ALDC

Read All About it! 01/09/2010

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:32:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days or so in the media:

Aside from the Labour Leadership contest, the main political stories over the weekend focussed on:

- debate on the future of NHS Direct, and its replacement by the 111 number. Here's how libdemvoice reported on the our minister Paul Burstow reassuring us that New 111 service will be better than NHS Direct. Here's the o riginal story in the Guardian.

- Chief Secretary Danny Alexander's statement on taxation. Here's Danny's interview in the Guardian; here's a rather critical editorial from The Telegraph….

In the local Government specialist press a couple of stories which might be of interest, both from the Municipal Journal: Unison ups opposition to cuts following IFS report and Pickles vows to cut red tape for community events.

Not from the media, but of potential interest is comment from the Local Government blog of ConservativeHome on an idea for "Foundation Councils" - interesting to know what people are thinking!

Tim Pickstone

September 2010

Winning Herts and Minds...

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:44:00 +0100

A warm welcome back to our by-election watchers after our short summer sojourn. The smattering of by-elections that took place on the 12th and 19th yielded very little in the way of news, with no gains or losses to report on, so we shall recommence with events from the 26th. August 26th celebrates the anniversaries of two seminal events. Firstly, it was 221 years since the newly-created French National Assembly adopted the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen’, a foundational document of liberal democracy and of the concept that citizens can possess inalienable human rights. It was also 90 years since the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution came into effect, giving women across the United States the right to vote for the very first time. Looking to add to the great liberal heritage of the 26th were our by-election teams in Redcar, Sheffield, Cannock Chase, South Buckinghamshire, and Dacorum.

The best result of the day reaches us from Dacorum Borough Council, in Hertfordshire, where Rosemarie Hollinghurst took the very rural Aldbury & Wigginton ward from the Conservatives. The local campaign team introduced Rosemarie as part of their post-General ‘thank-you- leaflet and followed up with an impressive array of literature. Leaflets included an Election Special Focus (in three editions), a Candidate Introduction, and pre-election Focus. Target letters went out on a local parking issue, environmental issues and local tip closure, a letter for new voters, and a soft-Tory squeeze letter – a section of the electorate becoming increasingly fertile ground for Liberal Democrat campaigns across the country. Extensive canvassing coverage, with help from three neighbouring constituencies, a very popular blue-letter, and two mailshots out to postal voters helped confirm the ALDC adage that ‘where we work we win’. Congratulations to Rosemarie, Nick, and all of our campaigners in Dacorum.

No great surprises in South Bucks, where the Tories held on against a greatly increased UKIP challenge. Labour remain within their comfort zone, holding in both Redcar & Cleveland and the Woodhouse ward in Sheffield, and picking off the Conservatives in Cannock Chase. Out in the towns, our congratulations to the local Lib Dem team in Burgess Hill for taking the Victoria ward from the Tories.

Read All About It 25/08/2010

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:06:00 +0100

Some recommended reading for Lib Dem Councillors and local campaigners this week:

It being the "silly season", much of the press has been full of silly defection stories that we won't bore you with here.

More serious political coverage continues to focus on the imact of finanical savings.

The Municipal Journal's coverage included two articles:

Council productivity lags far behind private sector, survey claims, and The axe comes to local quangos

Inside Housing magazine reports on the impact of the changes to grant to local authorities for traveller sites in: Home to Roost

In the last couple of days the big news has been about the IFS report of the impact of the budget.

Here's the Guardian report: Poor families bear brunt of coalition's austerity drive, and here's Lib Dem voice on the Party's response.

Finally some ideas from abroad:

We were impressed by the Mayor of Minneapolis's blog. He's a Democrat who sounds like a Liberal Democrat and was apparently the first Mayor to back Obama when he stood for president. The blog is at:http://themayorblog.com/

In particular: Stopping youth violence, Fixing potholes, and What they've done to improve the economy.

Read All About it 18/08/10

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Some recommended reading for Lib Dem Councillors and local campaigners this week:

Wednesday marked 100 days of the Coalition Government. Nick Clegg called the public to "Judge us on 5 years, not on 100 days" in a major interview in the Observer last Sunday. 100 days in The Observer's sister paper The Guardian has us on a (fairly respectable) 18% in the polls.

In Local Government the main news in the last week has been the abolition of the Audit Commission. The MJ/localgov.co.uk reports here as Letter from Audit Commission, Michael O'Higgins to Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles. Lib Dem Audit Commission member (and ALDC Management Committee member) Cllr Chris White asks (in a personal capacity) "Who'll watch the watchmen when the auditors are away".

Also for councillors, a couple of interesting stories in the Municipal Journal last week - how Bristol City Council is leading the way on a green energy revolution, and how councils in Greater Manchester are seeking Government approval for a minimum alcohol price.

Finally, more from the MJ/localgov on Councils clashing over the proposed Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPS).

Tim Pickstone, 18 August 2010

Kickstart for 2011!

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:01:00 +0100

Registrations are now open for ALDC's main campaigner training event of the year - KICKSTART - which takes place 26-28 November 2010.

Kickstart is for teams of volunteer campaigners - not just for those of us with elections in 2011, but also

great for people forward planning for 2012 and beyond. Every year we welcome teams and individuals from across the country who want to learn about how to win local elections.

The event has a great track record of success with teams who attend showing a better than average performance in the subsequent May's elections.

This year we're in Derby, at a great venue which used to be the British Rail Conference centre (pictured above), from the evening of Friday 26th November - lunchtime Sunday 28th November 2010.

The weekend consists of:

- training - over 20 hours of training on campaign techniques to suit all levels of expertise from complete beginner to experienced campaigner.

- mentoring - you and your team work together with an experienced campaign mentor throughout the weekend to work through your winning campaign plan

Don't worry if you are the only person who can attend from your area. We group individual delegates together to work in small teams with mentors.

Registration is online here.

Pricing starts at £120 per delegate for the whole weekend (slightly higher for non-ALDC members, and the price goes up after 8th October 2010). Remember this price includes FULL BOARD hotel accommodation for the whole weekend.

The G8 Grants fund can help subsidise the attendance of your team at Kickstart (half price places) - but only for areas that cannot otherwise afford to send a team. We also have a limited number of half price places available for areas which are starting off (no councillors or councillors in only one ward) - get in touch for more information.

Crucial elections for Lib Dems in Norwich and Exeter

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:54:00 +0100

In September, the Liberal Democrats in Exeter and Norwich are facing key elections that will be vital for the parties in both areas.

The elections are as a result of the government’s decision to cancel the proposal to turn both councils in to unitary authorities. Following this decision the High Court decided that all of the councillors whose terms of office had been extended now had to fight by-elections to regain their positions on the relevant councils. It has also led to the unusual situation in Norwich where all of the opposition leaders and four cabinet members suddenly find themselves off the council having to fight to retain their seats.

Both areas need as much help as possible. Not only are these significant for the political make-up of each council but they are also a big test of

support for all of the parties involved.

In Norwich, these are the first elections to be fought since Simon Wright was elected as the Liberal Democrat MP for Norwich South. The Lib Dems are defending two out of the 13 seats, both of which are in Norwich South (Eaton and Thorpe Hamlet). We have the potential to do well in these elections, although if the Green Party repeats its performance from 2009 they would become the largest party on the council.

To help in Norwich, contact our office on 01603 627660 or email the organiser Simon Drage at simon.drage@gmail.com.

Exeter is a Liberal Democrat-led council, however we are currently running a minority administration. Although the city has traditionally been seen as a Labour/Conservative marginal, with Ben Bradshaw as the local MP, we have performed very well at local level and have more than held our own in the General Election. We are defending three out of the 12 seats up for election, with a 13^th seat also up in a by-election.

To help in Exeter, contact either Sheila Hobden on 01392 277630 or Adrian Fullam on 01392 204296.

Liverpool fringe for your diary

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:07:00 +0100

Autumn Federal Conference 2010 takes place in Liverpool, Saturday 18 - Wednesday 22 September 2010. If you're not registered already and would like to go you can register here.

There are some great ALDC and local government fringe events planned - put them in your diary!

ALDC Annual General Meeting and Campaigner Awards 2011

Saturday 18 September, 8.00pm, Liverpool Hilton Grace Suite 1, Drinks
Members are invited to the Annual General Meeting of the Association which is followed by

the presentation of the 2011 Campaigner Awards by Party President Baroness Ros Scott.

ALDC Members Reception in partnership with the Co-operative

Sunday 19 September, 1:00 pm, ACC Liverpool Hall 12

Join us at our annual members reception with Business Secretary Vince Cable MP and Party Deputy Leader Simon Hughes MP. Lunch and drinks: ALDC Members Only.

LGA Group "Going local to secure a low carbon future" with Friends of the Earth
Sunday 19 September, 6.15pm Brittania 1, Albert Dock, Holiday Inn Express.

LGA Group - Local Government Reception
details (tbc)
Join the LGA Group at the main social gathering at Conference for everyone involved in local government.

Next Generation Reception and Launch, LG Leadership

Monday 20 September, 1.00 p.m., Liverpool Tate Auditorium Lunch and Drinks

Join our partners from LG Leadership to celebrate the launch of the 2010-2011 Next Generation Programme.

Elected Police Commissioners: Help or Hindrance?

Monday 20 September, 8.00pm, Liverpool Hilton Grace Suite 2, Drinks

Join Brian Paddick, Mike Crockart MP, Tom Brake MP, and Cllr Duwayne Brooks as we look at the different proposals for how local police forces should be democratically accountable and debate how the Police Reform and Social Reponsibility Bill could be improved.

Making Transport Localism a Reality in partnership with Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA)

Tuesday 21 September 8.00pm, ACC Liverpool Hall 4a. Drinks and food.

Join Norman Baker M.P, our minister at the Dept. of Transport, and Cllr Keith Whitmore, Vice-Chair GMITA, to discuss if Localism and the Big Society can be extended to transport - and how could that work?

Who's Up in 2011

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Here is our summary of the composition of councillors, by authority-type and party, facing election in May 2011. This list represents the best of ALDC's knowledge at time of publication but may be subject to change, for example due to by-elections and defections prior to the election. If you would like to report any amendments to the figures presented here, please let us know by emailing elections2011@aldc.org.

Councillors up in 2011 - At a Glance

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Councillors up in 2011 - In Detail

Online Training Survey

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0100

The Party is currently undertaking a survey of members around training.

This is an online survey and all members of the Party are encouraged to take part - it is only a one page survey, so won't take too long!

As many people as possible are encouraged to respond by 5th September 2010.

The survey is online here.

Dog Days...

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0100

August 5th is rapidly becoming known as International Beer Day, a celebration hoping to spread the word about this quaint and little-known British traditional beverage! In need of more support, perhaps, are the nation’s by-election watchers; we have a paltry one principal council contest to report on and nothing at all out in the towns.

The single election that took place was for the Sitwell ward on Rotherham M.B.C., with the Conservatives defending after the death of the previous councillor. The Tories were successful in their defence, squeezing a four percent increase out of voters at the polls.

With no other by-elections to report, a quick word on ALDC’s training schedule at autumn Conference. ALDC will be delivering twenty-eight training sessions in all, all taking place at the Jury’s Inn hotel in Liverpool. A full training schedule can be found as part of the ‘Liverpool Highlights’ story at: http://www.aldc.org/myaldc/news/1798/05/08/2010/Liverpool_Highlights. Please note that this training is free of charge for all delegates, but attendees will be asked to present their Liberal Democrat membership cards on arrival.

Another slow day for local democracy next time, August 12th has only two scheduled by-elections. The Labour party will be defending the River ward of Medway Unitary Authority in the only principal council contest. The second contest is for the Ham ward of Westbury Town Council – and our congratulations to Liberal Democrat David Jenkins, who has already managed to gain the seat from an Independent by running unopposed! With this bird in the hand, we’re already off to a flying start! The best of luck to all our campaign teams (including those who’ve already won).

ALDC By-Elections Team

Liverpool Highlights

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Autumn Federal Conference 2010 takes place in Liverpool, Saturday 18 - Wednesday 22 September 2010. If you're not registered already and would like to go you can register here. The Party has some great deals for day delegates and for "first time" delegates.

ALDC Training

ALDC has some great training planned for conference. All Party members are welcome to attend and it is a great reason to come to Liverpool for the Saturday morning (most people tend to come up on Friday evening if they can).

A full list of training is here, but the highlights include:

Campaign Workshops
We have two 1/2 day (all morning) campaign workshops on Saturday and Sunday mornings at Conference. On Saturday it's a campaign planning workshop for the English Districts and Unitary Authorities who have ALL OUT elections on 5th May 2011. On Sunday we have a whole half day up-to-date briefing from the Party's Director of Campaigns Hilary Stephenson and Local Elections Chair Andrew Stunell MP. Both will be well worth ensuring your team is represented at.

Campaign Essentials Course
As a new feature this year we have a full course of eight sessions aimed at providing volunteer Lib Dem campaigners with the essential building blocks for winning year-round campaigning. It's a set of eight new modules, come to all eight, come to some or just come to one - whatever works for you. The courses will all have content that you can take away and run a simple session back at home for your team. The eight sessions are:
- Targeting and the Plan
- Winning the Postal Vote
- Talking and Listening to the Voters
- The Winning Team
- E Campaigning
- Focus - How, What, When
- Successful Campaigning at the Grassroots
- GOTV (Get out the vote!)

Councillor Training - ALDC and LG Leadership and Improvement (formerly IDeA)
Once again we're working with our colleagues at LG Leadership and Improvement to bring Lib Dem Councillors a set of eight sessions to help you achieve more in your role:
- Whole Place / Total Place, Area Based Working
- Sharing Officers, Sharing Services
- Member Officer Relations
- Cabinet Member for Your Ward
- Budgeting in Control
- Budgeting in Opposition
- We are in Government, implications for Lib Dem Councillors
- Councillors in politically split Ward

Other training includes; sessions for London councillors and leaders, sessions for Group Researchers, sessions on the Be a Lib Dem Councillor Programme and Next Generation programmes and a drop-in workshop for MyCouncillor users.

ALDC Fringe

ALDC is organising involved in four fringe events at Conference:

Annual General Meeting and Campaigner Awards 2010
Saturday 18 September, 8.00pm - 9.15pm, Liverpool Hilton Grace Suite 1, Drinks
Members are invited to the Annual General Meeting of the Association which is followed by the presentation of the 2010 Campaigner Awards by Party President Baroness Ros Scott.

ALDC Members Reception in partnership with the Co-operative
Sunday 19 September, 1.00pm-2.00pm ACC Liverpool Hall 12
Join us at our annual members reception with Business Secretary Vince Cable MP and Party Deputy Leader Simon Hughes MP. Lunch and drinks: ALDC Members Only.

LGA Group - Going local to secure a low carbon future
Sunday 6.15pm - 7.30pm Britannia 1, Albert Dock, Holiday Inn Express
With Friends of the Earth. Panel will include:
Chris Huhne MP
Cllr Barbara Janke
Cllr Paul Tilsley
Mayor Dorothy Thornhill

LGA Group - Local Government Reception
Sunday 19 September 10pm – 11.30pm Liverpool Hilton, Grace Suite
Join LGA Group at the main social gathering for local government at Conference.

Next Generation Reception and Launch, LG Leadership
Monday 21 September, 1.00 p.m., Liverpool Tate Auditorium Lunch and Drinks
Join our partners from LG Leadership to celebrate the launch of the 2010-2011 Next Generation Programme.

Delivering the Big Society: a co-operative solution? With the Cooperative Group
Monday 21 September, 1.00pm-2.00pm ACC Liverpool Hall 4a

Elected Police Commissioners: Help or Hindrance?
Monday 20 September, 8.00pm - 9.15pm, Liverpool Hilton Grace Suite 1, Drinks
Join Brian Paddick, Mike Crockart M.P., and Cllr Duwayne Brooks as we look at the different proposals for how local police forces should be democratically accountable and debate how the Police Reform and Social Reponsibility Bill could be improved.

LGA Group - The urban challenge - Place based budgets
Monday 8.00pm - 9.15pm, ACC Hall 1c
Looking at the challenges and opportunities that place based budgeting and current fiscal challenges place on urban councils.

Making Transport Localism a Reality in partnership with Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA)
Tuesday 21 September 8.00pm - 9.15pm, ACC Liverpool Hall 4a. Drinks and food.
Join Norman Baker M.P., our minister at the Dept. of Transport (invited), and Cllr Keith Whitmore, Vice-Chair GMITA, to discuss if Localism and the Big Society can be extended to transport - and how could that work?

LGA Group - Delivering community politics
Tuesday 8pm – 9.15pm Suites 3, 4 and 5, Jury’s Inn
Panel will include:
Erica Kemp, Liberal Democrat adviser, Local Government Leadership
Tim Pickstone, Chief Executive, ALDC
Cllr Daisy Benson, Lead Member, Housing, Health & Community Care, Reading
Richard Kemp, Leader, LGA Liberal Democrat Group

Local Elections 2011 - Nine Months to Go!

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Today (5 August 2011) is nine months to go to the crucial local elections in English District, Unitary and Metropolitan councils on 5th May 2011.

Nearly 2000 Liberal Democrat councillors will face the electorate in the biggest "round" in the four-year local elections cycle.

G8 Grants to help your local campaign

ALDC administers the local "G8" grants scheme to help Liberal Democrats win local elections. We're currently looking for applications for Round 1 of the grants scheme for 2011 for campaigning work this Autumn. The deadline to register interest in the grants is 20th August, applications need to be in by 27th August. Register your interest here.

Training to help you WIN

A busy programme of training is planned for the rest of 2010 to help you win next May. The next major training opportunity is at Liverpool Federal Conference with a combination of 1/2 Campaign Workshops and a whole course of Essential Campaign Techniques. More information here.

The best training your campaign team will receive is ALDC’s flagship training event the Kickstart Weekend 26-28 November 2010 in Derby. Here we’re able to offer a campaign team a whole weekend of work with an experienced campaigner-mentor, as well as 20 hours of different levels of training. Teams who attend Kickstart have a proven record of doing better in the subsequent May’s elections than team that don’t!

Register for Kickstart here. We do have a small amount of half price places for “black hole” areas and you can apply for financial support to attend Kickstart through the G8 process.

Join Us!

I know that a high number of the Liberal Democrats facing election next year are already ALDC members, either individually or through a group membership scheme.

If you’re one of the unlucky ones who are not, then now is a great time to join. Last time your seats were up in 2007 councillors who were ALDC members were three and a half times MORE LIKELY to be re-elected than those who weren’t.

Find out more about what ALDC members receive and join online here.

Winning Out West...

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:33:00 +0100

On July 29th there were three principal council by-elections and six contests out in the towns. There was good news at all levels, on the former we gained a seat in Bath and North East Somerset, and in the latter we romped home with four gains out of the six!

Our gain in the Radstock ward of Bath and North East Somerset District Council has taken us to within four seats of the Conservatives, who currently enjoy minority control with thirty-one seats overall. That said, the Tories were no threat in this particular ward and their attacks on the ‘Bath-centric Liberal Democrats’ while running a candidate from Bath themselves, indicated how seriously they were taking the contest. The only real contenders were an Independent and the Labour Party. Labour polled second with a largely positive campaign centred on their candidate. Our candidate Simon Allen was a new face in local politics and the campaign made a lot of a ‘Fresh Start for Radstock’. The long experience of Bath and N.E.S. helping neighbouring constituencies at election time paid karmic dividends, when they received help from no fewer than twelve constituency parties across the region. Weekly print-runs across a variety of colours and formats, a street letter linked a community action day on a local estate, and a well-timed postal vote campaign sealed the victory. A legacy of fresh canvass data and a new deliverers network were the icing on the cake of our newest Liberal Democrat in local government. Congratulations to Simon and the whole Bath and North East Somerset team.

Elsewhere, we came a close second in the Haywards Heath Franklands ward of Mid Sussex D.C., with a 27% increase in our vote-share, we were just eighty-one votes shy of picking up a second by-election seat on Mid-Sussex since May 6th. In the towns, we took two seats off the Tories, in Crewekerne near Yeovil and Haywards Heath Town Council. A gain from the Independents in Redruth and one off Labour on Keynsham Town Council near Bristol rounded off a good day at the office for our campaign teams across the country.

ALDC By-Elections Team

Going Postal

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:00:00 +0100

There were nine principal council elections held on the 22nd July. The Liberal Democrats held three seats and took one off the Tories. Labour held one seat and took one off the Tories. The Tories held the three remaining seats.. In the five Parish council elections reported to ALDC there were two Lib Dem holds, a Labour hold, Independent gain from the Tories and a seat won by an independent but it is not clear whether it is a hold or a gain.

St Mary’s with Summercombe Ward in Torbay UA was our best result of the night where we took a seat off the complacent Tories. The loss of 14 seats and control of Torbay council in 2007 was a serious blow to the party and led some to wonder how long Adrian Sanders could last as the MP. Well, Adrian won in May and the Tory Mayor and council are increasingly unpopular. UKIP stood a local lifeboat woman as their candidate but they only did one poor leaflet. The Tories relied on their supporters identified in the General Election and one glossy leaflet – it was not enough.

In Thatcham South and Crookham the town council and West Berkshire Unitary Authority boundaries are co-terminus. Fifteen months ago Marvellous Ford won a Town council by-election for us in the same ward for us by 373 votes. We targeted the postal vote to the extent that 60% of votes cast were postal. The turnout of postal voters was 65% against around 20% for those who voted on the day. The Tories did more than usual with 3 full colour leaflets and a full canvass but could not dent our vote.

All three Lib Councillors for the Nethermayne Ward in Basildon were Williams’s until Ben had to resign for work reasons. We focussed on associating our new candidate with the Williams name and record. We targeted the postal Vote to great effect. The Tories suffered from a dynamic campaign from the UKIP PPC standing in the by-election. Labour tried to play the national Cuts card but we kept it local.

Kidlington North Ward of Cherwell DC lies in the Oxford West and Abingdon parliamentary seat and so had a high level of historic data to work from. Steady work over several years has built up our postal vote support but they weren’t complacent here either. All postal voters were phoned in the 3 days before the issue of postal ballots. Labour put a lot of effort in for their 17%, particularly on polling day but local squeeze messages were still working.

G8 Grants for 2011 Local Elections - Register NOW

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0100

G8 is a grants programme to support local parties campaign in local elections.

G8 is administered by ALDC, with kind support from the Federal, English, Scottish and Welsh Liberal Democrats. If you have local elections in 2011, then we may be able to provide financial support for your campaign in wards where you will be fighting particularly hard campaigns, either to gain the seat or where there is a tricky defence.

The 2011 round of elections is the biggest in the four-year cycle. This means a lot of demand for funding through the “G8” grants process. We want to maximise success so will be aiming to fund as many council areas and wards as possible. Funding will be available in two rounds – offers for the first set of grants being made in late September 2010.

grants will be in the region of £150 – £250 per target/held ward
in less well resourced areas funding will be available to help people attend training like the Kickstart weekend
council areas must make single applications, and must have a Campaign Plan (which we can help you with).

To register your interest, please complete this form by 20^th August and we will send you an application pack which should be returned by 27^th August.

For more information please contact eleanor.ritchie@aldc.org

Liberal Democrat Next Generation programme - call for applications

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Applications are now open for the Lib Dem (LGA Leadership-funded) programme for young and up and coming councillors Next Generation Programme. This year will features visits to Portsmouth and Birmingham.

Key features of the course is seeing best practice from other Lib Dem controlled authorities and networking with MPs and senior councillors, as well as personal and political development training. Previous alumni have since taken up leadership positions in their own authority and elected positions on the LGA.

We'd like to hear from you, if you are serious about making a significant contribution to Lib Dem politics in local government.

More information and a link to the online application form* is here

http://www.localleadership.gov.uk/delivering/nextgeneration/libdem/

*As part of the application you will need two written testimonials from senior referees and a 500 word statement about your background and experience.

Any questions about the process please contact Bridget Harris 07966 989 355

Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference 2010 in Photos

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0100

A selection of photos of the Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference in June 2010 are now available online at ALDC's Flickr site.

Many thanks to Alex Folkes and Jonathan Wallace for the photos!

Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister, addresses the Lib Dem Local Government Conference

Training with London Councils on "Cabinet Member for your Ward"

Delegates discussing issues in a training session.

Nick arriving at LG House, greeted by LGA Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr Richard Kemp.

Liberal Democrat leaders of the cities of Bristol, Portsmouth and Sheffield with Liberal Democrat local government Under-Secretary of State Andrew Stunell MP

Summertime Blues...

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0100

With nine principal council by-elections taking place on St Swithin’s day this year, we can only hope our electoral prospects don’t stay the same for the next forty days! Of the two we were defending, we lost one, and we failed to pick up any seats elsewhere. The Conservatives held steady, successfully defending four out of five; on Surrey Country Council (Worplesdon division); Great Marlow ward of Wycombe District; Wheatley ward on Rochford D.C.; and Pirbright in Guildford. The one seat lost by the Tories on the 15th, Bloxwich West ward of Walsall M.B.C., was one of a trio of Labour gains. They also took the Castle seat on Leicester City Council from the Greens and, disappointingly, the Riversway seat in Preston C.C. from our local Lib Dems. In Wales, Llais Gwynedd, or Voice of Gwynedd for the Anglophones amongst us, held the Diffwys and Maenofferon seat on Gwynedd against a Plaid Cymru challenge, a contest in which there was no Liberal Democrat candidate.

