By Jean Hawkes

THE sweeping victory of the Social and Liberal Democrat candidate in last Thursday Waltham Forest by-election made political history.

On the eve of his 61st birthday, window cleaner Bob Wheatley became the first member of the newly-titled party to win an election in London. And he did so by snatching the Labour-dominated Higham Hill Ward seat with a massive 27.6 per cent swing-- more than double that of the 1986 election.

It was Mr Wheatley's fifth attempt to gain a seat on Waltham Forest Council, and he trounced Labour candidate Beryl Eccleston into third place.

His 995 votes were almost twice as many as the Socialists, who obtained 497 and a convincing 334 ahead of the Conservatives, who were beaten into second place with 661. Trailing, with only 200 votes, was Janet Young for Waltham Forest Ratepayers Association.

The SDLP agent, Councillor Phil Arnold, claimed Mr Wheatley's success had humiliated both the Tories and the Socialists.

"The Conservatives thought they would win, but completely misjudged it," he said.

The poll tax had been a major issue major issue which had lost the Tories votes, and Mr Arnold added: "We didn't win this on the rates, we won it on a local campaign and local people and problems."

A triumphant Mr Wheatley admitted: "I didn't think I would get in," and put the final success down to teamwork,

A committed Liberal for more than 20 years, Mr Wheatley was once a member of the Labour Party, but left after becoming disillusioned with Left-wing policies,

A disappointed Beryl Eccleston blamed her defeat on the campaign of threats and untruths against Labour councillors following last year's large rates rise.

"The Ratepayers Action Group did a lot of damage," she maintained.

"A lot of lies were told about the council."

Mrs Eccleston supported the rates increase as being necessary, but the public had chosen to listen to the opposition.

Canvassing had shown good Labour support, said Mrs Eccleston.

"I don't know really what went wrong at the end. There is a lot of feeling in the ward, and I would have liked to have been the councillor."

With only 5,000 electorate, the total turn out was 47.1 per cent and 2,355 votes were cast.

The Conservatives' share showed a one-third swing in their favour to compensate for not gaining the seat, always considered rock solid Labour, said agent Jim Costello.

He dismissed the SDLP win as "nothing more than a by-election phenomenon" and claimed Labour's showing proved it was "clearly on the way out in Waltham Forest."

Candidate Tom Kelly was more magnanimous, and declared: "I think the SDLP fought a good campaign. They deserved what they got.'

Of the Ratepayers, Mr Kelly believed they did not have the muscle or back-up organisation. And Labour lost out through last year's rate row, he added.

Fighting her first local election, and indicating it would not be her last, Janet Young said her campaign had been non-political and friendly. She strongly disputed the association had cast any slurs upon the Socialists who, she said, were the only ones to show bad manners.

"I think they hung themselves; we had nothing to do with it."

Run-up to the election showed more support than that cast, but Mrs Young vowed: "We shall continue to fight."

Mr Wheatley's win now reduces the Labour councillors to 30, and increases the Liberal Democrats to 11, with the Tories having 16 seats.