Tories hope to make most of ‘appetite for change in the city’

IN 2015, the then Lord Mayor elect David Walker asked to meet me to see if the Echo would back his charity fundraising drive during a year as Lord Mayor to help Velindre cancer centre.

He wanted to raise £100,000, but when the coins were counted they added up to £193,871.55.

He managed in that year to pull in students, business leaders, councillors – whatever their political persuasion – to help a bigger cause than politics.

As we meet just days before the election, the 73-year-old admits that year was a turning point.

He loved the chance to make a difference and it’s that he hopes to do again, but this time at the ballot box.

The Tories won’t take the city, he knows that, but, this year they could find themselves bartering for a coalition spot if predictions of votes spread across the political groups come true.

Coun Walker is a proud family man with three children – his wife’s cancer battle was the reason for his charity campaign – but he’s also got decades of public and private sector experience. It’s the combination of those he wants to bring to the table.

Born in Swansea, he has been living in Cardiff since he came to university here in the 1960s.

A career with British Gas led him to set up his first business, David Walker Associates, in the 1980s as a consultancy firm.

It was in the early ’90s that he decided to do something about his gripes over local issues and become involved with the party.

And it was one of his sons, Greg, who has stood as a parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives, who helped encourage his ambitions. Election to the local authority followed in 1999 and by the time Gareth Neale became Lord Mayor in 2006 and decided to step down, Mr Walker was deputy leader and the obvious choice to succeed him.

In recent memory, his group had a high of 17 seats, but currently they have nine.

They are however confident they can up it again this election season.

Their manifesto contains promises of more housing, keeping council tax low, and making the city cleaner.

He, if you’ll excuse the pun, rubbishes suggestions that only inner city wards have litter problems.

He lives in and represents Lisvane and says the problems with litter and potholes stretch way beyond Labour’s