With a by-election clutch as dreary as the recent weather, we’ve saved the best ‘til last in the form of our successful defence of the Corfe Mullen South seat on East Dorset District Council. Nestled in the Mid-Dorset and North Poole constituency of our own Annette Brooke, the ward itself has been a Lib Dem stronghold for the past seventeen years. With weekly Focus and election literature, in addition to Definite and Probable-targeted letters, we capitalised on local issues of the day, particularly wheelie-bin allocations and a controversial nearby landfill site, to reinforce our message of community politics. A legacy benefit of approximately 50% new canvass data across the ward and a smooth Postal Vote operation combined to defeat a negative Tory campaign and a lacklustre UKIP effort. Congratulations to Councillor Philip Harknett, and our hard-working team in East Dorset.

Out in the towns, we had some good news in the form of a hold and a gain on Barnstaple Town Council, unfortunately counterbalanced by a pair of losses on Bradfield Parish Council in Sheffield. We also lost a Town Councillor in Knaresborough, near Harrogate, to the Tories, making it a pretty torrid time for Liberal Democrats at all local government levels. There are another nine principals up next week, of which we are defending three. The best of luck to all our candidates and campaigners across the country.

ALDC By-Elections Team

Gaining Ground...

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0100

There were six principal council by-elections on July 8th and a single Town Council contest reported to ALDC. Of the six, our best result came in the Cockerton West ward of Darlington, where candidate Brian Jefferson gained a near 20% upswing in the Lib Dem voteshare to leap into second. The urgency with which Labour’s council Leader and new M.P. pounded the streets testified to our candidate’s well-established reputation as hard working local teacher and community campaigner, who had previously served on the council for the Conservatives. Our campaign team won the literature war, putting out three election addresses in a variety of sizes (all on recycled paper, for additional environmental currency), blue letters timed to coincide with the arrival of postal votes, and a targeted Good Morning, well in excess of the output from the opposing parties. The BNP were active in the council estate areas, finishing with a typical flourish by illegally fly-posting election propaganda onto council properties on polling day, before having them all ripped down and storming into last place (shedding nearly 10% of their vote). With a former UKIP candidate running for the Tories and polling a mere 10% himself, our candidate was the only competition for a complacent Labour and came within forty votes of a notable victory.

Of the remainder, only one principal council seat saw a change of hands with Labour wresting the Blackwood ward on Caerphilly from an Independent in an election with no Liberal Democrat candidate. In a similar vein was Blaenau Gwent, in whose Tredegar Central and West ward we successfully took one fifth of the vote last time around, but no-one to build on it two years later. The Greens held on in Brighton, at the back end of a long shuffle prompted by Caroline Lucas’ elevation to the Commons in May. The remaining principal council results were all Labour Holds, and their increasing voteshare features as today’s common denominator. In the Towns, the St Ives Independents Held and Gained one apiece on St Ives T.C., the gain being at the expense of the Greens.

With a princely nine by-elections coming on the 15th, there will be plenty to look out for. In the meantime, a quick reminder that ALDC are accepting nominations for a variety of prizes in our Campaigner Awards 2010. Details on our website are accessible via http://tinyurl.com/34dhlqe. The best of luck to all our campaign teams across the country.

ALDC By-Elections Team

Getting Warmer...

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:01:00 +0100

The tranquil surroundings of the Wells constituency formed the backdrop to our best result of the day, where a Lib Dem gain from the Conservatives put us only one seat behind the Tories on Mendip D.C. and brought the council into No Overall Control. Candidate Garfield Kennedy led from the front, knocking on every door in the ward, building on Tessa Munt’s election to parliament in May. Swiftly acquiring a number of strategic sites on the approach to a popular local supermarket for our superboards and a further forty different stakeboard locations, made it a high visibility campaign. Our messages were spread, and some new members signed up, by the candidate hiring a stall in town on market day. The Coalition was generally well-received on the doorstep and we found ourselves on the right side of local planning concerns and a parking charges controversy that were hurting the (Conservative-run) Mendip District Council. Postal votes arrived before the budget, and the P.V.-targeted blue letter dropped onto doormats on the same day – in the end, the postal vote broke approximately two-thirds in our favour. The campaign also made good use of ALDC’s Focus and Good Morning templates to help tailor their local literature output, templates for all occasions can be found in the members’ area of www.aldc.org.

Our second gain of the day was the Clee ward of Shropshire Unitary Authority, where candidate Richard Huffer built on his established reputation as a dedicated community worker to take the ward from a complacent local Tory party. A range of literature, beginning with the post-General ‘Thank You’ Focus and including letters targeted geographically to capitalise on the range of local issues affecting specific areas. Richard succeeded in converting a number of disillusioned soft-Conservative votes on the basis of his prodigious door-knocking efforts and his long record of action on local issues. The prospect of Conservative-run Shropshire cutting funding for ‘Meals on Wheels’ and local mobile library services also helped seal the deal by keeping the focus firmly at local level.

In other developments, the Tories gained a seat on Fylde Borough Council from an Independent and they held the Huntingdon and Hatherton ward of South Staffordshire District Council by the princely margin of two votes. It was a reasonable day for Labour, holding the three they were defending. Finally, the non-principal by-elections saw a Lib Dem loss to an Independent on Chard Town Council in Somerset, and our own Town Councillor Michael Reginald Lock successfully defending a seat on Yeovil T.C.

ALDC By-Elections Team

26 councillors lose their seats following unitary decision

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Twenty-six councillors (13 in Norwich and 13 in Exeter) have been booted of their respective councils following the government's decision to overturn the decision to turn Norwich and Exeter in to unitary authorities.

The 26 councillors who had been up for re-election this May had their terms of office extended by a year to the date when the proposed all-up unitary elections were due to be held. Now the High Court has quashed the appeal against the decision stop the change to unitary status, a judge decided that for "legal reasons" these councillors will now have to fight by-elections if they wish to regain their places on the councils. The councils are now looking at what effect this has on the political balance and cabinets of both councils in the period running up to the by-elections.

More details are available on the BBC website.

Training for councillors on local government finance

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0100

The Local Government Association has organised an event specifically aimed at councillors to help them understand more about local government finance. In particular it looks at:

how local government finance is allocated to councils
roles and responsibilities, including the role of elected members
current issues in local government finance
how local government finance should be reformed

It is being held on 10th September at Local Government House in Smith Square in Westminster. It is £150 for councillors from authorities who are LGA members. More details are available here.

All Quiet on the Western Front...

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:00:00 +0100

There were three principal council by-elections and six by-elections out in the towns. Of the three main events, two Labour seats and one Tory ward were all successfully defended, with very little change in the vote tallies. We ran candidates in two of the three, Bedford and Braintree, but to no avail. The third by-election, in Conwy, saw Labour gain 11% in vote-share, mostly through the absence of a Plaid Cymru candidate who took 12% last time the seat was contested. Three of the five Town Council seats up were Lib Dem defences, and a 100% retention rate is excellent news for our campaign teams. We held on to our seat in the Dunmore ward on Abingdon Town Council, a glimmer of consolation after Evan Harris’ narrow defeat in May. We also held two seats on Chippenham T.C. in the Monkton Park and Pewsham wards, where Duncan Hames and the local Lib Dem team fought and won the newly-created Chippenham seat that emerged from the latest boundary review. Elsewhere, Labour held a seat on Llandudno, where Gareth Owen and the Lib Dem team doubled their previous vote tally, Labour gained one from the Conservatives in Shrewsbury, and finally the Tories picked off an Independent Town Councillor on Burton Latimer TC in Northamptonshire.

As it has been a bit of a quiet day, the ALDC By-Elections team wanted to take a moment to emphasise the importance of keeping our local voter intelligence fully up to date. A lot has changed since the election and coalition agreement, and with the budget also polarising opinions on all sides, we should consider that our pre-election voter ID may be out of date. ALDC is here to help our campaign teams keep their voter intelligence on the cutting edge, and our new Summer Survey is available online at the ALDC shop. Tailored to generate a range of casework and Focus issues and to feed back valuable information on which local issues are driving voters’ political priorities, the ALDC Summer Survey can be printed and delivered to order.

With seven principal by-elections next week, including Tulse Hill in the London Borough of Lambeth, and a brace out in the Towns, we hope there will be plenty of exciting developments to share a week from now. Until then, the best of luck to all our teams out in the field.

Anaerobic Digestion Annual Expo and Conference

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:18:00 +0100

The new coalition government has committed to a huge increase in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion. If this is an area in which you are interested, ALDC has been sent details of a conference and tradeshow that may be useful - UK AD and Biogas 2010 is the event to attend this year if you are involved in or interested in this area.

At UK AD & BIOGAS 2010 you can:

meet leading suppliers, industry experts, financiers, local authorities, researchers, government agencies and developers in our buzzing exhibition
network with representatives from the agricultural, waste, energy, finance, water, retail and local authority sectors
hear Government Ministers and other high profile speakers give exclusive insight into ‘The Future of Anaerobic Digestion in the UK’ at our two-day conference (separate paid entry)
attend FREE workshops, seminars and masterclasses packed with practical advice and discussions.

The UK AD & Biogas 2010 trade show is on 7-8 July in the NEC, Birmingham hosted by The Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) is the first ever trade show focusing solely on anaerobic digestion and biogas.

The two day conference ‘The Future of the AD Industry in the UK’ will include:

Ministers from DECC and DEFRA
David Kennedy, Chief Executive, The Committee on Climate Change
Lord Oxburgh
Gwyn Jones, Vice President, NFU
Steve Smith, Senior Partner, Local Grids and RPI-X@20, Ofgem
Dr Martin Bigg, Head of Policy, Environment Agency
Chris Matthews, Head of Sustainability, United Utilities
Paul Turner, Head of Sustainable Development, Lloyds Banking Group
Patrick Miller, Director, Deutsche Bank
Marcus Gover, Director of Market Development Programmes, WRAP
Mark Bugler, Energy Technology and Innovation Manager, British Gas New Energy
Stuart Hayward Higham, Technical Director, Sita
Samantha Fuller, Development Manager, Scottish & Southern Energy

For the full list of speakers, conference and workshop programmes plus all the rates visit http://www.adbiogas.co.uk. The show brochure is available here

Chris White: don't hammer the little people

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:23:00 +0100

There were two articles in The Sun the other day on public sector pay. One was headed ‘£240k boss search axed’ and was a reference to the fact that the Government has vetoed the proposed salary package for a new Chief Executive of the Audit Commission.

The other much more substantial article was over the LGA’s search for a Director of Communications on £124,000 a year.
(As someone who receives a shilling or two from both organisations I must declare an interest.)

Meanwhile Nick Clegg has been applauded by the Daily Mail for his comments on public sector pensions, calling them ‘gold-plated’ and ‘unfair and unaffordable’.

The standard comparison when it comes to public sector pay is with the salary of the Prime Minister. In the case of the Audit Commission this was debunked on the BBC by leading private sector accountancy commentator Emile Woolf.

"Woolf: ‘I would have thought that the £240,000 package was on the low side for the responsibility he has.’

Eddie Mair from the BBC – ‘But if the most important person in the country (Prime Minister) can scrape by on £160,000, why not the head of the Audit Commission?’

Emile Woolf – ‘The PM enters into public life knowing he is not doing it for the money.’"

In fact Prime Ministers often end up as rich as Croesus after leaving office and it is usual for those making comparisons to ignore (as Mair did on the BBC) Cameron’s salary as an MP and the benefits in kind provided in the form of two sets of free accommodation.

The comparison made this week by The Sun is altogether more challenging. That paper claimed (but I cannot vouch for the figures) that the commander of British forces in Afghanistan earns just £109,000.

So what can the justification be for the six figure salary for a Director of Communications? The only answer must be: the market. But labour markets are notoriously uncompetitive, not least because of employment laws.

Perhaps the rule in both public and private sectors needs to be that if you have a high salary you are expected to perform. If there is no performance then you go.

And public sector pensions? The typical council employee pension is less than £5,000 a year.

Bluntly politicians and the press are hitting the wrong targets. We have much more reason to be angry about the salary paid to the CEO of BP and even more so about the bonuses paid now and in the past to the bankers who set about destroying our economy.

It is because of these people, so far relatively unscathed, that we have to worry about the public sector pay bill.

The little people (using BP’s terminology) continue to give sterling public service for which they are often paid a pittance.

Cllr Chris White is Hertfordshire County Councillor for St. Albans Central and
St. Albans City & District Councillor for Clarence
He is also a member of the ALDC Management Committee
chriswhite.mycouncillor.org.uk

This article was first published on Liberal Democrat Voice

A Bump in the Road...

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:53:00 +0100

It isn’t very often that Liberal Democrats are wont to celebrate a good defection, but June 17th marks a unique anniversary in the combined histories of Cold War geopolitics and international dance. It was 49 years to the day since ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev danced a hasty pas de deux with his Soviet bodyguards before vaulting into airport security in Paris to claim political asylum in France. Unfortunately, our by-election teams proved a little less nimble out in the field - of the four principal council by-elections on the 17th, Liberal Democrats were defending in one, standing in three, and won in none.

Our one loss for the week took place in the North Holme ward of East Lindsey District Council in Lincolnshire. The key to understanding this dramatic decline is hidden in the percentage change, the Lib Dem vote was down roughly 60% on 2007 – such a high figure usually indicates the lack of another major party candidate in the previous election, and in 2007 the contest was solely between us and the BNP. Whilst it was inevitable we’d lose a number of votes when Labour and the Tories fielded candidates this time around, all losses are disappointing and in this case we finished behind the BNP, who took third place by fourteen votes. Labour took the seat with a majority of thirty-one. Labour won in Hastings, with a 12% Con-Lab swing and our candidate dropping roughly 2% to place third. The Tories gained a measure of compensation with two gains of their own. Firstly, a near 20% swing won the Conservatives a seat in the Earls Barton ward of Wellingborough Council in Northamptonshire and, secondly, walking in unopposed to a by-election victory in Chichester.

Slightly better news on the non-principal front, with a handsome double-victory on Theydon Bois Parish Council in Epping Forest. In a low-key campaign, the team merged a Parish election Focus with their post-General Election ‘Thank You’ artwork and a subsequent parish-wide special leaflet, using our candidates’ established reputations as community activists to full effect in an area where the electorate focus more on local achievements than party affiliation. The Tories weighed in with a heavy attack leaflet on the final day of campaigning, alleging that they offered to have both parties stand one candidate each and have them co-opted without election - thus making the Lib Dems responsible for all costs incurred as part of the by-election process. Using a ‘rapid rebuttal’ strategy, the team in Theydon Bois integrated a counter-attack into their Good Morning leaflets overnight, accusing the Tories of using vexatious allegations to force a party political advantage. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating – and with two new Lib Dem Parish Councillors in Theydon Bois, one assumes our local campaign teams have a well-sated sweet tooth this week!

The by-election wheel keeps on turning next week, with a distinctly average three principal by-elections and five contests out in the towns. Congratulations to our successful Parish Councillors in Essex, and the best of luck to all our teams out pounding the (increasingly sunny) streets.

How to access ALDC FREE Publications

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:17:00 +0100

To access ALDC FREE Publications go to

http://www.aldc.org/

click on "myALDC"

On the page that appears, scroll down the right hand side to a box entitled "Publications Archive" and click on it.

On the page that appears next, Log in.

On the next page hold the cursor over "Documents" tab and a "Publications" link appears underneath, click on it. On the next page you can browse through many years of Archive ALDC books. The Archive is not complete yet, more stuff is being added every week.

Current books are for sale in the shop, when they are no longer on sale they are put into the Free, (for ALDC Members), Archive.

Campaigner Awards 2010

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:47:00 +0100

Nominations are now sought for the 2010 ALDC Campaigner Awards. These awards celebrate Liberal Democrat campaigning achievements – it’s the second year the awards have been organised by ALDC.

The awards are sponsored by Midshires and RISO, which enable us to award cash prizes to local Liberal Democrat parties.
This year nominations are sought for:

- 1st Prize (Overall winner) £500

FIVE Runners Up Prizes (£100 each)

- Best FOCUS Leaflet

- Best literature by a volunteer campaigner

- Best ward campaign

- Best direct mail

- Best membership literature

Please send in your nominations to: awards@aldc.org (PagePlus11 and PDF files) or by post to Mark Alcock, ALDC, The Birchcliffe Centre, Hebden Bridge, HX7 8DG.

The deadline for nominations is Monday 6th September 2010.

Please send us everything you think worthwhile – any campaigning from 1 October 2009 can be included.

Peter Black: The need for consistency

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:00:00 +0100

With growing pressure on local Councils to make efficiencies and to live within decreasing means, whilst at the same time preserving front-line services, one could be forgiven for thinking that Council Leaders and Cabinet Members need to be proven miracle workers before getting the job.

This is especially so when the local priorities they have been elected to deliver on are made more difficult by national directives dressed up as policy initiatives and when those initiatives are not properly funded.

Centralisation and control-freakery on the part of Welsh Ministers has been a common theme in these articles however the one c-word they fall down on is consistency. This is best illustrated by what happened in Cardiff recently over school reorganisation.

The Council’s view can be read at http://www.freedomcentral.org.uk/2010/06/our-kids-deserve-better-than-labour-ministers-using-schools-reorganisation-as-a-political-football.html but essentially the story amounts to Labour Ministers making it clear that they want local education authorities to remove excessive surplus places in schools, to modernise school buildings and to put in place provision to deal with the rise in demand for Welsh medium teaching, and then campaigning against proposals that affect their own area.

In Cardiff’s case a carefully crafted proposal that would have seen a reduction of surplus places in English medium primary schools in the west of the City and provided a solution to an overcrowded Welsh medium Primary School was vetoed by the First Minister despite the fact that it ticked all the boxes in terms of Welsh Government policy.

The Council, which is a coalition between Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru were left drawing the only possible conclusion that this was a political decision made by an Administration seeking to make capital at their expense. As Council Leader, Rodney Berman says:

‘On the face if it, the First Minister’s decision makes little sense until you take into consideration that throughout the process of taking the proposal forward in the last few years, local Labour representatives have fought it tooth and nail in what could be perceived as a wholly hypocritical campaign that has flown in the face of policies their own party has put in place. Indeed the local Labour Assembly Member in this case is none other than Rhodri Morgan himself. Whilst he was still First Minister he attended a protest meeting at the English-medium primary school proposed for closure, telling parents:

“I can see from the amount of people here, you’ve not come for a tickling contest as they say, and there’s strong opposition to the proposals. It’s the job of me, as your AM, to progress that case and I will do that to the best of my ability.”

So now, with his successor as First Minister rejecting the proposals over two years later, I can’t help but wonder if the whole thing has been some sort of set-up in a desperate move designed to piggy-back on a Labour campaign simply in order to benefit the local electoral fortunes of the Labour Party.’

This is not the first time that this has happened, especially with regards to Welsh Medium education. In Swansea local Labour Councillors campaigned hard and long against a new Welsh Medium Primary School being built by a Liberal Democrat-led Administration. As it happens all their fears and those of local residents have proven to be ill-founded. But as a result of their campaign the Minister arbitrarily reduced the size of the school and has so far failed to provide the evidence on which she made her decision, despite Freedom of Information requests.

Ministers cannot have it both ways. They should not be able to intervene to veto important reorganisation plans that have taken years and tens of thousands of pounds to draw up and put in place whilst at the same time advocating views and policies that are diametrically opposed to their actions.

What is even more galling is that even routine decisions hang around in Government offices awaiting a decision for months on end whilst councillors, officers, parents, teachers and governors sit in limbo.

Wales is a small place and has benefited immensely from the openness and transparency that devolution has brought to it. However, its smallness and the ready accessibility of its Assembly politicians means that we are particularly susceptible to public pressure and lobbying. Thus when it comes to the crunch the difficult decisions that need to be made are often finessed or avoided altogether.

This is something that local government has come to terms with and Councillors now are delivering on hard choices. However, Assembly Ministers who have the luxury of not needing to deal with the consequences of their actions are getting off scot-free. That has to change or the whole devolution project will suffer and ultimately fail.

Cllr Peter Black AM is Swansea Councillor for Cwmbwrla and

Welsh Assembly Member for South Wales West. He is also the

Welsh Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokesperson
peterblack.blogspot.com

Summertime, and the Votin' is Easy...

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Winning Candidate John Griffin at the Site of his Winning Opposition to a New Housing Development

Whilst June 3rd was a good day for by-election watchers this year, it suffers from a relative lack of whimsy in its anniversary celebrations. One interesting tidbit however is that it was 54 years since British Railways renamed their ‘Third Class’ carriages to ‘Second Class’, arguably a greater victory for mass social mobility than has been achieved at any point since! In by-election terms there were three principal council contests fought on Thursday, we were defending two in St Albans and pushing for a win in rural South Oxfordshire.

The Crowmarsh ward of South Oxfordshire District Council is safely ensconced in the Conservative stronghold of Henley, a famous stomping ground for big Tory beasts past and present – Baron Heseltine and Boris Johnson – and a constituency that celebrates an unbroken century of Conservative representation at Westminster in December this year. Successful candidate John Griffin is a well-known figure in the area, having served as councillor for Crowmarsh before in the mid-late 1990s and currently serving as leader of the Crowmarsh Parish Council. The Lib Dem campaign picked up a wealth of canvass data, pounding the streets with the assistance of the East Oxfordshire Lib Dems, and gained a positive response to their popular opposition to a proposed housing development in Crowmarsh itself. In national terms, the coalition also went over well on the doorstep – with a large number of voters giving the Liberal Democrats plaudits for taking a brave step in the national interest.

The remaining principal council results were a pair of successful defences in the St Albans area. A notable Conservative stronghold throughout its electoral history, one point interest can be found in the work of John Bamford Slack M.P., the Liberal Member of Parliament for St Albans between 1904 and 1906. On May 12 1905, Slack gave his place on the Private Members Bill ballot to a motion to introduce full voting rights for women. Some years ahead of the times, the Womens Enfranchisement Bill was shamefully filibustered by anti-suffragist Members drawing out a prolonged discussion of the Lighting of Vehicles Bill that preceded it on the order paper. Back in the modern day, at County Council level Lib Dem Martin Frearson was returned to represent the St Albans South division on Hertfordshire CC, keeping the Lib Dem opposition numbers at 16 County Councillors to the Tories’ 55. The by-election for the Ashley ward on St Albans District Council was an exciting affair – we were defending a council majority of just two seats – but with 49.5% of the popular vote, the St Albans Lib Dem team and new Councillor Andy Grant safely retained their seat.

A quick word on the best of the rest, we received reports of a handsome Liberal Democrat gain in the Gannel Ward of Newquay Town Council. A straight head-to-head with the defending Conservatives saw our man David Sleeman elected to council with roughly 60% of the vote. The next by-elections we currently have on the books are three on the 17th June. Congratulations to all this week’s winning teams, and the very best of luck to all of our campaigners in the field.

ALDC By-Elections Team

Early Doors...

Fri, 28 May 2010 15:26:00 +0100

There have been two election days since the last update, Tuesday 25th for the delayed elections in Camden’s Haverstock ward, and Thursday 27th for Ryde South on the Isle of Wight and a variety of deferred- and by-elections for Town Councils across the country.

In the first serious electoral test since the formation of the coalition, the Liberal Democrat team in Camden successfully defended three seats in the deferred elections in the Haverstock ward. A quick note on classifications; we are reporting this result as two hold and one gain despite there being three Lib Dem councillors on both the 5th and 7th of May. In 2006, the voters of Camden returned two Labour and one Liberal Democrat in Haverstock. One of the Labour councillors was replaced by a Lib Dem in a by-election in July 2007, whilst the second change was the result of defection. When treating elections, the ALDC policy is to use the will of the voters as expressed at the ballot box as the basis for its results classifications, therefore the seat that saw a defection has still technically been gained from Labour - the party that received the winning number of votes the last time that seat was contested. With a small increase in the Lib Dem tallies, albeit on a turnout only half that of the other borough elections on May 6th, our Haverstock holds kept the group total at thirteen councillors and capped Camden’s net losses at seven.

Bad news from the Isle of Wight, whose Ryde South ward was gained by the Conservatives with a 10% increase on 2009. The sitting councillor had been elected Liberal Democrat before becoming independent and so, in line with the principle outlined above, the Ryde South ward by-election goes into our losses column. A near 20% upswing saw Labour into second place and our candidate Tony Zeid came in third.

In the non-principle council elections, the Conservatives notched up five Town Council gains, one of which – on Rugeley Town Council in Cannock Chase – was taken from the Liberal Democrats by the wafer-thin margin of four votes. Out in the High Peak, it appears that the Green Party have finally found their own winning formula – taking a previously Lib Dem seat on New Mills Town Council by running completely unopposed. The good news from the Towns is threefold; firstly, Tom Stubbs and the Truro Liberal Democrat team are celebrating his election to Truro City Council, taking the Trehaverne ward seat from an Independent. Secondly, in the deferred elections for Stratford-on-Avon T.C., the Lib Dem majority was extended by three to fifteen out of a possible twenty councillors. Finally, a resounding success on Kendal Town Council – a full, clean sweep of all 28 seats. Congratulations and best wishes to all of our campaigners and councillors in Truro, Stratford, and Kendal.

All in all, a mixed bag of results as we move into June but our sure-footed defence in Camden, the most significant of this week’s elections in terms of voter numbers and councillors returned, bodes well for our campaigns teams as we move into the summer.

ALDC By-Elections Team

Group Leaders Day - Draft Programme

Fri, 28 May 2010 13:55:00 +0100

The 2010 Liberal Democrat Group Leaders Day takes place on Friday 18 June 2010 - at LGA House in Westminster, London. This is the day immediately preceeding the Lib Dem Local Government Conference on Saturday.

