We must be careful that new organisers are not duplicates of local Labour activists, nor a hindrance to the work Labour people seek to do. Councillors are already community leaders and will be needed to navigate the 'Big Society' agenda.

Did we win through luck of the draw as opponents claim - or hard work and knocking on many, many doors? Louisa Thomson on winning locally

The battle heats up on the ground... read what lengths our campaigning councillor columnist is contemplating going to

Ken Livingstone came for a campaigning visit in my ward last Saturday. When I was younger and at my first Labour Party Conference, I was too star struck to talk when introduced to him at a reception. I went bright red, opened my mouth and closed it again a few too many times, and then made a dive for the nearest canapé, leaving a more competent friend to make conversation.

Another month passes, along with the 100 days countdown until May 6. I have a wall chart and am watching time evaporate whilst dispatching increasing numbers of canvassers and leaflets across the ward. This would be like a military operation if it wasn't for my new theory about Labour Party Time which means that despite your best efforts, things never really quite go to plan.

Every activist has to understand that Labour Party Time operates in a different time zone to normal.

This time last year I was engrossed in the final weeks of the by-election campaign in my ward, spending every evening on the doorstep and wondering what the chances were of emerging unscathed from the local hustings event. This means I've been a councillor for almost a year, which is a good excuse to pause for reflection.

It’s now winter and these temperatures are not friendly to people who spend a good proportion of their evenings and weekends on other people’s doorsteps. Canvassing in the cold requires a different set of clothing entirely, based around furry boots and thermal vests, and those clever gloves that convert into mittens (means part of your hand stays warm as you try to record your data on the voter id sheet…).

The past month has been dominated by local meetings in my ward. Although lacking the Town Hall fairtrade biscuits, these do tend to be far more useful in terms of the issues that drive your work as a councillor. But there is something slightly odd about spending the dark winter nights in a variety of brightly painted community halls, so for the uninitiated I've attempted a whistle stop tour of my world of meetings below.

Now that I’m back in London and fully immersed into the routine of work and evening council meetings, I promise this blog won’t be just about Peter Mandelson. But just one final point of clarification: I came back from conference with the words of his speech ringing in my ears: ‘We need to think like insurgents, not incumbents. To challenge. To argue for change. To campaign.’ The election machine is cranking into gear in Hackney, we have our targets, a risograph and the canvassing dates in the diary from now until May.

The elections on 4 June were dreadful for Labour. Putting aside the wretched 15.3% of the vote we scored nationally in the European elections, we faced near wipe-out in the local elections. Labour now controls none of the 27 county councils and we have five seats or fewer in 20 of them. In Lancashire we fell from 43 to 14 seats and in Staffordshire from 32 to just 2. It made little difference whether a council was performing well or not, the voters came out and defeated Labour. This is disastrous not only because we expose people living in those areas to Tory or Lib Dem rule, but because our local government base will be an important part of our party’s fight back both before and after the general election due within a year.

David Cameron has finally launched his proposals for local government. The Tories say they will devolve more power to local councils. If they actually did, this would represent a stark contrast with their recent history. The last Tory government not only centralised power away from local government, they left councils in such a state of failure many were incapable of delivering even the most basic services. It is Labour’s reforms of council performance and increased investment in local services that has turned things round. So have Cameron’s Tories really changed?

Shadow chancellor George Osborne claims his party will freeze council tax for two years if the Tories win the next election. That sounds good to most voters as council tax is unpopular. Osborne hopes to use the announcement to position his party as efficient and Labour as wasteful. That’s something we must not let him get away with because it’s not true.

The stalled housing market is one of the factors threatening to push the UK economy into recession. The consequences of that would be dire – higher unemployment, pressure on public spending, impacts on crime and family breakdown. The government must do what is necessary to stop that happening, and a strong partnership with local government will help. It was good to see the government recognise a role for local councils in this week’s package to help prevent homelessness and repossessions and provide more council housing.

Isn't it great to see Britain's athletes bringing home the Olympic gold from Beijing? Heeding David Miliband's call to ‘start winning the argument over our record', Labour can take some credit for supporting our athletes to achieve their success. So far, three gold medals, and hope for more before the games close. Compare that to the solitary gold medal Britain won at the Olympic games in Atlanta in 1996 towards the fag-end of 18 years of Tory rule that had failed to invest in young people or in sport. Athletes at all levels need government investment in sport to help reach their potential.

Knife crime is right at the top of the political agenda. It's the police's top priority. It's Gordon Brown's top priority. National politicians are falling over themselves to trumpet new initiatives. But what are the real solutions to the problem? Labour needs a measured response that understands and deals with the real problem.

Boris Johnson's election as Mayor of London on 1 May marked a turning point for our capital city. It's an opportunity the Conservatives want to use to show they are fit to run the country, but behind the good PR of the first few weeks London's Tory mayor is taking decisions that will prove highly damaging for ordinary Londoners.

Conservative Central Office is running the show and have surrounded their mayor with loyal Tory staffers including former think-tank chief Nick Boles and the outgoing Leader of Westminster Council, Sir Simon Milton. Interestingly, and to their dismay, Tory members of the Greater London Assembly have been largely overlooked.

Councils are drawing up long-term plans for their area over the next decade and beyond. Known as the sustainable community strategy, the plans are agreed by all the partners in a local authority area - not just the council.

In Lambeth, we're giving our strategy a very clear focus on tackling worklessness. So many of the challenges we face are rooted in poverty, and getting people into meaningful work is the best long-term solution. The urgency of this agenda was brought home to me by three simple facts:

Back in May 2006, Lambeth was the only council in the country that Labour won back from opposition. Now, less than two years later, Lambeth’s officially the fastest improving council in the country, leaping in one go to a three-star rating from the dismal one star failure we inherited from the Tories and Lib Dems.

One thing that really marks out a good Labour council is our willingness to tackle the tough issues head on, rather than just moan about the government like our opponents do. Crime is a big issue across Britain, and the increase in violent youth crime is a particular worry in some inner-city areas.

Lambeth is home to well over 150 different communities. Different groups living here are at different stages of integration into our society. The newly arrived Poles still operate separately, looking into their own community for support. In part that’s because they don’t know how to access public services here, but also because they consider themselves to be here only temporarily and so don’t reach out more widely. Our Portuguese population felt similarly when they arrived in large numbers in the mid 1990s. A decade later, they’re realising they’re here to stay as they send their children to state schools and live in public housing. They’ve realised they need to look outwards and build networks into the wider community.