they have a habit of punishing areas which dare to vote Labour. But issues in disadvantaged rural communities should be as much a priority for Labour as those in urban areas. Labour needs to realise that without the votes of rural residents they will never be able to deliver change for all of North Lincolnshire. Isle of Axholme Labour Party member