Provisional Programme

10.30am Arrival with registration and coffee

11.15am ALDC Group Leaders’ – Welcome and Introductions

11.30am Leading Success – Challenges for the Lib Dem Group Leader Speakers and Discussion

12.30-1.30pm Lunch for Group Leaders’ and Council Leaders’

1.30pm Joint welcome to both Group Leaders’ and Council Leaders’

Richard Kemp, Leader, LGA Liberal Democrat Group

Tim Pickstone, Chief Executive, ALDC

1.45pm THE FINANCIAL CHALLENGE

Group Leaders’ and Council Leaders’

Irene Lucas, Acting Permanent Secretary, Communities and Local Government

Steve Freer, Chief Executive, Cipfa

Andrew Stunell MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government (tbc)

3.00pm Afternoon break

3.15pm ALDC workshops for Group Leaders’ only – please choose 1

A – Managing your Group

B – Effective Opposition

C – Planning and Leading Electoral Success

D – Developing the Group – candidates, development and succession planning

4.45pm Joint round-up of the day - Group Leaders’ and Council Leaders’

5.15pm Finish and close

The Liberal Democrat Local Government DINNER is at 8.00pm – drinks from 7:00 pm

Councils told to stop CAA work now

Thu, 27 May 2010 14:23:00 +0100

The Municipal Journal is reporting that councils are being told to stop work on Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAA) with immediate effect.

The policy is contained within the coalition agreement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, but legislation is required to remove the requirement to complete CAAs. However, in the meantime auditors are advising councils that all meetings on CAAs have been stopped and that councils can drop their own work on them.

A formal announcement is expected tomorrow, but more details are available here.

LGA response to the £6.2bn package of government savings

Tue, 25 May 2010 16:12:00 +0100

The Local Government Association has given its response to the proposal by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government to save £6.2billion. This response, (this is the LGA response, not necessarily the Liberal Democrat response), is as follows:

Responding to the coalition Government’s announcement of £6.2 billion of savings, Dame Margaret Eaton, chairman of the Local Government Association, said:

“We all know cuts are necessary and councils are ready to talk to the Government about how these cuts are implemented and limit their impact on front-line services. Town halls have delivered savings year after year and know about taking difficult decisions on spending.

“Locally-elected councils are closest to the people they serve. If there are tough decisions to make, they are best taken by the people who know their area best, so it is good the Government is giving councils more freedom over spending and starting the business of cutting the quango state down to size.

“What we need now is fundamental reform of the way the public sector works to cut the maze of public sector bodies, funding streams and bureaucracy that costs huge sums and stands in the way of delivering more for less.

“We have already laid out detailed plans that would save taxpayers £22.5 billion over this Parliament without damaging vital front line services. But that could just be the start. There are enormous opportunities to save billions more if we grasp the nettle and cut out the middlemen who tie up huge sums in needless red tape.

“It will be important to have certainty early about how the detail of the cuts package affects each and every local authority.”

A full briefing is available here.

Taking Stock...

Tue, 25 May 2010 12:00:00 +0100

With very little to report on by way of by-elections, this week’s one and only electoral contest was for a seat on Workington Town Council and sported no Liberal Democrat candidate, the ALDC by-elections team has decided to spend the week number-crunching our election results and are presenting some edited highlights here. With a net loss of between 129 and 136 council seats (the discrepancy between our – latter – figures and the BBC’s appears to be the result of different approaches to classifying seats that have seen defections), it was a bad night for Liberal Democrats in local government. Our actual losses around the country numbered 228, with the net loss figures softened by the approximately 100 gains that are the silver lining on this particular cloud.

The now-defunct Labour Government’s decision to stage the general election on the same day as the locals appears largely responsible for the over 400 net gains made by Labour around the country, a peculiar party-political privilege that may have been used for the last time - its repeal features in Nick Clegg’s forthcoming parliamentary reform bill. Labour proved our main opponents in Unitary and Metropolitan council areas, in each of which over 80% of our losses were to Labour. Our overall outcome in the Unitaries was one of our better results, with just nine net losses in councillor numbers, but of those we lost, Labour proved the principal beneficiaries. This trend was replicated in our London results, where two-thirds of all our losses were to Labour, and further compounded by the London elections being all-out. In total, 44% of all Lib Dem losses, 102 seats, were sustained in the capital. The trend was bucked in the English District Councils, where our greatest opposition has proved to be the Tories. Of the 44 recorded losses in the Districts, 27 were to the Conservatives, 61% of the total. As the coalition approaches its first anniversary next May, the shape of the campaigns in the Districts will be interesting to watch. The summary tables of our ward losses are reprinted below.

With a deferred election for the three seats of the London Borough of Camden’s Haverstock ward and a by-election in Ryde South on the Isle of Wight, there will hopefully be richer pickings for us next week. In the meantime, remember to keep up to date with all the latest guidance, artwork, and advice, available at www.aldc.org.

Seat Losses
	To Lab	To Con	To Ind/Oth	Totals
London	67	34	0	101
Mets	54	8	0	62
Unitaries	18	2	1	21
Districts	16	27	1	44
Totals	155	71	2	228

Losses (%)
	To Lab	To Con	To Ind/Oth	Proportion*
London	66%	34%	0	44%
Mets	87%	13%	0	27%
Unitaries	86%	9%	5%	9%
Districts	36%	61%	2%	19%
Totals	68%	31%	1%
	* = Proportion of overall Lib Dem losses by authority type

ALDC By-Elections Team

Local Government Conference - Register Now!

Fri, 21 May 2010 14:34:00 +0100

Now that the elections are over, this weekend is a great time to register for the 2010 Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference - Saturday 19 June 2010. This is the first time Councillors and local campaigners will be able to get together since the start of the Coalition Government - we have a lot to talk about!

Registrations start at £45 (that's after a £5 discount for ALDC members). After 15th June this goes up to £50. Council Groups in Group Membership of ALDC can take advantage of our "buy two, get one free" offer - get in touch if you want to take advantage of this.

Conference Details

Who, When, Where

- all Liberal Democrat Councillors and local campaigners; group researchers and staff, colleagues from local government and Parliament.

- Saturday 19 June 2010.
On Friday 18 June, there are a number of satellite events, including a Group Leaders Day - separate information has been sent out about this.

On the evening of Friday 18 June 2010, is the Lib Dem Local Government Dinner. Now in its fourth year, this popular event takes place at the City Inn in Westminster - tickets are £30 per person. If people need accommodation overnight a special rate has been arranged at the City Inn Westminster - email westminster.res@cityinn.com or telephone 020 7630 1000 quoting the code LIBE180610. Other cheaper hotels are available nearby.

Please note there are only 15 places left at this cheap rate at the hotel so please book as soon as you can.

The Conference takes place at Local Government House, Smith Square, Westminster, London.

Conference Programme

We've got a busy day planned for you, here are some highlights.

Keynote speakers:
Andrew Stunell MP
Baroness Ros Scott
Other Ministers are currently being confirmed.

Debate and discussion:
Plenary sessions include:
- Local Government and the new Coalition Agreement
- Lessons from 2010 / Campaigning in the new Political landscape

Councillor Training sessions include:
- media skills
- effective scrutiny
- presentation skills
- "Cabinet member for my Ward"

Campaigning Training Sessions include:
- Winning in 2011 against the Tories
- Winning in 2011 against Labour
- Talking to the Voters - Getting out there in Summer 2010

Policy Sessions include:
- Aging Liberally
- Greening Britain
- Efficiency Savings

Organisations running fringe sessions and workshops include:
- Local Partnerships
- London Councils
- Association for Public Sector Excellence
- EARS

Exhibition: There will be stands from the local Government family and a number of partners and friends from the rest of the Party and commercial colleagues throughout the day - plus the chance to meet and chat with councillors and campaigners from other parts of the country.

For more information, or if you are interested in joining us at the Conference as an exhibitor or fringe partner please get in touch with Emma Hall 01422 843 785 emma.hall@aldc.org.

Don't miss out on the current cheap rate - Register today!

Interim Report from the Electoral Commission - polling station queues

Thu, 20 May 2010 15:10:00 +0100

The Electoral Commission, the independent elections watchdog, has completed its review into why voters in some polling stations were unable to cast their vote before the 10pm deadline on 6 May. The report sets out what needs to be done to avoid a repeat of the problems two weeks ago.
The review found:

at least 1,200 people were still queuing at 27 polling stations in 16 constituencies at 10pm
in some areas the numbers of electors allocated to particular polling stations were too high and some polling stations had too few staff
in all the areas affected there were also local government elections taking place (and, in some, Mayoral elections) which meant it took longer for each voter to vote and arrangements to deal with this were inadequate
election officials did not identify and respond quickly enough to the problems that emerged on polling day

The report makes the following recommendations:

the law should be changed to allow people still queuing at polling stations at 10pm to be able to vote
local authorities and Returning Officers should improve their planning, review their schemes for polling districts and polling stations and make sure they allocate the right numbers of staff and electors to each polling station
the structure for delivering elections in Great Britain should be reformed so that elections are managed more consistently and professionally.

The Commission will publish a full report into the UK general election and the English local government elections in July, covering all aspects of the running of these elections. If new information emerges concerning polling station queues, this will be included.
Please complete our review of problems, not simply those involving queuing online here.
To download the full Electoral commission report click here

The Coalition: our programme for government

Thu, 20 May 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Chapter 4 of the final coalition agreement:

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
The Government believes that it is time for a fundamental shift of power from Westminster to people. We will promote decentralisation and democratic engagement, and we will end the era of top-down government by giving new powers to local councils, communities, neighbourhoods and individuals.

We will promote the radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups. This will include a review of local government finance.
We will rapidly abolish Regional Spatial Strategies and return decision-making powers on housing and planning to local councils, including giving councils new powers to stop ‘garden grabbing’.
In the longer term, we will radically reform the planning system to give neighbourhoods far more ability to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants live, based on the principles set out in the Conservative Party publication Open Source Planning.
We will abolish the unelected Infrastructure Planning Commission and replace it with an efficient and democratically accountable system that provides a fast-track process for major infrastructure projects.
We will publish and present to Parliament a simple and consolidated national planning framework covering all forms of development and setting out national economic, environmental and social priorities.
We will maintain the Green Belt, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and other environmental protections, and create a new designation – similar to SSSIs – to protect green areas of particular importance to local communities.
We will abolish the Government Office for London and consider the case for abolishing the remaining Government Offices.
We will provide more protection against aggressive bailiffs and unreasonable charging orders, ensure that courts have the power to insist that repossession is always a last resort, and ban orders for sale on unsecured debts of less than £25,000.
We will explore a range of measures to bring empty homes into use.
We will promote shared ownership schemes and help social tenants and others to own or part-own their home.
We will promote ‘Home on the Farm’ schemes that encourage farmers to convert existing buildings into affordable housing.
We will create new trusts that will make it simpler for communities to provide homes for local people.
We will phase out the ring-fencing of grants to local government and review the unfair Housing Revenue Account.
We will freeze Council Tax in England for at least one year, and seek to freeze it for a further year, in partnership with local authorities.

We will create directly elected mayors in the 12 largest English cities, subject to confirmatory referendums and full scrutiny by elected councillors.
We will give councils a general power of competence.
We will ban the use of powers in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) by councils, unless they are signed off by a magistrate and required for stopping serious crime.
We will allow councils to return to the committee system, should they wish to.
We will abolish the Standards Board regime.
We will stop the restructuring of councils in Norfolk, Suffolk and Devon, and stop plans to force the regionalisation of the fire service.
We will impose tougher rules to stop unfair competition by local authority newspapers.
We will introduce new powers to help communities save local facilities and services threatened with closure, and give communities the right to bid to take over local state-run services.
We will implement the Sustainable Communities Act, so that citizens know how taxpayers’ money is spent in their area and have a greater say over how it is spent.
We will cut local government inspection and abolish the Comprehensive Area Assessment.
We will require continuous improvements to the energy efficiency of new housing.
We will provide incentives for local authorities to deliver sustainable development, including for new homes and businesses.
We will review the effectiveness of the raising of the stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers.
We will give councillors the power to vote on large salary packages for unelected council officials.
For the full document click here

How was it for you?

Fri, 14 May 2010 18:13:00 +0100

Liberal Democrats lost net 129 council seats*. In most of these we lost hard working and loyal Liberal Democrat Councillors and ALDC would like to take the opportunity to thank them, and all our candidates last Thursday for this service to the Party. In fact the results were mixed, with gains and holds in most areas. Particular congratulations to colleagues in Burnley, Winchester and Cheltenham who took majority control of their Councils.

We need to learn from these results, and implement what we have learnt.

Almost all of our losses were to Labour. We do know that having the general election on the same day as the local elections had a significant impact. But there are places who were successful in winning against this trend.

If you had local elections in 2010 I would be very grateful if you could help us by filling in our short online survey. Please note this is just about the local elections. I'm sure other parts of the party will be busy evaluating the General Election. If you didn't have local elections in 2010, but still have ideas on this subject don't hesitate to get in touch.

Polling Problems

Fri, 14 May 2010 18:01:00 +0100

From people being locked out of polling stations to the wrong ballot papers being issued ALDC has heard of many incidents and problems that took place during the elections this year.
In order to inform discussions with the Electoral Commission and others we have put together an online survey . Please fill it in so we can lobby for improvements and get your council scrutiny process to look at your local situation. Click here to complete the survey

A mixed bag of results: Local election report

Fri, 14 May 2010 14:47:00 +0100

Just as the General Election produced a mixed bag of results, so did this year’s council elections. Although overall we had a net loss of 135 seats and control of a number of councils, the outcome was far more complex.

The results in metropolitan and London councils saw a net loss of 52 and 77 seats respectively losing overall control of Richmond upon Thames, Liverpool, Rochdale and Sheffield in the process. However, in unitary councils and the English districts we lost just 5 and 1 seat respectively, and gained control of Burnley, Cheltenham and Winchester councils. These figures also hide the fact that we lost significant numbers of seats in councils where we were in joint or minority administrations where Labour where the main opposition, such as Brent, Camden, Islington, St. Helens and Warrington.

Apart from the places where we gained control, there have been a number of other stars in this election. Firstly, we gained two seats from scratch on Merton council, a council where we now hold the balance of power. We also retained our by-election gain in Kensington & Chelsea and gained one more councillor to keep Carol Caruana company in this Tory fiefdom.

Other positive news came from Sutton where we saw a massive increase of 11 seats to comfortably retain the council that has been Lib Dem run for more than 20 years. In London we also gained seats in Kingston upon Thames and Ealing. We have moved to being the largest party in both Colchester and Purbeck, where we already formed part of the administration and made good gains in a number of other councils where we are in control - Milton Keynes, Portsmouth, Bristol, Cambridge and Eastleigh. Other impressive increases in our tally of seats were in Calderdale, Brentwood (where one result was settled by drawing lots after a draw – we won!), Maidstone, Mole Valley, Southend-on-Sea, Stroud and Tunbridge Wells. Another piece of good news is that Dorothy Thornhill was comfortably re-elected Mayor of Watford, despite us failing to gain the parliamentary seat.

Although many Liberal Democrats will be disappointed with the results of both the council and general election overall, it is clear that there is no one explanation for the results. It certainly seems that in many areas where the main opposition is Labour, we struggled against a massive increase in Labour turnout. However, that does not explain how our vote held up well in other areas of Labour strength. ALDC wants to get as much feedback from campaigners across the country – both in successful and unsuccessful areas – and we will use this to help ensure that we do well in next year’s elections. Please do complete our survey to let us know how you did in your area, and to explain the reason why you think we got the results we did. We would also like to see examples of literature from across the country that we can use as good practice to save everyone reinventing the wheel.

Being in government is going to provide the party with new and unprecedented campaigning challenges. This is new territory for most party members (although we shouldn’t forget that we have been in government in Scotland and Wales too) and so we will be working out how best to campaign on this. ALDC will also be working with the Campaigns Department to make campaign literature available as soon as possible.

Interesting Times...

Wed, 12 May 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Whilst it was an unhappy birthday for Tony Blair, May 6th will surely be remembered from now on as a historic day in British political history. In other parts of the Western world, it was the 18th International No Diet Day defending body-shape diversity and celebrated with a blue ribbon (or a Blue Riband, perhaps). In-keeping with this theme, there was a veritable feast of political contests to enjoy last Thursday - there were 51 principal by-elections reported to ALDC this week. A number of these took place in wards which had scheduled local elections as well and in cases like this it is impossible to tell which of the two elected candidates was elected in the ‘by-’, so today we are covering the 34 seats for which the competition was purely a by-election.

Of those 34 individual by-elections, the headline opposition figures are as follows; the Tories successfully held 15, Labour held 3, and the SNP defended their seat in Strathallan ward in Perth and Kinross. In terms of opposition gains, there were two Conservative gains from Independents, and Labour took one from both Tories and Independents as well as a third from the Liberal Democrats in the Burnley Central East ward of Lancashire County Council, somewhat bucking the trend in Burnley, which now has its first Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament.

Our by-elections account comprised six successful defences, including taking 57% of the vote in the Seaton ward of East Devon District Council, an increase of 16% on 2007 – congratulations to Peter Burrows and the Lib Dem team in Devon for a remarkable achievement. We also posted four gains in principal council by-elections on the 6th, taking a seat from an Independent on Ryedale District Council in North Yorkshire, and three from the Tories; Willerby and Kirk Ella on the East Riding of Yorkshire, Pennsylvania ward in Exeter City, and the Haywards Heath Heath (so good they named it twice…) ward of Mid Sussex District Council. Our best wishes to new Councillor Sue Ng in Mid-Sussex and agent James McCleary who, in addition to fighting the general election, put out weekly ward-wide by-election materials, linked the by-election campaign into their parliamentary blue letters, and put on 35% of new canvass data across Haywards Heath Heath over the course of the campaign. With a 71.5% turnout and a winning margin of 40 votes, the combined Eve of Poll and Good Morning activities may have played a decisive role in getting the ‘shuttleworth’ out in sufficient numbers to edge the victory.

It remains to be seen whether it will be ‘business as usual’ from next week, and what kinds of effects we will be likely to see in upcoming by-elections as a result of joining the Government. With the next local by-election due in Workington on May 20th, it will be an interesting wait. Congratulations to all of our candidates who took part in last Thursday’s elections and the innumerable hard-working election teams who make everything we do possible.

ALDC By-Elections Team

Any Other Business?

Tue, 04 May 2010 14:05:00 +0100

Group Membership Benefits
An increasing number of the more successful Liberal Democrat Groups are in group membership of ALDC. This is where a whole Council Group joins ALDC together, very often this is part of what Councillors receive in return for their "Group Subs".

To encourage even more Groups to sign up, and as a "Thank you" to those groups who been in group membership for many years, we've got together a package of Group Membership benefits.

- Group Members receive 12% off all membership rates
- Free places at the Local Government Conference (buy 2 get 1 free)
- Free ALDC membership for your Group Researcher / Political Assistant
- We'll supply a free experienced facilitator to your Group Away Day once a year.

If your group would like to sign up - please contact our Members' Services Officer, Emma Hall on 01422 843 785 or email emma.hall@aldc.org

We Want You to Succeed

Tue, 04 May 2010 14:02:00 +0100

New Councillors' Discount
As an exciting new initiative this year all NEWLY ELECTED Lib Dem Councillors will be able to join ALDC in their first year for HALF PRICE! As all of us know their first months as a Councillor are important. We want to make sure as many of our new Councillors benefit from the advice and support that ALDC offer from Day one.

This makes ALDC membership for new councillors less than 75p a week!

The new offer is only available till the end of August - after that it's back up to the normal rate. It is only for newly elected Liberal Democrat councillors (not someone who has been re-elected), and it's only available by direct debit.

If you're already an ALDC member, and get elected on 6th May, don't worry just let us know and we'll immediately amend your direct debit to take account of the discount rate.

Join us by Direct Debit online now.

Good Luck to all our members

Tue, 04 May 2010 13:53:00 +0100

GOOD LUCK from all of us at ALDC for Thursday 6th May 2010.

ALDC will be open for emergency calls on polling day 01422 843 785 up to 5.15pm. We will be open again at 11.00am on Friday 7th 2010.

Outside office hours if you need urgent advice please contact us via the website here.

Just to let you know that on FRIDAY during the day we will be running a results service for the local elections. I suspect there might be "bigger news" nationally - but we're still interested in what happens in the local elections as well!

The results will be online here.

During the day / early evening please phone ALDC when your local elections count is finished - 01422 843 785.

OR email us at elections2010@aldc.org

If you're on Twitter and are talking about the local elecions we're starting a tag - #ldlocal to keep track of the results.

Local Election Results 2010

Tue, 04 May 2010 13:14:00 +0100

Results of the 6 May 2010 Local Elections will be posted here.

Membership News

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Some exciting membership news (for after the election!) from ALDC

This makes ALDC membership for new councillors less than 75p a week!

The new offer is only available in May and June 2010 - after that it's back up to the normal rate. It is only for newly elected Liberal Democrat councillors (not someone who has been re-elected), and it's only available by direct debit.

If you're already an ALDC member, and get elected on 6th May, don't worry just let us know and we'll immediately amend your direct debit to take account of the discount rate.

To encourage even more Groups to sign up, and as a "Thank you" to those groups who been in group membership for many years, we've got together a package of Group Membership benefits.

If your group would like to sign up - please contact our Members' Services Officer, Emma Hall on 01422 843 785 or email emma.hall@aldc.org

All Paperless!
We've now completed a move to "paperless direct debits". This means that you can join ALDC by direct debit subscription without a form having to be sent in the post and signed.

This means that direct debit instructions can be taken over the phone, or you can complete a direct debit instruction online on our secure server.

Take a look!

Hopefully this will make it easier for people to join ALDC and pay by direct debit - and it's another contribution to ALDC reducing its carbon footprint during 2010.

The Calm Before the Storm...

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:19:00 +0100

If no news is good news, then this week’s by-election report is positively gospel. The only by-election reported to ALDC was for two seats on a Town Council in Westbury, and it featured no Liberal Democrat candidates! It took place on what would have been satirist Henry Fielding’s 303rd birthday. One of Fielding’s best known quotes is that ‘the slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others’ – and having read April 22nd’s broadside against Nick Clegg in the right-wing press, one can only conclude that the same still holds…

As there is so little to report on, here is a whirlwind tour of our year so far:

January saw five by-elections across the country. In addition to successfully defending our seats in Taunton Deane and Harrogate, we pinched the Great Bowden and Arden ward of Harborough District Council to open this year’s by-election account with a monthly net gain. February was a busy month, with 27 principal council seats up for grabs. The main news was Labour rallying, holding three of their five seats and gaining a further eight, for a net monthly gain of six. The Tories gained and lost three apiece, essentially standing still over the month, and the Lib Dem tally was two successful defences out of seven – three gains and five losses left us on a net of minus two seats. Our by-election nadir came in the Holmewood and Heath ward of North East Derbyshire, where we failed to field a candidate for a seat vacated by a Liberal Democrat Councillor, prompting some stern rejoinders from the By-Elections Team here at ALDC. March saw six principal by-elections, with the Conservatives having to defend them all. They succeeded in four cases, with the Mid-Suffolk Greens and Broadland’s Lib Dems dividing the remainder. Up to now in April, we’ve had five principal by-elections. The Tories have lost two of the three they’ve had to defend, one to the Devizes Guardian party in Devizes, and one to us in Dave Patrick’s historic victory in Fenland last week. Of the rest, the Tories held us off by thirty votes on Cambridgeshire County Council, Labour held a seat in Lancaster (again, with Lib Dems in second), and finally Labour picked off Tory splinter group Tendring First for a seat on their eponymous District Council. For those incurable political anoraks out there, the Westbury Town Council by-election returned two Independents, both gaining from the Conservatives, with forty and thirty percent of the vote respectively.

2010 up to now therefore, sees our electoral account in the black but only by one seat net. Although we are yet to see the impact of the ‘Clegg effect’ and the General Election on the by-elections scheduled for May 6th and after, our efforts to this point have demonstrated that the Liberal Democrat approach of ward-level, grassroots activism, thorough canvassing contact, effective squeeze messaging, and heroic literature output, is still the key to authentic electoral success. Where we’ve worked, we’ve won – and we will continue.

ALDC By-Elections Team

Fenland agrees with Nick

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0100

On the 98th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, it was the Conservative Party’s by-election teams that hit an iceberg last Thursday. Of the five seats they were defending, we are pleased to report four losses – three of which came our way as did a very close second in the Tories’ only successful defence.

Three of the five by-elections reported to ALDC this week centred on Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, with our candidate Dave Patrick running for Wisbech Town Council, Fenland District Council, and Cambridgeshire County Council at the same time. The openings on the two principal councils were a result of the death of the incumbent Conservative Councillor. Of the three, most significant was the contest for the Wisbech Kirkland ward of Fenland District Council. The Lib Dem campaign in this relatively urban ward in Fenland produced three main by-election leaflets, in a variety of colour and formats, and made good use of EARS to create an effective squeeze message for ‘soft’ Conservatives. The biggest issue in the local area was the controversial Fenland DC plan to relocate a taxi rank and, as Chair of a local Hackney Carriage drivers’ association, Dave was well-placed to get to grips with the matter and successfully reinforce the image of Liberal Democrats as dedicated champions of local issues. Despite immigration being a key topic on the doorstep, a UKIP campaign grown complacent after their second-place at County level last time around, came fourth. Dave Patrick took the first Liberal Democrat seat on Fenland DC with over 50% of the vote, with the Tory vote collapsing by 74% on May 2007! Congratulations to the Fenland Lib Dems on their historic victory, and the candidate’s further election to Wisbech Town Council. Unfortunately, despite a 20% surge in the Lib Dem vote, Dave wasn’t able to make it three out of three – with UKIP folding 15% of their previous vote, most likely back to the Conservatives, the Tories held on by just over 30 votes to prevent a complete whitewash.

In the remaining non-principal by-elections, Lib Dem Colin Gerald Wright took 40% of the vote to become Parish Councillor in the South Ward of Great Cornard in South Suffolk. Finally, an Independent gained a seat on Sudbury Town Council that was previously Conservative.

'...and Some We Lose'

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:31:00 +0100

In Japan, April 8th is ‘Buddha’s Birthday’ and the ‘Flower Festival’ celebrations in streets and temples across the land add some lovely Spring colour to the occasion. For those of you who would still like to take the opportunity to wish him many happy returns (pun intended), the rest of eastern Asia will be celebrating Buddha’s birthday on May 21st, in line with the traditional Chinese lunar calendar. Hopefully, this week’s by-election results are free of any karmic connotations – of one principal and one Town Council by-election reported to ALDC, we took last place in both.

The single principal by-election took place in the Golf Green ward of Tendring District Council. In 2010, Tendring will fall within the new parliamentary constituency of Clacton. It was formerly located in the ancient constituency of Harwich, whose most notable representative (with all due respect to current Tory MP Douglas Carswell) remains seventeenth century gentleman-diarist Samuel Pepys.

Not one to trouble any budding Liberal Democrat diarists, the Golf Green by-election went down as a Conservative gain from Tory splinter-group Tendring First. The roots of the Tory-Tendring First animus goes back almost a decade, and the well-funded defending T.F. team went heavily after the Conservatives with six glossy leaflets and a highly negative campaign. The Labour party campaign also extended to three glossy leaflets and a local candidate. The Tories stole the trademark Lib Dem ‘barchart’ for their only leaflet of the campaign, whilst the squeeze message isn’t particularly welcome, there may be some consolation in the adage that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The BNP worked the poorer areas of the ward, and had significant manpower out on polling day, coming fourth of a field of six.

In the North ward of Devizes Town Council, the Conservatives lost to local issue group Devizes Guardian. The Liberal Democrats also came last in this particular election, rounding off a day it may be better to forget.

ALDC By-Election Team

Peter Black: Funding local government in Wales

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:59:00 +0100

Budgets have been set, Council Tax bills have gone out, Council officers are evaluating how they will be delivering services in the current financial year, whilst Councillors and other politicians continue to squabble over some of the very difficult decisions that have needed to be made to make the books balance.

A quick web search reveals a scene of such devastation that one would be forgiven for thinking that the public sector is on the verge of collapse. Nothing could be further from the truth, but what is clear is that the very deep cuts that many Councils have made in the current financial year appear to be just the start of what seems to be local government retrenchment.

As BBC Wales reported, with one in four workers in Wales employed in the public sector the impact of projected budgets cuts could see devastation on a scale not seen since the Thatcher years. Their worse case scenario is that about a third of Council jobs may go. The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) has described this as the most difficult financial period in 50 years. They have forecast that 2,000 to 4,000 council jobs could go, with some over the next three to four years.

This will impact regardless of political control. In Labour-led Rhondda Cynon Taf the Council is trying to save £6m by cutting Leisure Centre opening times and public transport. Conservative-led Newport is being forced to make £9m of savings, Independent-Plaid Cymru Anglesey is cutting £10m and there is a reported threat to day care centres, whilst in Conwy their worst case scenario is £6.095m of savings in the 2011/12 financial year, £8.15m of savings in 2012/13 and £10.55m in 2013/14.

Plaid Cymru-led Caerphilly Council has a £25m savings target by 2015, whilst in Liberal Democrat-led Swansea, the Council has invested £10 million in Social Services at the cost of cutting back on schools. They are now in the position of having to manage teacher redundancies so as to minimise the impact on the chalk face. Swansea had to save £17m this year and projects losing hundreds of posts over the next few years.

Many will say that all of this is inevitable in a situation where Britain is in debt and severe budget cuts are going to be the order of the day for years to come. They may be right. Some see it as an opportunity to play games. The Education Minister’s response to Swansea’s budget for example has been to write to the Council to demand an explanation. In return he is being pointed to the lack of investment in education in Wales as compared to England. Here we are being funded at £527 per pupil less than over the border.

The Minister suggests that if Swansea repeats this next year then he will personally intervene. Meanwhile, one of his colleagues, the Deputy Minister for Social Services is rightly insisting that we invest in children’s services. Neither is offering to increase the pot of money available to the Council.

In the case of the Education Minister at least, a startling new agenda for public services is being unveiled – micro management from the centre irrespective of what the local electorate or the accountable local councillors want.

I would argue that some of the problem faced by Councils in reconciling budgets is structural, the rest comes down to a failure to plan for the years of drought during a time of plenty.

Up to 80% of a Council’s income comes directly from central government grant. Of the remaining 20%, a significant proportion is made up of local fees and charges. As a result the impact of a Council Tax increase is very limited whilst local authorities are peculiarly vulnerable to national trends in expenditure. To start making a difference to the budget Councils would need to be raising their tax levels well above the 5% cap the Welsh Government annually imposes on them.

When we look at expenditure too, there are significant issues. At least half of all Council’s expenditure will go on education. The next significant chunk will be for social services, with spending on highways and leisure trailing behind. The scope for savings without hitting front-line services becomes more difficult the more we cut.

There are of course possibilities that money can be saved by restructuring the way that Councils are run, or even by reducing the number of Councils and achieving economies of scale in that way. Councils could collaborate with other public sector bodies in their area to merge back-office systems for example. The problem is that this has been Welsh Government policy for some time and to a large extent it has not been happening, not least because there needs to be an initial investment to get it off the ground and nobody wants to relinquish control.

Councils also need to look at methods of working. Are they getting value for money out of the way they deploy staff? Are there still restrictive practices that can be got rid of? None of this is very attractive but the alternative is redundancies. Many still do not get this reality and are resisting even this sort of change.

Should Councils really be delivering all their services themselves? There is already a long history of local government using private contractors to repair roads, collect refuse, build and repair schools and council buildings. Is there scope to do more? It does not have to amount to privatisation if it is done correctly.

Can Councils really afford for example to deliver residential homes to today’s exacting standards when for example an arms-length trust could do it better? Can they afford to ignore the savings in VAT by letting a similar company run its leisure buildings? If we do not start to question long-held assumptions about the way that Council services are delivered then we will have none left worth having. All of this takes time and is not without considerable pain. It is though an essential investment in the future of public services.

The biggest crisis facing most Welsh Councils is the cost of modernisation and repair of their existing facilities to bring them up to current health and safety standards. Whether it is schools, old people’s homes, children’s homes, Council offices or roads and street lamps, our infrastructure is rotting around us and there is not enough money to put it right. That sort of investment is becoming urgent and all Councils are having to innovate and cut back on favoured projects to find ways around it.

Of course the bigger structural change has to come in the way that Council’s are financed. The Liberal Democrats have long made the case to replace the unfair Council Tax with one based on people’s ability to pay. If that is a local income tax then at least we can then make some sort of adjustment to ensure more money is collected locally without impacting on people’s pockets. You would for example reduce income tax by a penny and put that penny on local income tax instead. The result would be revenue neutral but redress the funding imbalance.

If Business Rates are to stay then they too should be localised again. This would mean that Councils could keep all the income generated in their area and give them an incentive to improve the take by attracting more businesses or building up the value of existing companies.

None of these revenue-side reforms will actually give more money to local Councils but it will put them more in control of their own destiny and enable them to act more fairly in the way that they tax their local electorate. In the current climate that must be a good thing.

Cllr Peter Black AM is Swansea Councillor for Cwmbwrla and

Welsh Assembly Member for South Wales West. He is also the

Welsh Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokesperson
peterblack.blogspot.com

On Your Marks...

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0100

In addition to being both April Fools’ Day and Maundy Thursday this year, the first of April has, for the last ten years, been ‘Edible Book Day’. Anyone who fancies whipping up a gastronomic masterpiece for next year should check out www.books2eat.com for inspiration. Unfortunately, our electoral tasting menu is again rather sparse this week, with one principal by-election and one single Town Council result reported to ALDC.

The principal by-election contest took place in the John O Gaunt ward of Lancaster City District Council. It is all change in the parliamentary constituency, the thirteen-year-old constituency of Lancaster & Wyre is giving way to the new Lancaster & Fleetwood for next month’s general election. In John O Gaunt itself, the Labour party were defending this highly urban ward following a resignation, with the Greens aiming to make the jump from second to first place and become the largest group on the Lancaster City Council. The Liberal Democrat campaign benefited from an enthusiastic new candidate in Harry Armistead, a mature student at the University of Cumbria’s Lancaster campus, whose tireless campaigning impressed many. Also adding value was the ‘back-room’ organisation of Michael Mumford, which had doubled the activist base in Lancaster over the preceding year. A variety of leaflets included a candidate introduction, two newsletters, and a candidate’s blue letter. A postal vote drive at the University also bore fruit, with 300 PV’s returned overall, and mainly to our advantage. The Liberal Democrats’ policy positions on unaffordable rent levels in Lancaster’s market and traffic issues in the city centre proved popular on the doorstep. In the end, Labour held the seat with a marginal reduction in their vote. The main losers in this contest were the Greens, whose plans to become the largest party in Lancaster were frustrated primarily by the presence of a Liberal Democrat candidate – the Greens were pushed from second to third, losing almost a fifth of their previous vote.

In Seaton Ward of Ashington Town Council, the Labour party gained the seat from the Liberal Democrats.

Finally, the ALDC is providing the party’s election law helpline for both the local and general elections. Any candidates or campaigners with legal queries can reach our team on 01422 843 785 between 0915 and 1715. Enquiries can also be submitted by email via our website, we aim to provide a same-day advice service to any email enquiries received prior to 1400 each day.

ALDC By-Elections Team

Total Place event Invite

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Cllr Roger Gough and Cllr Arian Naylor (the elected member representatives from the Total Place Kent and Bradford pilots) would like to invite you to the national members event at Westminster Central Hall on the 21st May 2010.

This is a national event where leading figures from national and local government will be setting out their thoughts on where Total Place takes us.

Members from across the Total Place pilots, parallel places and other areas interested in this type of work will have an opportunity to hear feedback from the final reports and what we have learned, particularly about the blockages. Political change is an important part of the equation as solutions cannot always be delivered through ‘managerial action’. Political backing is therefore essential in taking this initiative forward.

We do hope you will be able to join us at this milestone event. Please RSVP to john.jarvis@localleadership.gov.uk or on 0207 187 7385.’

Birmingham in Photos

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Birmingham's ICC was the venue for the Party's Federal Spring Conference. ALDC had a busy programme highlighting the forthcoming local elections and a number of issues which we have been working on.

Once again our stand was co-located with our colleagues from the LGA Liberal Democrat Group and the IDeA creating a "councillors area" in the exhibition hall. Staff were busy during the weekend providing advice to campaigners and councillors and information on ALDC and its services.

Our fringe programme included a joint event with Liberal Youth on Climate Change: Keeping up the Pressure. Speakers included Simon Hughes MP and speakers from UK Youth Climate Coalition, Liberal Youth and Green Liberal Democrats. "Winning in the Wards" was a briefing session on the forthcoming local elections with Local Elections Campaign Chair Andrew Stunell MP and Director of Campaigns Hilary Stephenson. On Saturday lunchtime we hosted a working lunch with the Leadership Centre for Local Government to showcase the "Next Generation" programme of councillor development.

Training provided by ALDC and our partners included sessions on Winning in the 2010 local elections, and session for Councillors on budget setting, coalitions, mentoring and candidate selection.

There is small selection of photos of the events at our Flickr site, which is here.

Local Government Conference - Last Chance to be an Early Bird!

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Good news - because we're all so busy with something called the election - we've extended the deadline for cheap "early bird" registrations for the 2010 Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference to TUESDAY (6th April) - giving you the whole bank holiday weekend to register.

Registrations start at £35 (that's after a £5 discount for ALDC members). After next Tuesday these will go up to £45 for ALDC members and £50 for non-members. Council Groups in Group Membership of ALDC can take advantage of our "buy two, get one free" offer - get in touch if you want to take advantage of this offer.

Register online here. ALDC members should log in first to take advantage of the members discount. (Your log in details are at the end of this email).

Conference Details

Who, When, Where

- all LIberal Democrat Councillors and local campaigners; group researchers and staff, colleagues from local government and Parliament.

- Saturday 19 June 2010.
On Friday 18 June, there are a number of satellite events, including a Group Leaders Day - separate information has been sent out about this.

On the evening of Friday 18 June 2010, is the Lib Dem Local Government Dinner. Now in its fourth year, this popular event takes place at the City Inn in Westminster - tickets are £40 per person. If people need accomodation overnight a special rate has been arranged at the City Inn Westminster - email westminster.res@cityinn.com or telephone 020 7630 1000 quoting the code LIBE180610. Other cheaper hotels are available nearby.

The Conference takes place at Local Government House, Smith Square, Westminster, London.

Conference Programme

We've got a busy day planned for you, the final programme will be available after the General Election, but here are some highlights.

Keynote speakers: We cannot confirm this until after the General Election, but both NIck Clegg and Ros Scott plan to be with us. More to be confirmed as soon as we can!

Debate and discussion: Fringe event topics confirmed so far include: Total Place, Total Change; Localism; Future of Standards in Local Government, and "Ageing Liberally".

Training: Plenty of training for Councillors and newly elected Councillors including: Introduction to being a Councillor, Effective Scrutiny, Cabinet Member for Your Ward, Public Speaking and Working with the Media. There will be special campaigns sessions on campaigning in the post-election landscape and winning in the 2011 local elections.

For more information, or if you are interested in joining us at the Conference as an exhibitor or fringe partner please get in touch with Emma Hall 01422 843 785 emma.hall@aldc.org.

Don't miss out on our early bird rate - Register today!

It Wasn't Built in a Day...

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:05:00 +0100

In ancient Rome, March 25th would have fallen in the middle of the Hilaria festival – a weeklong celebration of Spring that began on the first day that daylight lasted longer than the night. With Spring Equinox on the 20th this year, we’ve turned that particular corner and our days are finally getting brighter. There was one principal by-election and three Town Council by-elections reported to ALDC this week. The results were a little dimmer than the weather, however, with the Greens stealing a march to gain the principal seat from the Tories, and only one new Liberal Democrat Town Councillor of a possible four.

The Haughley and Wetherden ward of Mid-Suffolk District Council is nestled in the heavily Conservative parliamentary constituency of Bury St Edmunds, which has been continually represented by Tories in Parliament as far back as 1826. The election in this rural ward was triggered by a Conservative resignation and featured five candidates - one from each of the main three main parties, with UKIP and the Greens making a showing from the fringes. The Lib Dem campaign was well received on the doorstep, with excellent leaflet coverage in a variety of formats and good use of telephone canvassing and EARS. Particularly popular were Lib Dem policy positions on local transport provision. An insurgent Green Party managed to make good political capital out of their candidate being the only one to live within the ward itself. The Greens took the seat with a 45% swing and on a good turnout. Our only consolation here was the significant number of voters on the doorstep who doubted the Greens’ ability to scale up to a credible national campaign, and who have said their vote in the upcoming general election will go to the Lib Dems.

The first of the Town Council by-elections to be reported to ALDC was a Labour gain from Conservatives in the Old Bracknell Town ward of Bracknell Town Council. Colwyn Bay Town Council saw Labour pick off an Independent, taking 31% of the vote in Glyn ward. Finally, two seats were up for grabs on Nailsworth Town Council following two resignations, one a Tory and one ‘unknown’. Congratulations to Miles Robinson, the Liberal Democrat who now occupies one of these two seats.

Remember, nominations open on Monday 29th March for the local elections on May 6th, and they close at noon on Thursday 8th April. Controversial with those of a traditionalist disposition, there will be a number of Maundy Thursday by-elections next week and details of these can be found under the 'Forthcoming By-Elections' tab, above.

ALDC By-Election Team

Budget response from the Leader of the LGA Liberal Democrats

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

“So we know what we know but we still don’t know what we don’t know,” is the Lib Dems view of the Chancellors ‘sleight of hand’ budget. According to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Local Government Cllr Richard Kemp, Alistair Darling used smoke and mirrors to distract attention away from the grim reality of the cuts that were outlined in his pre budget review last winter.

“We have seen a little tinkering with local government and other budgets not of all of which are bad but what the Chancellor did not spell out was the fact that from the financial year 2011/2012 there will be big cuts in both the capital and revenue budgets. The budget contains ludicrous figures for income growth suggesting, for example, that the take from income tax will be 35% higher in 4 years time than it is now and that growth will rise to more than 3% - a figure that we have not reached for years and is unlikely given the ongoing problems with international capital finance. Even if we achieve these figures there will be total cuts at some time soon of 50% in capital budgets and 10% in revenue budgets. If health, schools and defence are to be ring fenced there will be cuts of between 15 and 20% of all other budgets including local government.

In particular there was too little emphasis on the findings from the Total Place activity. If we are to deal with cuts in income of the scale predicted fiddling around with the system and over 5 years moving some civil servants out of London just is not enough. We need to fundamentally reform the way we do business. We need to take an axe to levels of government, bureaucracies and quangos. We need to design all our services around the needs of the communities and individuals who need them most.

The will to make those fundamental changes is clearly lacking and people will suffer in the long term as a result of it.”

Budget key points for local government

The Government will work with local areas to run 11 Total Capital Asset Pathfinders, which will aim to improve the value of capital investments, help transform services and deliver better outcomes
The role of city regions in delivering growth and inclusion will be strengthened, and provide new flexibility for places to shape spending, including on skills. Newly empowered regional ministers will play a stronger role in regional planning and the allocation of funds to regions and city-regions
Regional Development Agencies, Homes and Communities Agency and Government Offices will be co-located
The Government will give local authorities new discretion over £1.3 billion of funding that is currently ring-fenced and reduce the number of funding streams from central to local government from 110 to 94. Alongside this the Government has reduced the set of indicators for local authorities by 18
a £120 million grant for Accelerated Development Zones
a £100 million fund to repair local roads following recent cold weather; and investing £250 million in the road network to improve capacity
a temporary increase in the level of small business rate relief for half a million businesses
extending the Young Person’s Guarantee after March 2011 to ensure that young people adversely affected by the recession continue to be guaranteed a Future Jobs Fund job, training or work experience if they cannot find work within six months;
frontline resource spending in schools will rise by 0.7 per cent in real terms; resource spending for 16-19s participation will rise by 0.9 per cent in real terms; and resource spending on Sure Start Children’s Centres will rise in line with inflation.
sufficient funding will be available to enable Police Authorities to maintain the current number of warranted Police Officers, Police Community Support Officers and other staff exercising police powers;
improved targeting of housing growth and regeneration funding, saving £340 million: including £40 million by concluding the New Deal for Communities, and a further £300 million from rationalising Regional Development Agency regeneration spending and programmes, including the Working Neighbourhoods Fund, the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative, and the Housing and Planning Delivery Grant
reducing unlawful occupation of social housing, saving at least £35 million in housing benefit costs; ending smaller Communities and Local Government (CLG) funded time-limited communities programmes, saving £25 million; and rationalising other smaller CLG programmes, saving a total of £160 million.
Budget 2010 announces that the Government is taking action to tackle excessively high Local Housing Allowance payments for a small number of tenants in the most expensive areas, saving another £50 million a year by 2014-15.

This brief has been adapted from a briefing provided by the LGIU for which we thank them.

Julie Morris: The Blue Badge fiasco

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Here in Epsom & Ewell, balancing the books this year has been a tricky business. Car park income is down and since our little borough only gets 11% of council tax charged, that is a pretty important revenue stream.

We abandoned flat-rate Sunday charges a year ago (amidst much complaint) and the ruling Residents' Party, comprising of so-called independent councillors, has decided to charge Blue Badge holders who had, up until now, been accustomed to free parking in our car parks. Neighbouring boroughs are varied: Sutton is free we believe, Kingston charges for the most part.

The trouble was, they rather foisted it upon the Blue Badge community, paid lip-service to consultation and gave us an opportunity to latch onto and run with a hugely unpopular proposal. At the eleventh hour, the ruling group decided to "amend" their plans to include one hour free, THEN charge, subsequently deciding to properly consult and delay charging until July, but it was all too late.

We took to the streets with our petition, gained front page headlines and all in all, gave them a rather hard time of it. Our PPC, also a local councillor, raised his profile accordingly and the subject captured the attention of an ambitious reporter for the local newspaper, all of which was rather timely for the GE. We are still running the petition online, though don't have a clear plan as to what we are going to do with it ... and following on from our petition is also difficult but we will probably stop short of civil disobedience (such as a Blue Badge holder protest to create log-jam in our already log-jammed road network.)

It remains to be seen if another opportunity to vote against the proposal will be afforded since letters of objection to car park charges are supposed to come back for Committee review.

Following our publicity from the Blue Badge campaign, we spun various local stories for our PPC and gained further column inches, all of which we gather has upset the leader of the ruling group to the extent that he has resorted to telephoning the said reporter in protest. Since we spent most of 2009 in the wilderness as far as press coverage was concerned (though not for want of trying), our new found exposure in the press is most welcome. The important thing with the press is never to give up trying!

Cllr Julie Morris is Epsom & Ewell Borough Councillor for College Ward
and Liberal Democrat Council Group Leader
epsom-ewell-libdems.org.uk

Seven Weeks Out and Still Winning Here...

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:02:00 +0100

March 18th saw two notable anniversaries in the annals of democracy. Firstly, the world celebrated eighteen years since the watershed referendum that voted to end the system of apartheid across South Africa. In a longer lens, it was also the anniversary of the declaration of the Paris Commune in 1871, an event that gave the Western world a working model of delegative democracy, and a parliamentary recall function similar to our own proposals for errant M.P.’s – let us hope 1980s synth-pop band The Communards (‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’) cease to remain its most recognised cultural echo!

Back in modern-day Britain, there were only two principal by-election results to report on, the Taverham North ward of Broadland District Council and Gravesham Borough Council’s Meopham South and Vigo ward. Whilst the Tories held the latter quite handily, it is our pleasure to report a Lib Dem gain at Tory expense in Taverham. There were no Town or Parish Council by-elections reported to ALDC this week.

Currently a part of the Norwich North constituency, the Taverham North ward of Broadland D.C. will be part of the new Broadland parliamentary constituency from 2010. Former Councillor, grassroots activist and renowned political blogger Nich Starling successfully took the seat from a local Tory party whose candidates and councillors were reportedly rarely seen in the wards. Using touchstone local issues such as bad road conditions in the ward, scepticism toward some aspects of the under-development ‘eco-town’ at Rackheath, and the Northern Distributor Road being built in the teeth of widespread opposition, the Liberal Democrat campaign in Taversham chimed with the values of voters on the doorstep and reaped the rewards at the polls. Nich’s excellent blog is located at www.norfolkblogger.blogspot.com.

In Meopham South and Vigo, the Conservatives retained their council seat with close to 60% of the vote, with second place coming almost 400 votes behind. An insurgent UKIP took 14% of the vote, making it to second place on their first attempt. Both the Liberal Democrat candidate Ann O’Brien and the Labour candidate were eight votes shy of the UKIP total, the Lib Dem share of the vote was 13% on a seat that went uncontested by us last time around.

Make sure that you don’t leave it to the last minute to get your nomination papers in. If you leave it too late then there won’t be time to fix any mistakes and you won’t be able to stand. Comprehensive guidance for ALDC members can be found here.

Lambeth: Let's oust Labour completely

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Few Boroughs can match the political turbulence of Lambeth – the last four elections have seen the administration change hands! This May could make it five, with the added bonus of securing the borough’s first-ever Liberal Democrat MP.

Lambeth packs some 270,000 residents into just a few square miles from the London Eye on the South Bank to Streatham and West Norwood. There are some very wealthy districts of fine Georgian houses or Victorian villas. But northern parts of the borough are still dominated by large estates of modern social housing, too much of it in dismal condition. Further south is more suburban in feel, but with every bit as diverse a population.

Lib Dems here are already whizzing round with a skip in their step. The two by-elections since the last full Council elections in 2006 both showed hefty swings from Labour to Lib Dems, plenty big enough to see Labour ousted from control.

Labour’s critical weakness in Lambeth is the total collapse of the Council’s housing service, which is now effectively insolvent. It meant rents rocketed by 14 per cent last year despite a ban on non-essential repairs that is leaving estates riddled with broken block doors, windows and fencing.

But an even more visible sign of the shambolic service are the 1,000 council homes lying empty and tinned up because the council has no money to refurbish them back to a lettable standard. All this after a transfer to an ALMO that scarcely a fifth of tenants voted for – and that is chaired not by a tenant, as was promised, but by the local Labour MP looking to pocket £10,000 in allowances on top of his parliamentary pension!

Labour’s hold on the Borough has never been as strong as many expect. Split by faction fighting, Labour briefly lost control in the mid-90s and again in 2002. But by 2006 Labour needed scarcely a one per cent swing to recover their majority and set out to make sure they did. We were deluged with direct mail, glossy colour leaflets and what felt like a ministerial visit every other day and could not compete.

We are determined to turn the tables once again. We have worked hard to develop new candidates. We designed our own candidate approval system around a framework of “A Campaigning Liberal Democrat Councillor” testing incumbents and newbies alike to show how they could meet that description. It has helped us refresh the teams in our safer wards even at the cost of some bruised egos.

A highly consultative process has given us a manifesto that will prove an effective campaign tool. It commits us to completing the value-for-money initiative on back-office costs that the Labour administration has abandoned. We will resource effective crime prevention rather than the pointless, populist name-and-shame Labour approach.

We are pledged to solve the primary school place shortage that Labour ignored for too long, not sit helplessly waiting for government money we all know will never come. And we will get estates and mansion blocks recycling, aiming to double the rate where Labour have let it stagnate at its 2006 level. And while Labour leave overcrowded families staring at boarded up empty homes, we will make zero tolerance of empty Council homes an absolutely central principle.

All of this is backed up by a seamlessly integrated campaign with our three PPCs. Streatham, in the South of the Borough is fighting to win in 2010 and has well constructed messages to unite both General and Council election campaigns.

So drop us a line via www.lambethlibdems.org.uk if you can help one of our best chances to score Lib Dem wins both in 2010 elections.

Cllr Ashley Lumsden is Lambeth Councillor for Streatham Hill and

Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group

This article was first published in Liberal Democrat News - Britain's only weekly newspaper from a political party. Click here to subscribe for just £30 a year.

Richard Baum: How to get banned from tweeting, in one easy step

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

A significant number of my colleagues presume I am mad for having a second job as a Councillor. This number has grown significantly since I announced a third job – that of prospective parliamentary candidate. By 7^th May, I may well have joined them in that opinion.

There are days, greater in number and closer together at the moment, when I wish I could just crumple into the sofa and watch Eastenders of an evening. Sadly though, there’s canvassing to be done, and my group leader won’t let me rest until I have single-handedly accomplished Nick Clegg’s Million Door Challenge. I am truly worried when I find it difficult to get to sleep without the rhythmic pounding of the leaflet folding machine to comfort me. I went to give blood the other day and they turned me away because it was 20% Focus ink.

Amongst all the contact with voters I am currently enjoying, I was reminded the other day that unfortunately not all political parties are as up for keeping in touch with voters as I know that we Lib Dems are. I thought it would be an idea to belatedly join the Twitter revolution and start commentating on Council meetings in my home borough. It made me feel less guilty for being sat in them in the first place rather than out knocking on doors or delivering leaflets. Sadly, my attempts at dragging the Council kicking and screaming towards the age of instant communications was met with stern disapproval, and my activities were promptly banned by the ruling Conservatives. If only I’d taken up fox hunting, they’d have been all in favour...

I don’t know if their response to my Twittering was because my tweets weren’t entirely complimentary to them and their non-dom-funded, tax-grabbing, service-cutting ways, or just because I thought of it before any of them did. But whatever the reason, they have made a mistake, in my view.

In the wake of the expenses scandal, this election sees voters and vote-seekers further apart and more out of touch than ever before. Twitter is a way to address that. It isn’t a panacea – in fact I think it’s a poor man’s Facebook and isn’t a patch on a blog. But it’s the only thing that gives real-time commentary on political events, and tweets are short and memorable enough to really hit home. Nobody will win an election using Twitter, but banning it made the Conservatives in Bury look childish and backward. Being the victim of that ban made me look modern and forward-thinking, and it got me into the papers! It was ironic that I got far more publicity through them banning my tweets than I got from the tweets themselves, despite the aim of tweeting being to get publicity!

All it takes is a few seconds to send a tweet, which is about as much spare time as most Councillor-PPCs have, especially if they’ve got jobs to boot. So here’s an idea – set up an account on Twitter and publicise it. Tweet from as many places as you can, get in the faces of the opposition as much as you can by doing it, and tell everyone about it. Don’t tweet anything silly, but add it to your arsenal of communications and see what happens. You never know your luck – they might ban you, and when the papers pick up on it the publicity means you get more time to go out and meet local people. Which, let’s face it, is a much better use of everyone’s time!

Cllr Richard Baum is Bury Councillor for St. Mary's Ward
richardbaum.mycouncillor.org.uk/
He also tweets (but not in council meetings) @richardbaum

Soldiering On...

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:14:00 +0100

March 11th is better known as ‘Johnny Appleseed Day’ on the other side of the Atlantic, a celebration of the well-loved nineteenth-century nurseryman who first introduced apple orchards to vast swathes of the American mid-west. On this side of the pond it was a relatively tranquil by-election Thursday, with only two principal council by-elections and a pair of Parish Council results to digest. The two principals resulted in Conservative holds, whilst in the two parish elections reported to ALDC we held one seat and gained the second from Labour.

The by-election in Adeyfield West ward of Dacorum Borough Council in Hertfordshire became fractious with the introduction of a BNP candidate and some highly negative campaigning by the Labour party. Of the three main parties only the Lib Dem campaign succeeded in increasing the proportion of their vote, the defending Conservatives shedding nearly 9% and the Labour vote dropping by over 13%. The presence of the BNP appears to have had the effect of solidifying the soft-Labour support that was showing signs of melting away at the previous County Council elections. Without the additional turnout of Labour supporters catalysed by the BNP, Labour could well have been facing a dramatic collapse. The Lib Dem campaign to ‘end the neglect of Adeyfield’ came in third by around 60 votes, and almost double the vote of the BNP who limped in fourth.

Less competitive was the by-election for the Redwell West ward of Wellingborough District Council in Northamptonshire, where the successful Tory campaign retained the seat with 143 votes more than every other candidate combined. With an English Democrat presence diluting the far-right vote, the BNP found themselves pushed from a previous second into third place. The Liberal Democrat campaign worked with virtually no resources and almost doubled their popular vote. If the 23 votes that went to the Greens had come our way, we could have forced the BNP from second to fifth overnight.

Finally, warm congratulations to the Deborah Crane campaign who have taken a seat from Labour in the Central ward of Lawley and Overdale Parish Council in Telford constituency, and John Kelly, whose team in the Brandon and Byshottles Parish Council election in Country Durham succeeded in fending off a Labour challenge and retaining the seat for the Liberal Democrats.

A Spring in Our Step

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:12:00 +0100

On the 213th anniversary of the first peaceful transfer of power between two democratically elected leaders (Washington and Adams), British liberal democracy enjoyed a rather quiet tally of one principal by-election and two reported contests for a total of three Town Council seats. The former resulted in a Tory hold, whilst of the three Town Council seats, two now find themselves occupied by the Liberal Democrats.

Tory dominated Fenland District Council’s by-election in The Mills saw the Conservatives hold on despite a dramatic 11% decline in their vote, the majority of which fell to UKIP. The Liberal Democrat campaign varied A3 and A4 literature, with EARS, Mosaic, and partial telephone canvassing making up the hi-tech end of the effort. Whilst canvass coverage was slightly depressed due to inclement weather, a blanket Eve of Poll and targeted Good Morning held the Lib Dem vote steady and ensured a good second place for well-respected local campaigner Chris Howes. Nestled in the constituency of North East Cambridgeshire, a former Liberal stronghold and parliamentary seat of Clement Freud, one wonders whether Fenland Lib Dems stand on the verge of further successes in the future.

The Mills was also the venue for a double-contest for Chatteris Town Council. Caused by the death of one Conservative councillor and the resignation of another (a co-opted councillor whose party affiliation, if any, remains unclear), we are pleased to report a Lib Dem gain in the form of Town Councillor Diane Baldry, who came within 16 votes of first place.

Finally, fast times indeed at Winsford Town Council, where the victory of Alfred Beverly Theron (pictured, right) in the town’s Wharton ward, took the council into Lib Dem control for the first time in its history. Jumping four places from their last result, the traditional ingredients of Liberal Democrat success – numbers on the ground, effective canvassing, local issues, and a dedicated team – took the seat from a Tory party that is still failing to regain the trust of voters on the doorstep, despite the deep unpopularity of the Labour government.

Election Law Helpline

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC will be running the Election Law Helpline service for the Party throughout the 2010 General and local election period. It is vital that everyone in the party stays on the right side of the law throughout the campaign, and we'll be here to help you do this. The Agents and Organisers Assocation has kindly supplied information to help us with this role, (you can also buy a copy of their Agents Manual through our shop), and their helpline is being diverted through to ALDC during the campaign period.

What sort of advice and information will be available?

Practical issues around election law - nominations, DNOs, imprints, expenses, freeposts etc.
Detailed queries about election law issues.
Guidance on issues such as libel and defamation.
Advice if you are threatened with legal action.

There are three ways you can access advice:

1 - Online

ALDC members can browse our up-to-date advice resources in our members' website. Most of the relevant information is contained in the "Advice" section of our website. Articles can easily be found through the "topic" flags on the right side of the site or use the search at the top of the site.

Below we've listed links to the most frequently asked pieces of information. If you're not a member of ALDC, why not join us - by monthly Direct Debit it's only £1.50 a week.

2 - By email

Email us your queries and we'll make sure that the most appropriate person deals with your query as quickly as possible. Contact us via this form to make sure your request gets to us as soon as possible. (Emailing an individual staff member is not recommended, as you might catch us on a day when they're not in and your response will be delayed).

3 - By Phone

Phone us on 01422 843 785 between 9.30am - 5.00pm Monday - Friday to be put through to the next available advisor. Outside these hours an answerphone message will take any queries. If you get the answerphone during the working day it may mean that there are more phones ringing than there are staff in the office, so please be patient!

How will we deal with your request

We will try to deal with all requests as soon as possible. Our normal standard is that advice received before 2.00pm on a working day is dealt with that day, or for requests received after 2.00pm on the following morning. However please be patient with us during busy periods.

We are not lawyers and will will not be able to give formal legal opinion, but we can help talk you through the issues and what needs to be considered.

There are systems in place for more complex and urgent cases to be referred to specialist advisers elsewhere. We will advise you if this is what we intend to do with your query.

Frequently Asked For advice:

Imprints for election leaflets in 2010
Election expense limits - long campaign, short campaign and council elections
Eligibility to be a council candidate
Approving council candidates
Appointing your General Election agent (this is a zip file to download)
Local election nomination forms

You can also find links to some of the campaign essentials here from our website.

Well done to Northumberland

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:19:00 +0100

Cllr Richard Kemp, Liberal Democrat leader in Local Government, has congratulated Liberal Democrat led Northumberland Council on picking up four key awards last night.

The awards ceremony, jointly designed by the LGA and held at 11 Downing Street, recognised the country’s most innovative councils who work with other parts of the public sector. Each winner will share in a £3 million pot to spread their pioneering ideas and best practice around the country.

Northumberland won in the following categories:

Keeping children and young people safe in the community - for engaging with children and young people, understanding the risks they face and working with them to protect the most vulnerable. Northumberland gets £560,000 to spread ideas and good practice.

Achieving more through partnerships – working with the Fire Service and Sure Start to set up a Community Fire Station and Children’s Centre – delivering real community benefits at a reduced cost. Again, Northumberland will get £560,000 to spread good practice.

Northumberland Council also won two awards for bright ideas:

Strengthening Families – a community family skills programme for mothers, fathers, carers and young people. It was piloted in a local prison, bringing families together before the prisoner’s release. It strengthens the family unit and reduces the risk of re-offending.

Taking control of care – empowering adults to control their own care – for establishing a virtual carer’s centre in a rural and sparsely populated area; and to bring local projects together.

Cllr Kemp said: “Northumberland has shown that Lib Dems, where they are in power, deliver innovation while improving services and reducing costs.”

Peter Black: A Liberal Democrat vision for Wales - a personal view

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:11:00 +0100

In a previous article I started to discuss where local government will fit into a newly empowered Welsh Assembly, making laws within the ambit of the twenty fields of competence granted by the Government of Wales Act 2006.

I argued that there is a wider debate as to what structures we need to deliver services to a nation of 3 million people and in particular whether 22 local councils and seven health boards are appropriate vehicles to spend the bulk of the Assembly’s £15 billion budget.

My view then (and now) was that we most probably need bigger and fewer Councils but that the main debate should be around the democratisation and accountability of service delivery as much as its efficiency. In contrast, the Welsh Government’s agenda is becoming much clearer as we approach the next set of Assembly elections.

My concern is that in Labour and Plaid Cymru we have two very centralising parties whose objective is to emasculate local government. Already, we have heard calls for social services and education to be taken off local councils, whilst the intentions of other parties towards reorganisation remain secret. Ministers are seeking or have acquired legislative competence over the governance arrangements of schools and also over many new aspects of local councils but are not saying what they will do with it.

In fact there seems to be a cross-party consensus that there will be a reorganisation of local government in Wales after the 2011 Welsh General Election, the problem is that nobody wants to talk about it until then and the chances of any coherence emerging from any of the other parties as to how they see the future structure of local government is negligible.

Motives are particularly important in this process. Everybody acknowledges that having 22 Councils means that a number are too small to achieve economies of scale and that there needs to be some reform to address this. However, there is no consensus on what the future map of Wales should look like.

My view is that this issue needs to be addressed before the 2011 Welsh General Election not just because there is a need for a debate but also because how a party plans to reform our democratic structures goes to the heart of their vision for Wales.

Firstly, what is the role of the Welsh Government and of the Welsh Assembly? Following a successful referendum, their role is to set out policy, to make laws and to deliver that through guidance and funding decisions. It is not their role to directly deliver services, nor in my view should they seek to set up other arms-length bodies or add to the role of existing bodies by passing over to them functions currently delivered by Councils.

Secondly, how do we give people greater control over the decision-making process in their own areas? There are in fact many ways that this can be done but I would suggest that the starting point is to enable the democratically elected bodies that serve local communities, in this case the Welsh unitary authorities.

These councils should be more accountable, constituted on a scale that can deliver services efficiently and encompass a broader range of responsibilities so as to produce a more strategic and joined up approach to governance.

To achieve this I would envisage reforming local government so as to create eight or ten unitary councils elected by the single transferable vote system in multi member wards. There would be fewer Councillors, approximately a third less, making between 800-900 across Wales but in return they would be better remunerated so that they could devote a substantial amount of time to delivering and scrutinising services and acting in a more strategic way. Each Council would be run by a full time Cabinet with no more than ten Councillors in each executive body and have a number of strategic directors.

I would disband the heath boards and pass their functions to the democratically elected Councils, thus creating a single health and social care function that would eliminate duplication and waste and be accountable to local electors not the centre.

I would transfer all of post 16 education back to Councils so that they could deliver the 14 to 19 agenda as a seamless whole and incorporate the very important vocational education delivered by FE colleges into their service provision.

I would also give Councils greater strategic control of transport within their area including the power to deliver cross-modal transport solutions and a wider economic development remit. As part of this I would suggest that it should be these bigger unitary authorities who should be delivering regeneration initiatives such as Communities First on behalf of the Welsh Government, not the Government micro-managing it from the centre.

There are many other central government functions that might be better delivered by such a strategic locally elected body. That is a matter for further discussion. My purpose here is to start a debate and to get people thinking about a way forward.

I am an instinctive democrat. That means that I believe in empowering local people and giving them a chance to influence the direction of services in their own area. Democracy may have its flaws and at a local level I am sure that everybody can come up with a horror story that involves their local Council but ultimately it is for the electorate to cast the final verdict and with proportional voting that becomes much easier.

Instead of national politicians treating local government as scapegoats and indulging in playing blame games, let us find a way to work together as equals and in a way that for once delivers the sort of transparency and accountability that was promised when devolution was first voted on in 1997.

Cllr Peter Black AM is Swansea Councillor for Cwmbwrla and

Welsh Assembly Member for South Wales West. He is also the

Welsh Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokesperson
peterblack.blogspot.com

That’s a bit better

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:22:00 +0100

There were eight principal council elections held on the 25th February. The Lib Dems gained two seats - one from Labour and one from the Tories. Labour held one seat and gained three from the Mansfield Independent Forum. The Tories held one seat. There were four Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC. Two were Lib Dem gains from the Tories and one was a Lib Dem gain from Labour. The Tories held one seat.

The Eastwood South Ward of Broxtowe District Council lies in the new Ashfield parliamentary constituency in Nottinghamshire where Geoff Hoon has recently announced his retirement – before he was soundly beaten.

We won the county seat last June with 49.7% of the vote so mopping up one of the District seats should perhaps come as no surprise, but it’s still a welcome fillip in the run up to the General election and an opportunity for some intensive Voter ID and general doorstep contact. The majority of our vote last June in the county election came from the Lib Dem held Eastwood North district seat so the large, historically Labour voting council estate in Eastwood South presented a challenge. Our enthusiastic team focussed on voter contact on foot and the phone and a massive poster display together with the usual literature campaign. A great result that bodes well for May!

In the Fenstanton Ward of Huntingdonshire District Council, our candidate fought hard in 2007 getting within twelve votes of the Tories. He did not give up, he carried on campaigning month in month out producing Focus. His persistence has proved that genuinely working all year round really works. When this by-election was called the Tories went into overdrive aware that their MP was in difficulties over expenses but to no avail.

Unfortunately it was not all good news. In the new Central Devon parliamentary constituency and Mid Devon district council we failed to hold our seat in Yeo, losing badly to the Tories.

Alex Folkes: Tories failing on open & local government

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100

I went to a recent LGIU conference where the three party local government spokespeople were parading their commitment to localism.

Ok - I'm more than a little biased and felt that the Lib Dem proposal for decentralisation, as evidenced by our record in office around the country, was the most believeable.

I asked John Denham why, after 13 years of Labour centralisation, we should start to believe his promises of more power for local councils now? All would be different if Labour get re-elected, he promised.

But what of the Conservatives? Caroline Spelman certainly talks the right way. But I fear that the Conservatives in office make her promises little more than empty words.

Here in Cornwall the Conservatives campaigned last year with a ton of leaflets pledging to freeze council tax for two years. Last week they voted to raise it by 2.9% and they have set provisional figures of 2.5% and 2.25% for the next two years.

The Conservatives in Cornwall also pledged a culture of transparency and openness. But once again their record has been fairly much the opposite. We have found out that they have a secret list of 80 primary schools which are under threat of closure (although at first they denied it existed and still refuse to let anyone see it). They also at first denied (and have now been forced to admit) that there is a list of council buildings they want to sell off. And when it came to the budget, they cut off debate after just an hour and a half with more than 15 councillors from all sides wanting to speak or ask questions.

But it is the threat to localism which really shows that Ms Spelman's words mean nothing.

A new unitary authority brought the danger of centralism with all meetings and decisions taken at County Hall in Cornwall. We were promised that this would not be the case and that local community networks would flourish and One Stop Shops in every town would open into the evening and at weekends to provide full access to all council services. But the comunity networks were put on hold for 6 months and the One Stop Shops are seeing opening hours cut and services centralised.

And ask for meetings taking place close to the people they affect... Residents of Launceston who want to attend the planning meeting that will decide on a waste transfer station in the town will face a 100 mile round trip to Truro - despite there being nothing else on the agenda.

The lessons seem clear. Whatever the Conservatives may promise on local government (and their promises do sound good), on taxation, openness and localism you simply cannot believe a word they say.

Alex Folkes is Cornwall Councillor for Launceston Central
lansonboy.blogspot.com

Chris White: Kill puffins and paint horizontally to save money

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:45:00 +0100

Local newspapers in western Hertfordshire exploded on Friday evening with news that the county council had lost a court case. It was chasing an invoice for £335 in a dispute with a water company over a broken manhole cover. The county council had had to put up a couple of cones to warn passing motorists and apparently cones are expensive things to handle.

The water company felt that this was excessive and the council and the utility had seen each other in court. The costs of the case were awarded largely against the council and were reportedly £110,000.

Debate has raged. The Tory Administration has told me that they find my remarks to the press ‘unhelpful’ (I would have preferred ‘outrageous’ but ‘unhelpful’ will do). Anyway: not all the costs were lawyers’ fees – some were internal to the council. Furthermore, it was a test case, although mysteriously they could not identify any council that was willing to help Hertfordshire with its costs.

It is becoming apparent that this was a process that had grown its own legs. While the politicians are accountable the system is responsible. Councils employ lawyers to sue people and sue they do. We pay for their activities.

So, how much control can politicians hope to have over a council’s operations?

In some ways we have moved a long way since (in my political lifetime) a Chief Executive tried to demand that councillors wore visitors’ badges when on council premises.

We are in charge, we are told. But, as was said famously by Dorothy Thornhill: you can get your hands on the levers of power but find the levers aren’t attached to anything.

Our current budget round has uncovered a crop of curiosities. We discovered that the county council erects lampposts and then paints them once they are vertical – much more expensive than painting them while still on the ground. When quizzed, officials told us ‘they might get scratched’ if painted the common sense way.

We discovered that the pedestrian crossings are all being converted from pelicans to puffins – a distinction without a difference for most pedestrians. And the bus stop signs are being renewed because the travel help line number has changed. Heaven forefend that the council should invest in a few sheets of stickers.

These are highways and transport examples – a service that is relatively transparent. As for opaque departments like adult care and children’s services, it is anyone’s guess how many millions are being thrown away because elected members are unable to get close enough to the front line.

True: budgets are scrutinised. But the vast majority of councils budget incrementally. They start with last year as a base and then tweak the figures up or down.

The devil is in the base budget. In the tough years ahead, we will need to be asking searching questions not about growth and savings but about the areas we don’t normally look at.

This article was first published on Liberal Democrat Voice

Richard Kemp: Abroad starts at your front door

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100

I hope that after 4 years most Lib Dems know that I am the Lib Dem Leader at the LGA. Not so many will be aware that I am also the portfolio holder for European & International Affairs. I was volunteered for the job when we needed to mainstream our E & I work and make it more relevant to the wider local government family and I happily decided at accept the position. Interestingly the portfolio holder for the Welsh LGA, Chris Holley, is also a Lib Dem. Perhaps it’s just something about practising what we preach!

Much of the work inevitably involves European activity. European legislation is so important to us as 50% of the Westminster legislation that affects councils originates in Brussels. Increasingly however with the political work in CoR and Congress now being dealt with comprehensively both within the LGA and by our local politicians in Brussels I have been able to look at the international work in more detail.

As a result of pressure from the LGA the DFID Select Committee chaired by Malcolm Bruce (another example of practising what we preach?) has suggested to the Government that Councils should be used a lot more in Internal Aid activity.

We offer a win/win/win situation.

A win for the Country in need. We can supply officers and councillors with current and relevant experience to provide real help. It was local government staff, fire-fighters, for example that were first into Haiti.

A win for the Government. We can do it far more cost effectively than the usual agencies of private consultancies and NGOs. Often we will put in at least some of the resources ourselves.

A win for the local council. We can get two benefits. The horizons of our staff and members will eb tested and expanded leading to more innovation and new ideas. We can develop a knowledge of custom and practice in those countries which can guide our work with the diaspora communities in our communities.

We are currently coordinating local government aid to Zimbabwe with more than 30 Councils offering to help. We are looking at long-term support to Haiti with again 30 Councils (but different ones) offering to help there. We are about to conduct the first peer review of another LGA (South Africa) with the World Bank looking to provide more support through us to other LGAs so that they have competent and strategic development partners. I have just assisted with a review of how local government works on a Pan Africa basis and will be hosting a conference in Nigeria in March. Margaret Eaton, the Association’s chair has been leading a review of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum which is our major route for working with others to provide local government aid.

Some people ask, "Why should we help when times are hard?" Most members of the public (and surely every Lib Dem?) reply when they see the devastation of Harare or in a different way Haiti – we have no choice – we must be there.

So what is your council doing in both European and International activity? Could you do more to help provide a win/win/win situation in your area?

Cllr Richard Kemp is Liverpool City Councillor for Church and
Leader of the Local Government Association Liberal Democrat Group

Seven Votes Swings Seat…. again

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:39:00 +0100

There were six principal council elections held on the 18th February. Labour held one seat and the Tories two. We lost two seats to Labour but gained one from the Tories There were four Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC. A Tory hold, two Lib Dem holds and a Lib Dem gain from Plaid.

In the Pendre Ward of Bridgend Council in Wales we managed to lose to Labour by just seven votes having won the seat by seven votes just two years ago. We ran a good literature and doorstep campaign but we needed to use the phone before and on polling day. In retrospect the campaign must be kicking themselves for only starting to knock up at 3pm. When we won by seven in 2008 it was a straight fight between us and Labour. This time, as is usual in by-elections, a wider range of parties stood. With four non-Labour candidates to choose from, first past the post allowed the anti-Labour vote to be split.

Leeds City Council is run by a joint Con/Lib Dem administration. In the Hyde Park and Woodhouse Ward we ran a very intensive campaign with plenty of help but we were defeated by a uniformly negative Labour campaign attacking the administration. We weren’t helped by an existing councillor in the ward who had been elected as a Lib Dem defecting to Labour in the final week of the campaign. Though the turnout was low it was not untypical of the ward, which is part student part social housing. The bin strike and the closure of a local school did not help.

In the Ivybridge Filham by-election for South Hams District Council in Devon we took a seat from the Tories. It may have been complacency from the Tories – or perhaps their activity was largely covert using direct mail and phoning – but our people reckon the Tories only did one leaflet and hardly any door knocking. We did an A4, an A3, blue letter, eve of poll, good morning leaflets. We phoned every house in the ward and knocked on every door in the ward and on polling day we knocked up every D and P at least three times.

Sadly I have to report another seat we were defending where we failed to stand a candidate! Birstall Watermead Ward of Charnwood Borough Council in Leicestershire.

Election campaign essentials

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:15:00 +0100

To help make your campaigning as easy as possible, we’ve gathered together some of the essential campaign tools, paperwork and information that you’ll need as the campaign goes on. Do let us know if there is anything else that you need and we will add it in.

Campaign artwork tools

Liberal Democrat fonts: Helvetica Neue & Andrew Garratt only (zip file)
Liberal Democrat fonts: other useful fonts (zip file)

Liberal Democrat logos (zip file)
Liberal Democrat General Election Campaign Logo
Liberal Democrat clipart
Liberal Democrat colours

Buy PagePlus software

More campaign resources also available on the Liberal Democrat Members’ Site

Campaign template artwork

A4 Focus templates
A3 Focus templates

Canvass leaflets
Posters

Good morning & eve of poll leaflets

Essential paperwork

Delegated Nominating Officer (DNO) form (PDF)
Election expense forms – General Election long campaign (MS Excel)
Election expense forms – General Election short campaign (MS Excel)
Election expense forms - Council Elections (MS Excel)

Postal Vote Application Form (PDF)

Nomination papers will be available from your local council for both the Local and General Elections.

Official guidance

Electoral Commission guide to the 2010 Council Elections (PDF)
Electoral Commission guide to the 2010 General Election (PDF)

Postal vote code of conduct (PDF)
Draft guidance to police on interaction with political parties during campaigns (zip file)
Electoral Commission guide to General Election hustings (PDF)

Liberal Democrat Guidance

Campaign Planning Guide
ALDC Council Candidate’s Handbook (PDF)

Guidance on election imprints
Election expense limits
Guidance on appointing a General Election agent and on expenses (zip file)

Julie Morris: Epsom Calling

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:55:00 +0100

Well, Epsom and Ewell actually. Channel 4's Best-Place-To-Live-In-The-UK in 2004 (or was it 2005?) but relegated to 4th place more recently.

It is a unique form of government we have in this borough: controlled by Residents' Association councillors for more than 70 years which are a group of so-called independent councillors mostly registered as Residents Associations of Epsom & Ewell. We call them the Residents' Party. There are 23 RA, 10 Lib Dem, 4 Tory and 1 Labour. The Lib Dems are strong in the Epsom area and the RA in Ewell. The Conservatives - undoubtedly our long-term threat - have 1 Epsom-based councillor, one RA defector from Ewell and two others representing a Ewell ward. The 1 Labour councillor took a seat from us in a by-election - she was a previous Mayor and well known - but the by-election being held the day after David Cameron's son passed away didn't help us either.

Until 1999, the Conservatives did not stand in local elections here, (something about an unwritten agreement with the RA that they would leave the borough in their capable hands), but since one Chris Grayling's arrival as our MP and the ever-growing unpopularity of Labour, they are gaining strength and field candidates at every opportunity. Mostly, they are chipping away at the RA majority, but they are extremely aggressive and underhand at both election time and in the council chamber. We are under no illusions they aim for worldwide domination.

A flavour of what we are dealing with here might best be illustrated by the following. Residents' Party non-councillor officials had become used to holding meetings at the Town Hall, free of charge. The whole system was reviewed and they now have to pay. However, a Motion to council brought by the Tories demanded they were charged for meeting room hire on a retrospective basis for as far back as records sensibly go (it's more than a year with the sum of money involved around £3,000). The decision on the Motion was brought to the Strategy & Resources Committee where Residents' Party councillors, with their majority representation, decided to support the recommendation which was that they should not be charged. All other branches of political parties would have had to pay for meeting room hire. It's clearly abuse of Town Hall facilities, with the final decision on retrospective charging being made by those who have a personal and prejudicial interest in the outcome. Residents' Party councillors did concede that it might be a good idea that a body other than themselves was consulted but ultimately a full council meeting (with all the opposition members voting against) agreed not to pursue the matter.

The Residents' Party is a unique animal. At least with recognised political parties, there's a level playing field to start with.

Cllr Julie Morris is Epsom & Ewell Borough Councillor for College Ward
and Liberal Democrat Council Group Leader
epsom-ewell-libdems.org.uk

Chris White: My first lap dance hate mail

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:25:00 +0100

I got my first lap-dancing related hate mail the other day. The writer (who was not anonymous) suggested that I had nothing better to do with my time and argued that I belonged in the Stasi.

One of the hazards of politics is that you occasionally take a clear public view and someone doesn’t like it. My crime was to have issued a statement in support of the new rules on sexual encounter establishments.

Since the 2003 Licensing Act, lap-dancing clubs had been subject to the same licensing regime as pubs and restaurants – in particular, there was a presumption in favour of a licence being granted and objections could only be raised on a limited range of grounds.

Residents could not object to a lap-dancing club on principle or because it was something they didn’t want in their neighbourhood. This, with the strong support of the Local Government Association, has now changed.

There are major issues for Liberals here. Do we support people being able to object to pubs on principle? Clearly not. Do we support people who might object to a pub being opened near a school? Probably not although we would not be tolerant of a pub which was keen to sell alcohol to school children.

So: on what grounds can we object to lap-dancing? Because it involves exploitation? The evidence for this is doubtful. And if we are worried about exploitation we should deal with that rather than intervene in adult entertainment, freely entered into by both performer and consumer. Rules to protect performers are possibly overdue although many of the well-known names are meticulous.

Perhaps we could object because it objectifies women? All sorts of things do that, from top shelf magazines to channels freely available on cable and satellite. We also live in a culture that objectifies and commodifies men – a fact that marketing people around footballers and male models have not been slow to grasp. Most Liberals would balk at banning all such materials.

What about crime? There is usually a suggestion that these establishments are associated somehow with serious crime and prostitution but the evidence is again poor. The clientele tend in fact to be of little interest to the police compared with the assorted drunks and hoorays they have to cope with on a Saturday night.

So we are left with the niceness test. Some people (possibly a majority of women) find these clubs distasteful and don’t want them near their homes or children. Or possibly husbands.

This sort of objection is one ultimately of planning. As such it is arguably fair enough.

But it is a fine line and you can see why there are those who find the new rules illiberal.

This article was first published on Liberal Democrat Voice

Candidates Handbook 2010

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:33:00 +0100

Liberal Democrat candidates are being sent a free "Candidates Handbook" from ALDC, with details of the election campaign, how to survive, and essential contact and election law advice. This is a new publication from ALDC and aims to ensure all our candidates have the essential information for the election at their fingertips.

The Handbook was sent out by post in the last two week - so if you or your candidates didn't receive, then it's because ALDC hasn't been given details of your candidates!

We'll be sending out the Handbook to every candidate we're notified of before the deadline for nominations - WHILE STOCKS LAST.

Election Briefing emails are also being sent to all candidates - from now on every 10 days - so it's vital that we have email addresses for candidates.

Please help us by letting us know who your candidates are. Do it online here, or if its easier just send an email or attachment to david.ball@aldc.org with your candidates.

Don't worry that someone else has sent these in already - it's better to receive the information twice than not at all.

Don't forget to cc:aldc your best campaign literature - just think much easier it would be if we didn't have to re-invent the wheel every time!

Copy us in when you're sending a PagePlus or PDF file - cc@aldc.org.

Thanks for your assistance!

Lib Dem Council Group of the Year

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Please note the deadline for nominations for the Liberal Democrat Council Group of the Year 2009 has been extended to 5pm on Monday 1 March 2010.

Does your authority or group have a track record - or have you promoted a specific policy - in any of the following areas over 2009?

Lewisham Lib Dems winning at the awards last year.

Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour
Helping children and young people
Supporting culture, leisure and regeneration
Improving local housing
Improving Transport
Improving social care services
Council Group of the Year Award

The winner of the Council Group of the Year Award will be the Group that demonstrates the best overall work as a Lib Dem Council Group or Lib Dem controlled council.

Green Council Group of the Year Award

We would like to see you demonstrating how Lib Dem groups practice environmental awareness. You should also include a separate section specifically on action to tackle climate change.

Backbencher of the Year

This is the award to the back-bench councillor who has made the greatest contribution to their community and their council. Group leaders are free to nominate members of their group, supplying a short statement of why they should win the award.

Vice Presidents Award

This will be awarded to the group that is active, feisty, operating in difficult circumstances who the Vice Presidents consider worthy of special mention and recognition. This award is intended to recognise groups who would not otherwise seek such recognition.

How to enter

You will need to submit a note setting out what your group/member has done to qualify for each award you wish to apply for.

Each note should be no more than 4 sides of A4 paper, and may also be accompanied by up to 3 attachments, to a total of not more than an additional 6 sides of A4 per award. (A maximum of 10 sides of A4 per award)

All submissions and attachments must be in an electronic, print and email-ready format. Each set of files must be separated according to which award they are in application for. Please note we do not accept submissions in MS Publisher.

Submissions should be sent to Ed Fordham, LGA Liberal Democrats, Local Government House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HZ, together with the attached form, which must be signed by your Group Leader.

Should you have any specific queries, please contact the LGA Lib Dem Group office on 020 7664 3235 or email libdem@lga.gov.uk

The awards will be presented at the Liberal Democrat 2010 Spring Conference in Brimingham.

Download the Application Pack

Birmingham Opportunities

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100

This year's Liberal Democrat Spring Conference is in the City of Birmingham, 12-14 March 2010. The event is open to all Liberal Democrats. Day delegate rates are available if you are within a day's travel distance of Birmingham.

ALDC has a busy programme at the Conference, largely focussed on the important general and local elections that we face in a couple of months.

"Campaign Essentials" Training - focussed on winning in 2010
Winning in the Last Week (9.15am)
Maximising the Postal Vote (11.00am)
Running an Effective Polling Day (14.30pm)
8 Weeks to Go (16.00pm) (briefing from Andrew Stunell and Hilary Stephenson)

Councillor Training - helping develop our Councillors
Finding and Recruiting Good Councillors (9.15am)
Inducting and Mentoring new Councillors (11.00am)
Council Budgets in the New Era (ALDC and IDeA) (14.30pm)
Managing a Coalition (ALDC and IDeA) (16.00pm)

All training is free to attend and open to any member of the Liberal Democrats registered for Conference

ALDC Fringe Programme

Friday 12 March 2010
20.00-21.15 ICC Hall 6, Climate Change: Keeping up the Pressure
ALDC and LIberal Youth discuss how campaigners can keep up the pressure for real progress at Copenhagen II. Speakers include: Simon Hughes MP and Kirsty Schneeberger (UK Youth Climate Change Coalition).
Don't miss the Local Government Reception at 22.00 including the Council Group of the Year awards 2010.

Saturday 13 March 2010
13.00-14.00 ICC Hall 8A, Meet the Next Generation Councillors
Old meets new! We are bringing together established council leaders and the cohorts from the young and newly elected 'new generation' of Lib Dems in local government for a series of round table lunch discussions - join us! Lunch included.

18.15-19.30 ICC 7A, Winning in the Wards
876 Lib Dem Councillors face re-election in important local elections on 6 May 2010. Local Elections Chair, and General Election Campaign Vice-Chair Andrew Stunell MP, and Director of Campaigns Hilary Stephenson outline how Lib Dems are campaigning for success this May.

Come and meet us at the ALDC stand in the main exhibition hall, we're right next to the coffee and catering area at Stand numbers A16 and A19. Once again we're joined by our friends at the IDeA. ALDC and IDeA staff and mentors will be on hand to provide advice, information and practical help on the ALDC website and myCouncillor system.

Shame: One in Six By-Elections Uncontested in 2010

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:29:00 +0100

After last week’s slow start to the month, February’s electoral schedule gathered pace with a total of seven principal council by-elections and a pair of Town Council results reported to ALDC this week. Four of the seven were retained by their incumbent parties, and of the remaining three Labour and the Tories exchanged two, with the final being a Conservative gain at the expense of an Independent.

The pick of the results was our successful defence of Aylesbury Central ward of Aylesbury Vale District Council, in the Buckinghamshire constituency of Aylesbury. The campaign of Graham Webster polled more than 50% of the popular vote – a 20% majority over the Tories, for whom this ward was an important local target. A wide variety of Literature, and growing use of telephone canvassing and election software, add to the legacy benefits of a highly successful campaign. The Tories’ transparent attacks on the previous incumbent backfired on the doorstep, as their lurid allegations of corruption were exposed for what they were and depressed the Conservative vote by a further 6%.

Related to the Aylesbury Central defence was the valiant Lib Dem effort in Aylesbury’s Luffield Abbey Ward. With few resources on the ground, the campaign of Ian Metherell placed just twenty votes behind a ‘kitchen sink’ UKIP campaign featuring party leader, and now PPC for the area, Nigel Farage. A complacent Tory effort still succeeded in holding this very rural Buckingham ward.

The Labour hold in Easington Ward of Durham County Council was no great surprise, our emphasis in this ward being the development of a viable party organisation. With valuable assistance from Easington PPC Tara Saville, the Harrison campaign made the most of limited resources to peg a respectable third place in an area with historically minimal Liberal Democrat activity.

In Town Council terms Labour held in London Colney, despite some high-quality artwork from LD candidate Vibs Nazeri.

Two wards in Telford and Wrekin, College and The Nedge, went without Lib Dem candidates yesterday. We have now failed to stand a candidate in three out of eighteen by-elections in 2010. If we had failed to stand a similar number of PPCs at the 2005 election, then a total of 109 seats would have been completely uncontested. The ALDC’s advice on this will never change: always, always, always stand a candidate.

We must defend the arts against right-wing cuts

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:56:00 +0100

Keynes was both a serious Liberal and a serious man. His work in two world wars and their aftermath is the stuff of legend. His contribution to economic thinking, recently somewhat vindicated, makes him a giant. Bertrand Russell found him intellectually formidable.

But he also built the Cambridge Arts Theatre and was the first Chairman of the Arts Council, created by the postwar Labour Government.

It would be too easy to say merely that a great man needs a hobby like anyone else. The Classical world and civilisation since have shunned the suggestion that somehow culture was an add-on, like sitting down to watch the X factor after a tiring week. Greek culture was defined by Homer. The Romans (or at least the ones who wrote about these things) saw beyond ‘bread and circuses’.

So the gathering of cultural luminaries in the House of Lords last week was not, by any measure, just a ‘jolly’. Familiar faces from film, old rockers and young soul performers rubbed shoulders with television actors, impresarios and even a specialist in high fashion jewelry.

Jane Bonham-Carter had organised, with the assistance of Nick Clegg’s office, something which was as much a political statement as a chance to see and be seen. Yes: the Party was launching a policy statement ‘The Power of Creativity’. More importantly it was making a statement that the arts matter. And that cultural people can and should support the Liberal Democrats.

Nick’s speech, covered last week in brief on LDV, was especially significant. In it he gave a clear pledge to maintain arts funding at current levels – something increasingly doubtful in the other two main parties, bent on cuts while sparing the largest spending departments the trouble of even modest belt-tightening. He also reminded us that the cultural sector was capable of new industries like video games, in which we have a considerable competitive advantage.

Culture is not an add-on. Nor is it a Disney theme park. It is a vital part of the life of the nation and of local communities. So when a right wing think tank suggests that a cut of 50% in cultural spending would not be noticed and when local council budget-making targets the arts development officer rather than the costly managers to whom he or she reports, it is time to speak up loudly.

Nick did this and hundreds were there to hear him. Let us hope that the Federal Policy Committee, which likes to remind us of how important it is in producing the Party’s General Election manifesto, was listening.

This article was first published on Liberal Democrat Voice

Total Place - a real way forward

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:54:00 +0100

I hope by now that every Lib Dem Councillor knows something about Total Place. Although it is described as a Treasury idea that is not correct, although the Treasury are providing important backing for it. This was an idea that originated with the Leadership Centre for Local Government and has been enthusiastically supported by us. So what is it?

Total Place asks two basic questions:

How much does the public sector spend in totality on dealing with a problem?

What outputs and outcomes do we need to achieve if we are satisfactorily to deal with that problem?

Then it goes on to ask the killer question. If we need to achieve those outputs and outcomes with that money would we organise ourselves the way that we do now?

The answer to the third question is inevitably NO!

Let me give you one simple example. The output we want to achieve to reduce crime is to keep 20 year old men who leave prison from reoffending. Unfortunately 80% of them reoffend within two weeks and a very high proportion of them end up back in prison. To try and keep that man out of prison will involves the work of 13 different people from 9 different organisations. Although I don’t know yet how much money that involves common sense says it must be a very expensive way of achieving very poor outputs?

So the ultimate aim of Total Place will be to ensure that the public sector as a whole builds its services around the needs of the clients and communities they serve rather than around the needs of the servicing organisation. This is of paramount importance, of course, to the most deprived people and communities who depend on public services the most.

Our early findings are fascinating. Overtime a new layer of government, quango or agency is involved in a project 20% of their budget goes out in administration. By the time something happens on the ground only 50% of the sum promised by the Government may be sued to deal with a problem. Intuitively Lib Dems have always known this. It is why we have railed against the centralisation of government and the creation of quangos. Now we are getting the proof to match our assertions.

This is important work for councils who are taking the lead in the 13 official TP pilots and the 40+ unofficial ones. If we are to wrap services around communities and individuals then it is councillors and their staff who knows those individuals and communities best. This programme gives you the chance to shape the services that you know are needed. This gives us the chance to assert the primacy of local councillors in decision making about local circumstances.

BUT there are two possible problems. Are we good enough to take that lead? Coming up with hard evidence, innovative solutions and strong delivery across all the public sector in our area is not a skill that we possess in abundance at either officer or member level. Will the rest of the public sector let go. Already there are signs of institutional fight back as organisations forget the principles and seek to defend their budget and their staff.

A Total Place review across public sector services across London suggests that thinking through and merging or deleting structures could save £5 billion. Thus perhaps a saving of more than £50 billion across the UK as a whole. At a time of no growth for the foreseeable future just think what we could do with £50 billion realigned to the real needs of the community and not the posed needs of the providers.

Cllr Richard Kemp is Liverpool City Councillor for Church and
Leader of the Local Government Association Liberal Democrat Group

Where we mess up, we lose

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:01:00 +0100

There were four principal council elections held on the 4th February. The Tories held one seat. The Lib Dems held one seat but also lost two seats to Labour. There were three Parish council elections reported to ALDC.

Rarely, thankfully, do we have to report on an utter disaster, but that was the case in the Holmewood and Heath by-election in North East Derbyshire. In 2007 two Labour councillors were elected for the ward un-opposed. In fact they had been unopposed for the last 20 years and only Labour had ever been elected in this coal mining and largely council housing renting area. In April 2008 there was a by-election that we won with 42% and a 26 vote majority. Our sitting councillor resigned after 14 months non-attendance due to ill health and we failed to stand a candidate to defend the seat. The problem may have come from the ward switching from the North East Derbyshire constituency to Bolsover in the boundary changes but whatever the reason conceding without a fight borders on the politically criminal.

Further bad news came in the form of a loss to Labour in the Queens Park Ward of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. The Lib Dem’s in Blackburn form part of a joint administration. The seat was vacant beacuse the councillor resigned - he had been expelled from the Group for non-attendance and he subsequently resigned from the Council The council's weekly bin collections and Housing Market Renewal scheme were popular, its gritting and ensuing bin collection problems were not - particularly when polling day itself involved snow related traffic problems.

The line was finally drawn at the Whyteleafe Ward of Tandridge District Council in Surrey, where recently appointed PPC David Lee led the party to a successful defence. A general ‘anti’ vote drove the UKIP vote share well beyond the likely return on their limited campaign, and a half-hearted Tory effort failed to register dramatically. The Labour party failed to field a candidate. Creating a legacy of new canvass data, in addition to returning a Liberal Democrat Councillor to Tandridge DC, makes the Lee campaign a bright spot in an otherwise dreary February week.

The only other principal election this week was an unremarkable Conservative Hold in the Newchapel Ward of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council. The Tories held off UKIP by only 60 votes, an early indication, perhaps, of the electoral dangers currently facing the Conservatives in 2010’s new political climate.

Where should power lie in a devolved nation?

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:39:00 +0100

Liberal Democrats have always been clear on where political power should reside. We are democrats and we are instinctive supporters of decentralisation and empowerment. We trust people to make their own choices and to run their own lives, or do we?

A few years ago I sat on the Party’s commission to look at public services. It was an unwieldy body that struggled to find focus and despite the fact that it was tasked to produce federal policy it delivered instead pages of English-only imperatives that served only to pad out its main thesis, that we should be empowering local people not turning public services into a money-making venture for private entrepreneurs.

In many ways the public-private argument is superfluous to the thrust of this article. At the end of the day who delivers a service is secondary to who controls and directs it and why they are doing so. The big surprise for me in all the discussions on the public service commission was the reluctance of some very good liberals to propose that English Councils and English Regional Government take on responsibility for the delivery of many public services that are currently within the ambit of central government.

The argument was that it was inappropriate to devolve these services down even though many of them are already being delivered by the Welsh and Scottish Governments. It was the sort of reluctance that later characterised the very weak proposals put forward by John Prescott for North East England, a proposition that was so poor that it deservedly got the thumbs down in my opinion.

Here in Wales there is a different debate. We have a devolved administration with limited law-making powers. We are currently engaged in a process that will lead to a referendum on whether we acquire full law-making powers on those areas devolved to us or not. Actually it is more complicated than that but I do not want to bore you. Needless to say, even after that vote the Welsh Assembly will have fewer powers than the Scottish Parliament.

The debate we are all avoiding however, is where local government fits into this scenario. At the moment we are assuming that the newly empowered Welsh Assembly will just take the place of Westminster in the constitutional mix and that is very much how we have played it to date. But there is a wider debate as to what structures we need to deliver services to a nation of 3 million people and in particular whether 22 local councils and seven health boards are appropriate vehicles to spend the bulk of the Assembly’s £15 billion budget.

My view is that we most probably need bigger and fewer Councils but that the main debate should be around the democratisation and accountability of service delivery as much as its efficiency. Accountability drives efficiency. It is one reason why the Assembly does not actually deliver services itself but funds others to do so. However, as a body the Welsh Government is demonstrating an increasing propensity to interfere in the work of elected bodies and in doing so remove local accountability.

It seems to me that in a liberal model of devolved administration, the government makes the laws and locally elected bodies deliver the services at the most appropriate level and without the duplication we have now. Thus, if for argument’s sake we were to revert to eight Unitary County Councils it would be logical for them to take over the running of the health service in their area from the health boards.

Is it appropriate for wider economic and transport powers to be given to such Councils? Should we task them with control over further education as well as sixth forms? Should they take over the role of Cadw on heritage in their area? Would we want them to have greater powers in terms of the environment and biodiversity? And if we were to settle on a model of say 15 local Councils how would we treat them?

This is a debate that still has to take place in Wales and it is inextricably linked in with getting the structures right so that we can deliver economies of scale at the same time as accountability and transparency. Even in a small nation the National Assembly is too big to do most of this properly and yet even the Welsh Liberal Democrats do not yet have a clear idea of where we want to end up, even if our instincts are entirely the right ones.

Cllr Peter Black AM is Swansea Councillor for Cwmbwrla and

Welsh Assembly Member for South Wales West. He is also the

Welsh Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokesperson
peterblack.blogspot.com

Lib Dems Sweep through in Councillor of the Year Awards

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Liberal Democrats won three of the nine awards in the LGIU’s first Councillor of the Year Awards.

Alexis Rowell, from Camden, won the Sustainability Councillor of the Year award. He was described by judges as, “a “real terrier”; and noted that he is “someone who won’t let you forget about the climate change agenda. He is a very visible champion of these issues and his local persistence has made him well known in Camden and beyond.”

Alex Folkes from Cornwall, has won the New Councillor of the Year Award with judges saying, “that he was an impressive candidate and had made a clear difference to the council and political group. Alex has been active on scrutiny committees, an assiduous case worker and in such a short time, an effective local campaigner.”

Carla Butler from Lewes, has won the young councillor of the year award with judges saying, describing her as “someone special”, and they were impressed that, “she had achieved so much in the few years that she has been on the council, which includes serving as the youngest elected mayor of Newhaven and Chair of the Council”.

Cllr Richard Kemp, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Local Government has welcomed the news:

“All three of these councillors are young, energetic and thoroughly liberal. I know that other Lib Dems also came close in other categories which were judged by an all Party group of councillors and other local government experts. Our strength in this award ceremony bodes well for the future of both local government and liberal democracy. I hope Lib Dem groups and councils will consider joining LGIU not only because it clearly recognises Lib Dems but because it provides a first call service to councillors”.

PagePlus download now available

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:40:00 +0100

PagePlus - the desktop publishing software used by Liberal Democrat campaigners - is now available to download from the Serif website.

Previously, the software was available to purchase on disk only via the ALDC shop, however Serif have now discontinued the physical disks. Instead, Serif have agreed with ALDC and the Campaigns Department an exclusive offer where Liberal Democrat campaigners can now download the software instead.

To purchase and download the software, go to:
Liberal Democrat PagePlus download offer

Great start to the New Year

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:34:00 +0100

There were two principal council elections held on the 28th January. The Lib Dems held one seat and gained one from the Tories. In the only Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC the Tories held the seat.

The Great Bowden and Arden Ward of Harborough District Council in Leicestershire saw this year’s first by-election gain, at the expense of the Conservatives. Tory attacks fell flat when faced with candidate Phil Knowles’ wide experience of local issues and hard-working reputation established during his previous time as councillor. The campaign’s popular position on a touchstone local planning issue was further boosted by extensive media coverage following a visit by party President Baroness Ros Scott. Emphasising the importance of local issues and grassroots activism throughout, the Knowles campaign used regular Focuses, Street and Targeted mailing, and an extensive door-knocking in terrible weather to open our 2010 local elections with a resounding success.

Thursday saw the second by-election in the Lyngford Ward of Taunton-Deane District council in Somerset. In October last year another of our three seats in the ward was successfully defended in a by-election, so given that this was a disqualification this was another good result. Key to our success here was a lot of good preparation given that we knew a by-election was likely. In a cold winters campaign 47% of votes cast were postal and 67% of all postal voters voted. Lucky , then that we sent blue letters and knocked up our postal voters. Falling within Jeremy Browne’s Taunton constituency this was a second piece of good news following his successful appeal against his “Legg letter”. The Tory candidate didn’t bother to attend the count in October but was so confident that he was there to see them lose this time

MPs should keep out of local rag debate

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

MPs were debating what are sometimes called ‘council newspapers’ last week. None was supportive.

At first sight it is easy to see why. Administrations exploit the legislation which forbids party political propaganda on the rates. So long as the rag doesn’t actually say ‘Vote Conservative’ it is usually quite within the letter of the law. So a publication featuring mainly the leader of the council and only positive stories may irritate the opposition (and the voter) but will not cause the monitoring officer to stir.

But this isn’t why it is open season on these publications. Trinity Mirror and other regional publishers have started claiming that council magazines and newspapers are undermining the free local press.

Some MPs seem to have bought this: a cynic may be forgiven for thinking that they are merely trying to improve their local press coverage by denouncing (a) the council – usually a sure fire way of currying support – and (b) their dismal magazines.

The debate in Westminster Hall carefully avoided too many facts. Indeed the Audit Commission report on council periodicals was published only a few days later. This concludes firmly that there is no case to answer.

In particular:

While over 90 per cent publish a periodical almost all are published once a month or less frequently (in fact the majority are published quarterly or even less often); and
47 per cent contain private sector advertising – including those with very limited or occasional advertising.

It adds, however, that few periodicals are published sufficiently frequently to be viable media for most local advertising.

Local newspaper owners anyway have a tremendous cheek. The downturn in advertising is, of course, due both to temporary economic conditions and to a permanent change in technology. Property pages, for instance, were once a vital resource for a homebuyer. Now we use Google.

And they haven’t helped themselves. The distribution networks are ropey, with large areas, especially flats, left uncovered in any particular footprint. And the content is sometimes laughably poor: often, ironically, a council press release reprinted without challenge or investigation. Increasingly even local politics is left by the wayside as human interest stories predominate. Readers are bored and councils, obliged to get certain messages out by law, prefer to rely upon their own resources.

Opposition parties meanwhile have long realised that the Letters Page is for geeks and that their chances of a getting a message across are random – or, in too many cases, negligible because of the party political bias of the editor or publisher. We learned to rely on Focus because we could not rely on local papers.

That doesn’t mean that all council publications are a good thing. The Audit Commission warns about editorial content. But those of us who do object to what our local council does know that this is best done at local level and not by MPs whiling away the hours in Westminster.

Cllr Chris White is Hertfordshire County Councillor for St. Albans Central and

St. Albans City & District Councillor for Clarence
He is also a member of the ALDC Management Committee

chriswhite.mycouncillor.org.uk

This article was first published on Liberal Democrat Voice

Less than 100 days to polling day...

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

There was two principal council by-election held on the 21^st January. The Conservatives held the Erewash BC, West Hallam and Dale Abbey ward. In this by-election the Lib Dems came a very credible second place having not stood last time around, the result showed Gary Hamson the Liberal Democrat candidate polling 506 votes, which was a 37.6% of the vote share.

The second by-election was in the Airedale and Ferry Fryston ward of Wakefield MBC. The Liberal Democrat candidate Paul Kirby’s campaign team delivered a range of literature including Focuses and Blue letters, and there was some telephone canvassing that resulted in Paul receiving 603 votes an increase of 8.3%, moving in to second place above the BNP with Labour holding the seat.

There was just one Parish and Town council election result reported to ALDC, in the Lickhill ward of Calne TC. This result was in a ward were UKIP beat the Lib Dems into third place in 2007 election, which led to the Tories winning. Since then there has been three by-elections in Lickhill ward, which is the largest Town council ward and three great Lib Dem wins! If the Liberal Democrats win the Priestley by-election on Calne TC, which is being held on 11th February it will give the Lib Dems control of Calne TC.

With less than a hundred days to polling day, we all need to up our game in all campaigning whether it is in council or parliamentary elections, which could both, be on 6^th May. On ALDC’s website you will find all the templates and artwork examples you will need along with the campaigns department literature which will save you time and effort that you can use knocking on doors.

No offer is the right offer

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:44:00 +0100

Tomorrow night (27^th January) Liverpool City Council will adopt a council tax rate for the next financial year at exactly the same level as for the current year. A key component of that zero increase is the decision of the LGA and Local Employers to make no pay increase offer this year.

In the private sector there has been a gross drop in pay of more than 7% since the recession hit. This is a combination of no wages (jobs lost) or reduced wages by cuts in basic pay levels, perks or hours worked. Workers as a whole have felt great pain. By and large against this back drop public sector workers have not done to badly. The 1.4 million employed through local government negotiators have received at least a 3.25% increase with a bit more for those at the bottom and a bit less for those at the top. The remainder of the public sector have had an increase of at least 4.5%. So the LGA had to ask itself two questions when deciding what to do this year:

Is it morally justified to ask people whose pay and conditions have got worse to pay to safeguard pay and conditions for those who have done not brilliantly but OK?
How can we afford to keep going the services which are desperately needed by those in most need at a time when income of all sorts has fallen?

No-one wanted to take the step we did. We also recognise the unfairness of it. Teachers, whose pay is met through national negotiations but which come from the council budget will get 2%+ this year whilst school caretakers will get nothing. Our response is simple – we believe that the Government should not have kept to the three year pay plan which was agreed when times were better.

Looking ahead on public sector pay there is no good news. Labour will keep pay increases to 1% although we will soon see inflation at a rate of almost 3%. Tories don’t actually ahev a declared policy although they are making an alarming series of noises which I believe will mean major cuts to staffing levels and to public sector pay. Lib Dems have the Vince proposals of a maximum of £400 per year increase which applies to a cleaner as much to a chief executive. This clearly means that low paid will get a higher albeit modest increase proportionately than the higher paid. Not quite what I was suggesting but perfectly acceptable and definitely should now be supported.

Top employees salaries are now a mess. Again there are two questions to be asked a moral one and a practical one:

What the h**l do they need £150,000+ for? This applies to everyone. I don’t know what anyone does with that sort of money which far exceeds what any of us needs.
How do we operate in a market where there is considerable traffic from the public to the private sector and where there is clear evidence that senior staff could earn considerably more by making such a move?

In the short term the answers are obvious. There must be pay restraint and the restraint must be greater at the top. In the longer term society as a whole needs to work out why a banker is worth 50 times more than a nurse who might save your life.

Cllr Richard Kemp is Liverpool City Councillor for Church and
Leader of the Local Government Association Liberal Democrat Group

Power 2010 - Vote Now

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Power 2010 is a non-Party campaign to promote democratic change - find out more at their website - www.power2010.org.uk

Power 2010 are currently running a national "vote" to see what people's priorities are for democratic reform.

At the moment, "Stronger Local Government" is down in 7th place, so it could do with our votes!

If you want to get local government higher up the agenda for democratic reform, vote today at: www.power2010.org.uk/vote

Keep Up with our Councillor Columnists

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Over Christmas ALDC has been busy recruiting some volunteer Councillor Columnists, to write in the headline "editorial" section of our website www.aldc.org.

There are four online so far:

Cornwall Councillor Alex Folkes explains why Cornwall is Different.

Peter Black AM talks about the link between Wales and Local Government

Bury Councillor Richard Baum talks of his frustration with some Home Truths on Gritting

and Gateshead Councillor Jonathan Wallace tell us, well, a Day in the Life of Jonathan Wallace

Have a read, and feel free to comment or tell us or the Councillors what you think! - open to all Lib Dem Councillors as well as ALDC members.

Could you be a Councillor Columnist?
If you think you could do better we'd love to hear from you! We're basically asking for a commitment to write a monthly column about being a Liberal Democrat Councillor (or why not - a candidate or agent or staff member). All offers welcome, but it would be great to hear from more women councillors, group leaders, executive members, BME councillors political assistants, young councillors, new candidates - anyone with something interesting to say!

Email Anders at anders.hanson@aldc.org or speak to him on 01422 843 785.

Interviews, grills and pledges: Thursday in action

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

The last time I did a big interview for the BBC, it wasn't broadcast, despite having put in a large amount of work and research for the programme (it was Panorama over a year ago - I was interviewed about opencast mining). I am a bit more hopeful that the interview I did this morning will be broadcast. It was for the BBC Politics Programme, North East edition. Mark Denten interviewed me about how the proposed conference centre for Gateshead will be paid for. I'm not going to go into the details of it now. I'll save it for another day. I feel a little more confident that this interview will be broadcast. Fingers crossed for Sunday. The programme starts on BBC1 at midday.

The 2 photos above were taken at the interview. In the 2nd one, it looks like I'm playing the air guitar! Maybe I thought I was performing at the nearby Sage Concert Hall!

Inevitably I took an interest in the camera they were using. Meanwhile, Mark asked me if all my stories on my blog about jam making and growing our own food was spin. Sadly, it is all for real! And with 5 tonnes of manure due shortly for our allotment, this politician for one will be up to his eyeballs in muck shortly!

Then to the Civic Centre where a group of children from Fellside Primary School grilled us on life as a councillor. We were told to expect questions about what time we get up in the morning and when do we eat dinner. We ended up instead with questions about whether we need qualifications (Council Deputy Leader Ian Mearns said no but pointed to me - as the only Doctor in the Council village - saying that I had a bagful of them: "Not sure if they have helped me!" I joked); what age do you have to be to stand; is it a privilege to be a councillor and what are our greatest achievements (I think mine was to survive the grilling!)

Shortly before full council we did the next part of our promotion of healthy lifestyles. We had to write on a note something we were pledging to change in our lifestyles to make us healthier. The note then went on to a display where everyone could read it. I announced I was giving up nibbling between meals. So out go the cheese, chocolate shortcake (with caramel), salami (yes, I confess, one of my favourite nibbles, but they are very very thin!) and other such foods. Eating is to be done at meal times, unless it's health fruit etc.

Photos below - my ward colleagues Cllr John McClurey and Cllr Marilynn Ord and I agree to change our lifestyles for something healthier:

Cllr Jonathan Wallace is Gateshead Councillor for Whickham South & Sunniside Ward
jonathanwallace.blogspot.com

A day in the life of Cllr Jonathan Wallace

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

I was in the bizarre situation yesterday of walking to a meeting in the morning in Gateshead because it was quicker that using any vehicle on the roads. I was supposed to be in Gateshead at 9am. I am taking part in a health promotion drive with other councillors and it starts with a health check. That was my 9am meeting. The bus I got from Sunniside took me as far as the Teams when I decided that the traffic was so congested it was time to put my legs into action and walk the rest of the route. The last I saw of the bus was when I got to the end of the Redheugh Bridge. I could see it in the distance, barely moved from the bus stop where I had decided to get off.

I was of course late by then. Arrival time was not helped by my turning up at completely the wrong place for the health check. For some reaon I have St Mary's visitor centre next to the Tyne Bridge as the venue. People there knew nothing about it. A phone call to the Civic Centre and I discovered it was meant to be in the Old Town Hall. Fortunately not too far to walk but I was now running very late. The health check was rushed through so I could get to a 10am meeting in the Civic Centre. For any political opponents hoping the health check showed me at death's door, I am sorry to disappoint them. Apart from a need to marginally reduce my waistline, I am in fine health, ready to do battle!

The reason for the visit to the Civic Centre was to attend planning committee and represent Councillor Peter Maughan who was opposing a planning application to build a house on the old farm on Whickham Highway. Peter had been called away on business so he kindly offered the task to me! Such was the ferocity of my argument and the skill with which I presented Peter's case opposing the application in such a superbly convincing way that the application was agreed unanimously!

Back home for a bit of news release writing. And for the foodies amongst you, I also plucked and gutted a pheasant, given to us by one of the other allotment holders. A few jars of homemade jam and chutney will be winging their way to him shortly.

Having ripped the innards out of this formerly feathered friend, I was in the mood to head back to Gateshead Civic Centre for some politics and a group meeting to decide on motions for council next week. I had a vague idea about a motion about holding general election counts on the day after polling day, following the "vile" claims by Labour chief bruiser Nick Brown MP that suggested the Lib Dems are politically corrupt. But my idea was as popular in the group as Gordon Brown is at a Labour love-in so I didn't push it. Given that it was barely a twinkle in my eye, never mind a fully formulated motion, I didn't feel I had wasted any time on it. We opted instead for a motion on the impact of the recent winter weather.

After the group, I went along the corridor to the Gateshead Lib Dem executive meeting and gave my media and communications report. Mention was made of the coverage I got on the non-demolition of the Gateshead Multi-Storey Car Park (known for its starring role on the Michael Caine classic "Get Carter"). This same coverage had ruffled one or two feathers amongst some Labour members, one of whom before Christmas had made a passing remark to me in a corridor in the Civic Centre. At least then I was only ruffling feathers, not plucking them!

My day ended back home when we decied to watch the 2nd dvd of "Victorian Farm" which included a bit about pheasant shooting and cooking. Ideas have now been generated for forthcoming dinners!

Cllr Jonathan Wallace is Gateshead Councillor for Whickham South & Sunniside Ward
jonathanwallace.blogspot.com

Defections galore

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:13:00 +0100

This week we can report three defections to the Liberal Democrats in key councils around the country.

The first is the decision by Cllr Brian Haley, the Labour Cabinet Member for the Environment in the London Borough of Haringey, to quit his post and join the Liberal Democrats. Haringey is a key council for the Liberal Democrats with Lynne Featherstone as one of the MPs in the area and with Labour holding a tiny overall majority on the council. To attract such a senior councillor is a real coup for the party in the area.

The second and third defections are the husband and wife team Keith and Diane Bennett who have left the Conservatives on Cannock Chase District Council and joined the Liberal Democrats. They are both chairs of council committees and will be a welcome addition to our growing council group. The Liberal Democrats are the largest party on the council and also hold the leadership.

Unfortunately, a defection has also taken place in the opposite direction with Cllr David Theobald of the London Borough of Sutton moving from the Liberal Democrats to the UK Independence Party (via a week spent as an Independent).

Thank you to Cllr Matt Davies, Cllr Tony Williams and David Boothroyd respectively, for the information.

Top priorities for new Tory MPs

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

A new survey by ConservativeHome has show what political priorities the party's potential new MPs are likely to have. The survey interviewed 250 candidates from the Conservative party's most winnable seats. The results are telling and perhaps show up the dividing line between the two parties more starkly than anything else

Whilst Liberal Democrats might not disagree that "reducing the budget deficit" should be a top priority, it is the items that were placed at the bottom of the list that are the most interesting. In bottom position with just eight candidates saying it is a top priority is reducing Britain's carbon footprint - something that would no doubt be near the very top for any Liberal Democrat candidate, and doesn't say much for Cameron's greenwash of the Conservative party. Other issues that languish near the bottom are many that are of interest to Liberal Democrats in local government - affordable housing, schools and better road and rail services. Again, all areas which the Liberal Democrats would be likely to prioritise.

Whilst many of the top priorities may be popular with both Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, these are the sorts of issues that are probably popular with supporters of the other parties too. But areas such as winning powers back from Europe, cutting red tape and strengthening Britain's military would be much lower down the list for Liberal Democrats.

The main results of the survey are shown below, but you can also read the full story about it on Conservative Home.

Lib Dems shortlisted for Councillor of the Year Awards

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Congratulations to the Liberal Democrats who have been shortlisted in various categories for the Councillor of the Year awards, run by the Local Government Information Unit and CCLA.

Warren Bradley (Liverpool) – Leader of the Year
Carla Butler (Newhaven) – Young Councillor of the Year
Alexis Rowell (Camden) and Paul Tilsley (Birmingham) – Sustainability councillor of the year
Alex Folkes (Cornwall) and Dennis Meredith (Northants) – New Councillor of the Year
Daisy Benson (Reading) and Alex Perkins (Canterbury) – Online Councillor of the Year
Tracy Ismail (Islington) – Community Champion of the Year

Good luck to all of them and you can find the full details of all the shortlists here. Thank you also to Liberal Democrat Voice for the news.

Home truths on gritting

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Three things happened at Christmas which I found depressing. Firstly, after explicit instructions to the contrary, a relative who shall remain nameless (though not blameless...) purchased for me the DVD of Michael McIntyre’s stand up comedy tour, despite me finding him about as funny as a compound fracture. Second, the Christmas turkey was woefully mis-cooked despite my best efforts. And finally, every day for a week either side of the big day I was on the receiving end of ever-angrier phone calls from residents busy tumbling about on icy pavements and falling head first into snow drifts.

The first two of these problems have been sorted. Oxfam have benefitted from the DVD, and next year I’ll have a frozen ready meal for one and go back to bed. But the problem of what to do when it snows remains, because as an opposition Councillor it puts me in a quandary.

Opposition Councillors have three roles – to scrutinise the Executive, to lead communities, and to represent the people in their wards. It’s all fine and dandy when all those things pull in the same direction. When the Executive want to close down our library, we can represent the will of the community and lead the campaign to keep it open, whilst working at the Town Hall to scrutinise the whole thing. But when it snows outside and the Council keep all the main roads open, how can a good Councillor perform all three of his roles when there’s a bloke on the phone threatening to lob snowballs through his window unless a gritter is sent down his cul-de-sac before lunchtime?

It’s a tough one, made harder still because taking a stand against a resident you think is being unreasonable might be risky in electoral terms. It’s all well and good explaining to the angry man on the phone that five new gritting trucks would mean a million pound Council Tax rise, but it often doesn’t work. And if he turns out to have lots of friends, lots of money and access to a leaflet-printing machine, then we may have a problem on our hands come election day.

At times like these I always like to turn to the book of football clichés for advice. It works for election nights, when I am always reminded of the phrase “A Game of Two Halves” before they start counting the postal votes and we snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (or vice versa). For this problem, I have chosen the old adage “Form is temporary but class is permanent.” As Councillors, we all won the last election, so our form is good. But what’s the point of winning if we have to lie to voters to keep them on side? There are times when some home truths are necessary – and for me the snowy weather was one of them. Yes, it’s annoying that not every side-street gets gritted and that the pavements are slippy for a couple of weeks. But on the whole Councils have done OK, and it’s a good lesson in priorities and tough choices. As opposition Councillors we can promise to do two things – make very sure that everything was done right, and where it wasn’t make sure it’s done right next time. Beyond that, we weren’t elected as nannies, so we’re all in this together.

I hope that’s the classy response. Either way I’ve probably lost that angry man’s vote!

Cllr Richard Baum is Bury Councillor for St. Mary's Ward
richardbaum.mycouncillor.org.uk/

Solid Start

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

There was one principal council by-election held on the 7th January. The Lib Dem held the seat. There were no Parish and Town council election results reported to ALDC.

In the Woodfield Ward on Harrogate council in the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency we ran a professional campaign that you would expect in a held parliamentary seat to regain a seat lost by defection to the Tories. The defection in October 2008 had also handed overall control of the council to the Tories so it was nice to see it reversed. Technically the result is a Lib Dem hold but it deprives the Tories of their overall majority on the council leaving the balance Tories 27, Lib Dems 21 and Ripon Independents 6. It also builds on our success last June when we won back the Bilton Nidd Gorge ward of North Yorkshire County Council which the defector had also held.

Whilst the Tory vote increased it was pleasing to see both the BNP and Labour falling back. The BNP ran an active campaign that included the Yorkshire’s BNP MEP both on the streets and at the count – perhaps it was counter productive? Labour did little in a ward in which they were a getting over 30% in 2005 and fell behind the BNP to fourth place. The Tories ran a strong campaign with four “In Touch” leaflets and target mail and were evidently disappointed at the count not to do better in ward they’d rarely worked in previously.

Key to victory was a strong postal vote campaign as around 40% of the votes cast were from postal voters in the extremely challenging snow and ice.

A nice birthday present for Nick Clegg!

Find a loo

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

A website has been launched by Andrex which allows people to search for public toilets in their area.

It also lets people search for public toilets near them and to rate ones they've used. It's a useful service and would be a good thing to publicise to residents in Focus leaflets or on councillor websites, particularly in areas where the local council website, (which is often not the place people would think of going), doesn't provide the information conveniently.

Anyone can add new toilets or rate existing ones, and it'd also be good to get some councillors adding in the toilets they know about in their ward.

You can find the site at www.AndrexOnTheGo.com

Sir Chris Clarke Memorial Service

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:35:00 +0100

A memorial service is to be held for Sir Chris Clarke, the former Leader of Somerset County Council, who died in December 2009. You are invited to join others to remember Chris at a service of thanksgiving and a celebration of Chris' life and work.

The service will be held on 5th February 2010 at 2pm in Wells Cathedral. After the service there will be tea and a chat in the Town Hall, Wells, BA5 2RB.

LGA Lib Dem Group Budget Briefing Cancelled

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:23:00 +0100

The LGA Lib Dem Group has issued the following message cancellling the above event for tomorrow (7 January 2010).

I am afraid to tell you that, due to the worsening weather conditions, Gerald Vernon-Jackson no longer feels confident that he will be able to make it to London from Portsmouth tomorrow and has therefore asked that we cancel this event. Apologies for the short notice, but we thought it best to cancel at this point rather than ask everyone to travel in for what would be a severely truncated agenda.

I will send round any materials that I can gather from the speakers, the accounts department will be refunding all those who have already paid in due course.

Wales and local government

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:56:00 +0100

The relationship between the Welsh Assembly and Local Government has often been a fraught one with many ups and downs over the last ten years. When the Government of Wales Act was passed in 1998 many local council leaders were suspicious and wary. Their view was if we are to have devolution then why not devolve powers straight to local government. After all Wales had had unitary authorities since 1996 what was the point in recreating another tier of government? They had a point.

The consequence of that attitude was that for the first term at least the Welsh Government trod very carefully around the sensitivities of councils, ensuring that there were proper protocols in place, consulting on all decisions and delivering some of the best financial settlements Councils have seen for some time, without capping. It helped that Welsh Liberal Democrats formed part of that administration of course.

The second Assembly term, in which Labour ran things as a minority administration was much the same but there was evidence of a hardening attitude towards Councils along the line of the previous Welsh Office and by the third Assembly it was business as usual.

Ministers now talk about initiatives that are far more centralising in effect, such as dictating what charges will be set by Councils for personal care. They talk tough at budget time and threaten capping and within the Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition there is even talk of taking powers off Councils, of directly funding schools, of giving social services to unelected health boards and of getting rid of Councils that do not meet favour.

All of this is made easier of course by the disappearance of Labour’s monopoly in local government. Welsh Liberal Democrats for example help run 12 of the country’s 22 local authorities. But the overriding impression is that the brave new world brought on by devolution is behind us, that being in government in a small country with limited powers causes Ministers to look elsewhere for ways to run people’s lives and that as a result local authorities in Wales are under threat of emasculation.

It has not come to that yet of course but the danger is there and it grows even bigger the longer the two great centralising parties of Wales, Labour and Plaid Cymru remain in government.

Cllr Peter Black AM is Swansea Councillor for Cwmbwrla and

Welsh Assembly Member for South Wales West. He is also the

Welsh Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokesperson
peterblack.blogspot.com

ALDC office closed, but advice still available

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Due to today's heavy snowfall across the North of England, the ALDC office in Hebden Bridge is closed today (5th January 2010) and all staff are working from home.

Advice service still available

However, if you do need need to speak to a member of ALDC's political staff then please complete our online form and someone will get back in touch with you as soon as possible.

Alternatively, try using our new improved search facility for your query in the top right hand corner of our website, as the information you need may already be available to ALDC members.

Conservatives - Losing Here

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:20:00 +0100

2009 has been the best year for Lib Dem success against the Tories in local government by-elections in this parliament.

There is an old Lib Dem adage “Where we work we win” and this seems to be the initial conclusion of ALDC’s analysis of the 2009 principal local by-elections. With 17 net gains we have had our best year since we made 17 gains in 2006.

The difference in 2009 was that we made 11 net gains off the Tories, helping them to 25 net losses for the year. In 2006 we had net losses of 3 to the Tories but offset this by making 16 net gains off “others” – largely rural independents. In 2009 there were fewer Independents defending; 23 rather than 46 in 2006. In addition the Independents improved their defence rate from a mere 20% in 2006 to around 50% in 2009.

Whilst we have not yet done a full and more detailed analysis of the results (see January’s Campaigner for this) we believe a number of factors to be at play in these results. The theory that “anti-politics” mood would herald success for Independents and smaller parties has not been borne out in real elections. Party organisation really does matter. Without making predictions about the general election the clear message is that doing it by the book works.

Any ALDC member can subscribe to our free By-Elections email - the first, and most comprehensive local by-election report every Friday lunchtime. When you're logged on to the ALDC website manage your account here.

Cornwall - it's different

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0100

I would imagine that most Lib Dem councillors only have experience of one council (or at least, only of councils in a particular area). And so we fondly imagine that most authorities must work in the same broad way as our own. Having worked as a Section 9 political assistant for two very political London boroughs, I imagined that my own home county of Cornwall would be similar. Nope. We have independents, we have too many councillors and too many pointless meetings and we 'don't do politics'.

Back in June the Lib Dems didn't do too well in Cornwall. The old County administration actually did most things right but got the crucial bit about communicating that work horribly wrong. And so we came out of the first unitary elections with just 38 of the 123 seats. Yep, you read that right - 123 councillors each representing single member wards. To win overall control, we would have had to have a group larger than the Parliamentary Party.

The good news was that the Tories didn't win overall control either - with 50 seats. There were 32 independents - of whom 31 decided to operate as a group and to go into coalition with the Tories - and three Mebyon Kernow councillors. Not a single Labour member was elected and the former MP for Falmouth and Camborne got just 254 votes, coming third in the ward in which she stood.

Our biggest concern going into the election was that the council would be officer controlled. So we spent a long time (probably a bit too long) sorting out a manifesto and delivery plan to hand to officers on day one. Of course, we never got that chance. The Conservatives asked us to join a rainbow coalition to run the council 'for the good of the people of Cornwall'. We chose not to take them up on that offer. Not because we wanted to be pointlessly oppositionist (if that's a word), but because we believed that whoever was in control, they needed decent scrutiny and alternative ideas put forward.

Taking this course of action has, however, meant that we have been denied any seats of power at all. Of course we are not in the cabinet. But we have no scrutiny, planning or licensing committee chairs or vice chairs either and there are a plethora of 'panels' which sometimes try to exclude us altogether.

In London, I was used to watching robust political debate on just about everything. Here in Cornwall, that is an extremely rare thing. There is a desire to get consensus wherever possible and, whilst admirable in intent, it can lead to not taking any risks or not taking a decision at all. It means that in many cases officers take the lead and go unchecked. We're working hard to battle against this tendency, but the constitution is set up in such a way as to restrict opportunities for debate whilst, perversely, encouraging more and more meetings.

I said earlier that we went into the election with a definite manifesto. The Conservatives didn’t and so we asked early on for their plans for the Council. We especially wanted to know how the demands of the Independents in coalition would be dealt with. We now have a draft of the Council's business plan but no political manifesto and nothing concrete to judge them against. Perhaps they are playing safe, but I suspect they will rue the decision. With no stated ambitions there is drift. The first acts of the new administration were to vote through a review of allowances, to put all localism on hold and to reject a call to sign up to the 10:10 campaign.

Seeking consensus means that the budget process is much more open than was the case in London. We already have draft proposals for this year and the three that follow. But surely a sharper political mind within the Conservative camp would have realised that closing public toilets, introducing fortnightly rubbish collections and cutting community grants wouldn't sit well with voters, particularly when also pushing for a £16,000 taxi budget for the Council Chairman.

That’s where we stand at the moment. Next time (if ALDC allow me another column) I’ll talk about our efforts to bring decision making closer to the people.

Alex Folkes is Cornwall Councillor for Launceston Central
lansonboy.blogspot.com

Tell us Your Candidates!

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0100

New Years Day is 125 days to the important local elections in London and much of the rest of England on 6 May 2010. We do not need to tell you that these are vital elections for both the Liberal Democrats and the people that we represent and campaign for.

Candidate Support Programme - For the first time we'll be sending out a Liberal Democrat "Candidates Handbook" in January free to all Lib Dem candidates in the local electons. It will contain all the essential advice that candidates need about elections, staying on the right side of the law, campaign planning, and crucially where to go for more help. This is being accompanied by monthly Election Briefing emails

But we can only send the information if we have the candidates. Register your candidates this weekend online here.

Advice and Support - We are here to provide advice and support for all Liberal Democrats on anything to do with elections - election law, campaign techniques, procedures - or anything to do with being a councillor. Ask for advice online (we have a same day/next morning policy for all advice requests) or phone us 9.15-5.15 during the week on 01422 843 785. ALDC members of course have an enhanced advice service with access to online resources and information.

Templates and Campaign Ideas - as the election gets nearer we will be continuing to provide ALDC members with weekly campaign ideas, templates, council motions and best practice artwork - if you're not a member you should be!

Sir Chris Clarke OBE 1941-2009 - An Obituary

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Sir Chris Clarke dedicated decades of his life to the simple task of helping people make the most of their own lives and in particular to giving society’s less fortunate the chances they need to escape the traps of their misfortune, whether imposed by poor education, ill health or just a social environment that offered too little hope.

Chris also played a leading role in the renaissance of British liberalism, helping to build the party’s heartland in the South West of England. He was (as a Councillor for 22 years and Leader of Somerset for 8 years) a terrific exponent of community politics, making Somerset a beacon for the localised form of politics that the Liberal Democrats put to such potent use, first in making huge gains in local government elections and then in taking an unprecedented number of parliamentary seats, generally based on their local successes.

For Chris Clarke though electoral success was not the purpose of politics. His own motivation was always to make a real difference to the lives of ordinary people. Political commentators were quick to see the significance of the Lib Dem gains that saw them take control of Somerset County Council in 1993. Combined with the by-election shocks in Newbury and Christchurch, the writing was on the wall for a domino effect where the Conservatives would lose their local power-bases and then their Parliamentary seats to the Liberal Democrats across the Shire Counties.

The significance of the victory in Somerset was not lost on Chris Clarke, but from the outset he and his colleagues were driven by what they could do for the County. What followed became further beacons to inspire Lib Dems around the country. The new administration, led by Chris, invested heavily in education and social services, determined as they were to give young people a better start in life and open opportunities for people to live life to its full potential.

For many, this era was the Lib Dem golden age. Led by Paddy Ashdown in Westminster and with real power on the ground through local government leaders like Chris Clarke, the party exuded new confidence and credibility, matching their fizz of policy ideas to a record of action in public office. The party’s focus was on making a difference through a patchwork of ground-breaking, innovative, local ideas. Somerset, time and again, was the beacon of good practice.

It was clear to Chris that more needed to be and could be done. This underlay his determination to organise South West local authorities into the South West Regional Assembly, to work harder at maximising the potential of local governance. No surprise then that his energy, drive, patience and warm, natural charisma soon led him to lead the new Assembly.

As the leading voice for Somerset and the South West, Chris inevitably got more involved in national politics, pressing the case for more to be done both for the region and for what had become his main focus, the disadvantaged. Chris was always tremendously popular with his Liberal Democrat colleagues around the country. It wasn’t long though before he had earned respect across all the parties and among government officials. So it was no surprise when in 2001, Chris became the leader of the Liberal Democrats’ local government base through the Local Government Association. He was already leading a cross party and cross government programme to improve social inclusion, bringing local and central government together to pursue a common agenda around Chris’ most passionate cause.

Chris also devoted considerable personal energy to securing better funding for local public services, through significantly improved government grant and through a fairer local tax system. The tax system unfortunately remains largely intact (though not in Scotland, where reform won through), but the difference that was made to local services such as schools, thanks to billions of pounds of additional investment is now very clear to see.

In 2005 Chris stood down as a County Councillor and moved to Gloucestershire. He withdrew from party politics but remained fully engaged in public life and his efforts to improve public services continued. Chris took on the role of Chair of South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust and until his death was acting Chair of Arts Council South West. Through his support for the Arts, Chris secured funding to support the Bristol based digital art project, Submerge, which gives young people hoping to build careers in digital media the chance to display their talent.

In addition to his long career in public life, Chris Clarke worked as a marketing and general business management expert in private industry, including 19 years working for Clarks (no relation), the international shoe company.

Chris was awarded an OBE in 2001 and then a Knighthood, in 2005, for services to local government. He described his visit to the Palace to pick up his award, surrounded by his family, as one of the happiest days of his life.

All who knew Chris will remember him as a great liberal, a hard working councillor, and as a disarmingly modest man driven by a passion for helping others, whose dry humour and sharp mind won friends and influenced people, in the best possible way.

Chris was also a devoted and protective family man and is survived by his wife Liz and children Tim and Angela. Also by his first wife Sheila.

Sir Chris Clarke was born 24th March 1941 and died on 15th December 2009, aged 68.

Written by Nick Rijke: ndrijke@hotmail.com

Lib Dem Children & Young People Conference

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The Liberal Democrat Group in the Local Government Association is organising another residential conference for Children's and Young People's services. It is being held at the National College for School Leadership's Learning and Conference Centre in Nottingham on 5th-6th February 2010.

This event is recommended for all Liberal Democrats with an interest in education, children and young people's services, but especially for portfolio holders or opposition spokespeople in these areas. It will be attended by leading Liberal Democrat councillors from across the country, as well as the party's parliamentary spokespeople on education.

More details, including the price and a booking form is available as a PDF from the LGA Lib Dem Group website.

Winning in Warrington

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:52:00 +0100

We achieved an amazing 63% of the vote in a parish council by-election in Great Sankey. This parish is in the key parliamentary seat of Warrington South and this will be a boost to Jo Crotty’s chance of becoming their next MP. The by-election was called by the Conservatives who were confident of taking the seat from us. However we ran an intensive campaign of regular leaflets, good mornings and blue letters. We also made special efforts with the postal vote and this proved crucial with roughly 50% of those voting doing so by post – important on what was a very cold polling day.

Earlswood and Whitebushes is a former Lib Dem held ward just south of the town of Redhill in Surrey. Since we lost the seat it has gained a reputation for close by-election contests. This time we came within 78 votes of beating the Conservatives, with the same candidate having lost by just 41 votes two years ago. With a keen campaign team in the borough, lets hope that next time we finally make it.

Christmas

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC's office is closed from the end of Wednesday 23 December 2009, and will re-open in the morning of Monday 4 January 2009.

An answer-phone will take messages, but these will not be checked until the new year.

If you have any urgent queries, please use the advice form on this website, which will be checked periodically, and very urgent issues dealt with accordingly.

The MyCouncillor system is being maintained through the holiday period. If you experience any urgent issues please use the advice form above.

Can we take the opportunity to wish all our members and friends a

VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

AND BEST WISHES FOR 2010

Lib Dems take overall control of Cheltenham

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Liberal Democrats have taken overall control of Cheltenham Borough Council, thanks to the defection of a Conservative councillor to our group. We previously ran the council under no overall control.

Councillor Klara Sudbury is both a borough councillor and a Gloucestershire County Councillor and will now join both the party and our groups on both councils.

In a statement, Cllr Sudbury said:

"However, I have been impressed by the work of the town’s Liberal Democrat MP Martin Horwood who has been a hard working and dedicated MP for the town for nearly five years. The Liberal Democrats have taken the lead on many local issues such as defending Cheltenham railway station from the threat of a Parkway station at Elmbridge Court and protecting services for the town’s most vulnerable people. I also fully support their proactive approach in fighting to save the town’s green spaces and Green Belt from inappropriate development."

Welcoming her to the group, Liberal Democrat council leader Cllr Steve Jordan said:

"Klara has a well deserved reputation as a campaigner on many local issues and I am very pleased that she would like to continue those campaigns as a member of the Liberal Democrat group. I warmly welcome her application to join us. Councillors represent all their constituents of whatever political persuasion and I’m sure Klara will continue to do an excellent job for local people"

Sir Chris Clarke

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Liberal Democrats in local government throughout England have been saddened by the news of the premature death of Sir Chris Clarke the former Leader of the Liberal Democrats at the LGA.

Chris served as leader from 2001 to 2005. He served originally as an SDP councillor in Richmondshire before moving to Somerset where he eventually became Leader of Somerset County Council.

He was awarded a knighthood for services to local government in 2005 after failing to gain a seat on Gloucestershire County Council when he moved there to live with and later marry Liz who survives him. He described his visit to the Palace to pick up his award surrounded by his family as one of the happiest days of my life.

Cllr Richard Kemp said, "We will remember Chris as a great liberal, a hard working councillor and a person whose dry humour brought life to many an interminable meeting on arcane matters of local government finance and administration".

Liz hopes to have a quiet family funeral but intends to hold a public memorial service in the New Year. Details will be circulated to the Lib Dem family when these are known.

Government puts housing benefit cut on hold

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:51:00 +0100

A government proposal to claim back £15 a week from housing benefit claimants has been put on hold following an outcry from recipients and a campaign by a number of Liberal Democrat councils.

At present, if a housing benefit claimant finds a property to rent at less than the rate of housing allowance set by the council, they can keep up to £15 of the difference. However, the Labour Government had tried to scrap this scheme in April, which would have hit those on the lowest incomes the hardest. However, the government has now been forced to put off this cut until at least 2011.

More details from the BBC

Hypocrite Humphrys’ bonus bunk

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:23:00 +0100

John Humphrys was sounding pleased with himself on the Today Programme the other day. Nothing unusual there, you might say. He was attempting to skewer a minister because civil service managers at the UK Border Agency were being paid a bonus.

At first hearing it seemed as though they were each getting in excess of £300,000 for doing their own job. It was only on careful hearing that it became apparent that the figure was the total bonus pool and that the bonuses amounted to little more than £10,000 a piece.

The justification for the payments was that they were clearing up the chaos of immigration files left by predecessor organisations. The proper line of questioning was: why did the Government manage its affairs so poorly? But the thrust of the interview was that here were public servants pulling one over on the taxpayer.

The hypocrisy is breathtaking. Today Programme celebrities can pull in that sort of money in a few – probably very few – speaking engagements. Their celebrity status has been earned at the licence payers’ expense. Their employer, the BBC, has itself become notorious for excessive salaries to senior managers who work in an organisation largely protected from commercial risk. It also blows millions on Ross dross TV.

The tests, surely, of whether bonuses or large salaries are acceptable are: (1) is the activity being rewarded desirable and (2) are the salaries determined in a free labour market?

Apply these tests to the UK border agency and the answer is that they bonuses are probably reasonable. If we apply them, by contrast, to the salaries of Chief Executives of councils then there is an element of doubt.

The tabloid press (itself prone to pay some very large salaries) suggests that no public servant should be paid more than the Prime Minister. This is superficially attractive until you remember that the majority of a prime minister’s earnings come after he or she leaves office. Blair, despite or because of his treachery over the Iraq War, is earning millions. So the comparison is disingenuous.

Apply the tests: is it desirable to have competent people running councils? Yes: a badly run council can literally kill people. Is it a free market? Probably not free enough. Councillors who set these salaries check what their main rivals are paying. Their main rivals will then do the same when they in turn come to set salaries and so remuneration levels tend to get bidded up.

And bankers? Apply the tests again. Desirable activity? Definitely not: by all means spend all your time in a casino but don’t come and demand a subsidy from me when you lose all your chips.

Is the market free? The bankers’ bonuses are affordable all and only because of state intervention. So letting them keep even 25% of their 2009 bonuses is far too generous.

Cllr Chris White

This post originally appeared on Liberal Democrat Voice

Were We Work We Win!

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:15:00 +0100

There were ten principal council by-elections held on the 10th December. The Lib Dems gained two seats from the Tories but lost one to Labour and held one. Labour took two seats off the Tories, one off the Lib Dems, one from the BNP and held one.

The Tories held two seats. In the five Parish and Town council election result reported to ALDC the Tories held one seat but lost a seat to the Lib Dems and another to an Independent. There was one hold for Labour and another for Independents.

The first gain off the Tories was in the Tavistock South ward of West Devon BC with a 33.5% increase in vote share off a very complacent Tory party who only delivered two leaflets and not to all properties in the ward. The Lib Dem campaign consisted of several Focuses, targeted blue letters, lots of telephone and doorstep canvassing and a concerted effort with the postal voters, showing again where we work we win.

The second gain off the Tories was in (ward number 3) of East Dunbartonshire UA Bearsden South, where we won at the third stage count in this STV election with 1770 against the Tories 1499 votes.

Details:

Stage 1:
Ashay Ghai LD 1110
Rachel Higgins Con 1261
Fiona Grace McLeod SNP 783
Manjinder Shergill Lab 626

Stage 2 elimination of Shergill:
LD 1381
Con 1306
SNP 902

Stage 3 elimination of McLeod:
LD 1770
Con 1499

This ward is in the Parliamentary seat of Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson, who has worked the whole constituency hard. One of the good things to come from this by-election is that after losing control of the council in 2007 the local party have used this by-election to give new impetus to the campaign for the 2012 council elections.

In the Heron Ward of Rushmoor BC we lost a seat to Labour after one of our councillors was disqualified for none attendance. We ran a full campaign but had a reduction of 8.1%, which meant we lost the seat by 83 votes.

So as you can see when we put the work in we reap the rewards.

More Success in Redcar

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:28:00 +0100

There were two principal council by-elections held on the 3rd December. The Lib Dems held one seat and Labour took a seat off the Tories. In the only Parish and Town council election result reported to ALDC the Tories took a seat from Labour.

In the Ormesby Ward of Redcar and Cleveland Unitary Authority we held the seat comfortably increasing our share of the vote in an already safe ward . The by-election was held due to the resignation of long serving Lib Dem Councillor Eric Empson and was the sixth in just over twelve months in Redcar constituency and our 4th win. The Lib Dems have taken three from Labour and held one. Labour have held two. It is important to out campaign your opposition however safe a ward may seem. In this case we did so by putting out five leaflets to Labour three and UKIP’s one and were the only party to target the postal vote. It also helps to have a strong candidate; its often tempting to try to save your best candidates for the target “gain” wards but local by-elections can be very intense and it is wise to select a strong candidate. Redcar and Cleveland did this by selecting well known bus campaigner Ann Wilson.

The composition of the Council is now:
Labour - 25
Liberal Democrats - 16
Conservative - 11
Independents supporting Labour - 4
Independents – 3

In Redcar constituency Liberal Democrats now hold 16 seats, to Labour’s 16 and the Tories 3.

In the Dane Valley Ward of Thanet council in Kent, the Tories dropped from first to third in one by-election. A fine example of how not to do it. Our campaign took us from not having a candidate to within 58 votes of winning our first councillor on Thanet District council.

We are now running at 17 net gains for the year to date in principal local by-elections.

Help for council budget setting

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The LGA Lib Dem office is holding a session on budget setting on 7 January aimed at finance portfolio holders or those responsible for setting opposition budgets.

Gerald Vernon-Jackson (Leader of Portsmouth City Council and a national IDeA peer) and Derek Osbourne (Leader of the London Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames and an IDeA board member) will provide advice on the detailed goals and parameters required for a budget that will withstand the intense scrutiny of press, opposition groups and others.

The session will be held at Local Government House but there will be webcasting and teleconferencing facilities for those participating remotely. A registration fee of £25 will be charged for those attending in person; for more info contact Jake Beavan at jake.beavan@lga.gov.uk or on 020 7664 3293.

Kickstart success

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:45:00 +0100

Thank you to everyone who came along to Kickstart and made it such a huge success. This is the biggest Kickstart event we've ever done and there was a real buzz about the whole weekend, and we have high hopes now of many of the council groups who attended having excellent results in the coming years.

If you want to find out more about what you missed, then Alex Foster has written an excellent article on Liberal Democrat Voice about the weekend and gives a sense of what happened. Our favourite quotes include:

"During the weekend, several of them told me that they had been dreading the weekend as a completely new and scary experience, but by the end of the three days, all of us were, without exception, impressed by the training we’d received and how welcome we’d all been made to feel."

and

"ALDC’s tracking data shows that ALDC members are much more likely to win elections than non-members – and that Kickstart attendees still more likely than that. My team is already considering who we’ll send to next year’s event, and there is no question in our mind we got value for our money."

Liberal Democrats 3, Conservatives 0

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:23:00 +0100

What a week! Not only did we gain three seats, but they were all at the expense of the Conservatives, which goes to show that no matter how high they are in the polls we can still beat them.

In June, we underperformed across Cornwall but one of the bright spots was in the new St. Austell & Newquay constituency. Despite this, St. Austell Bay was the 3^rd safest Conservative seat in the county. Our candidate was a well known community activist, whereas the Tory candidate didn’t even live in the town – although he was their agent for Cornwall. Both parties matched each other leaflet for leaflet, but we also managed to knock on every door twice. Controversial local planning issues were a key part of the campaign, and these were tied in to a new national Tory policy that would give money to councils in return for approving more planning applications. Under the superb organisation of award-winning agent Hamish McCallum we achieved a 14% swing, which bodes well for Stephen Gilbert at the General Election.

In Stratford-on-Avon we are going from strength to strength. We now have all three county divisions in the town, eight out of 11 district seats and 12 out of 18 town council seats. This ward was once one of the Conservative’s best wards, but after campaigning hard on the issue of overdevelopment and with an intensive literature campaign we now have two of the three councillors.

In High Peak we won back a seat that we had gained once before in a previous by-election. Our candidate was well known in the largest village in the ward – Chinley – and so this helped us on our way to victory. This result will be particularly badly news for the Conservatives in a must-win parliamentary seat where Labour’s majority is just 735.

Although it was an excellent week for the party overall, we did lose a seat in Knowsley in Merseyside, where Labour upped their game and campaigned hard for victory.

Cllr Chris White on... libraries

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:13:00 +0100

Cllr Chris White (Hertfordshire County Councillor and St. Albans City Councillor - as well as being a member of the ALDC Management Committee) has written a piece for Liberal Democrat Voice on the archaic and centralised legislation that the government is trying to use to boss the Wirral around on libraries services.

Highlights include:

"It requires libraries to maintain adequate (a term it does not define) stocks of books and other printed matter, and pictures, gramophone records, films and other materials. So it does recognise that we have moved on from the codex – but is inevitably not so hot on the internet or DVDs."

and

"The Charteris report into the Wirral published this week is a classic case of central government interference of dubious legality – an expert who has been brought in to substitute her prejudices (unchallengeable at the ballot box) for those of elected councillors who were taking reasoned and reasonable political risks for which they knew they were accountable."

To read more, go to Chris White's article here at Liberal Democrat Voice.

Don't Forget ALDC at Christmas!

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0100

An easy way to support ALDC at this time of year - WITHOUT spending any extra money - is to make use of our Amazon and ITunes links.

Both of these work in exactly the same way - you have the normal full Amazon and ITunes websites, but for every purchase you make ALDC receives a small fee from Amazon or ITunes - you don't pay a penny more!

Amazon is a mail order website, one of the biggest in the world. Amazon isn't just books nowadays, departments include: baby, beauty, mobile phones, clothes, electrics magazines and music.

ITunes is the main source of music downloads in the world - but is also good for films, TV shows, and those "apps" that people have on their IPhones! You can also buy ITunes gift vouchers which can be a great gift for people who listen to music on their IPod or similar!

To buy gifts from Amazon, and support ALDC - click here.

To buy gifts from ITunes, and support ALDC - click here.

These links are available year round - find them at the bottom of any page on the ALDC website - www.aldc.org.

Local Government Conference 2010

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0100

An date for your new Diary!

The 2010 Local Government Conference will take place on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 June 2010 in London.

Nick Clegg addressing the 2009 Local Government Conference in Sheffield.

Friday will be satellite events during the day, and the Liberal Democrat Local Government Dinner in the evening.

Saturday will be a one day conference featuring speeches, debate, training, discussion and exhibition.

The Local Government Conference is jointly organised by ALDC and the LGA Liberal Democrat Group. Our previous conferences in Birmingham and Sheffield have been a great chance for Lib Dem Councillors and local campaigners to get together.

Registration will be online straight away in the new year.

If you're interested in organising a fringe event, a satellite event, training or being part of our exhibition please get in touch with Emma Hall or Tim Pickstone at ALDC.

Get in on the ACT

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Party members will probably already heard about the Party's new "online networking and campaigning" website - Act.

Why not sign up and join our group for all Lib Dem Councillors - ALDC!

Act is a place where Lib Dem supporters can connect with one another, organise events and campaigns, share photos and videos, and talk about politics. It's open to anyone with Liberal Democrat sympathies, whether they're Party members or not.

Nick Clegg has recorded a short video explaining what we want to help people to achieve: see the video on Act.

Once you've joined up - click on "groups" - and "join group" when you see ALDC! You can set up your own groups as soon as you are a member.

There are no doubt many ways that Councillors and local campaigners can interact on Act - let us know if you have ideas and we can give them a go.

Starting from Scratch

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:01:00 +0100

There were four principal council by-elections held on the 19th November. The Tories lost one seat to an Independent and hled one seat. Labour gained one seat from an Independent and the SNP held a seat. In the only Parish and Town council election result reported to ALDC the Tories held the seat.

In the very rural Cholmondeley Ward of East Cheshire Unitary Council our candidate was Bryan Halson. We ran a one-leaflet campaign in a very challenging area for us. Not only had the there been little political activity from us in the recent past it was also physically challenging. The problem here is sheer distance, taking 45 minutes to drive across the ward and lots of dispersed housing. The new Unitary Authority is still working on the old (very large) county ward boundaries and the Boundary Commission is currently looking at boundary changes. We focussed our effort in the area that could be delivered. One village was targeted for work as it will make up the heart of a new ward just proposed Here we got 32% in its box on the night and so the team are planning to build on this.

In the Coleford East ward of the Forest of Dean council in Gloucestershire we nearly won from a standing start. Following recent by-election success we threw all our resources at this one and got within 37 votes of victory. We did not even stand a candidate last time it was fought but with the enthusiasm generated by the Mitcheldean and Drybrook victory in August we fought vigorously.

Finally, two reminders. Don't forget that the final date for getting on the electoral register that will be used for council nominations is Friday 5th February. Whilst this feels like some way off it will no doubt come round very quickly and you don't want to leave it until it's too late. If you're still in the process of approving your candidates don't forget that we have advice on our website to help you do this too.

LGA recruiting new Head of Lib Dem Office

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The Local Government Association is recruiting a new Head of the Liberal Democrat Office to replace Ed Fordham, moving to a new role with the LGA.

The job description says that:

"Liberal Democrats in Local Government are looking for a experienced senior advisor to manage the political activity in the Local Government Association (LGA). You will work directly with the Leader of the Group, the Executive and Cabinet furthering our interests within the LGA and also within local government. Working across local government in England and Wales, in Westminster and Whitehall you will contribute to all aspects at the highest levels. In addition you will need experience of managing staff and budgets, leading high profile events and managing resources to achieve our objectives."

For more details about the post, you can find out more on the w4mp website.

Lib Dems in local government respond to Queen's Speech

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Liberal Democrats in local government have responded to yesterday's Queen's Speech emphasising the lack of any concrete proposals that will make a real difference to people's lives. Instead, the speech has been described as "a fantasy Queen’s Speech from a government that has run out of road in a Parliament that has lost the people’s trust."

Liberal Democrat Leader in the Local Government Association, Cllr Richard Kemp said:

“The Child Poverty Bill and the Equality Bill as outlined in the Queens Speech today are high on rhetoric and low on deliverability - in short they are mere gestures.

“I have already given evidence to the Committee scrutinising the Child Poverty Bill which is a hangover from the last Parliament. Giving us a duty without the means to deliver that duty is an empty gesture.

“The same applies to the Equality Bill. I know of no council, irrespective of political control, that is not aware of the gaps between rich and poor and between a variety of communities. The Government needs to get real about what can and cannot be done by councils without further legislation to transfer cash and powers back to us.”

For more details on Nick Clegg's response to the Queen's Speech, go to the Liberal Democrat website

ALDC members can also download a detailed response from the LGA here

The Really Useful Party

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:50:00 +0100

There were three principal council by-elections held on the 12th November. The Tories gained two seats, one from an Independent and one from the Lib Dems. In the only Parish and Town council election result reported to ALDC the Lib Dems held the seat.

In the Totnes Bridgetown Ward by-election for South Hams District Council in Devon we held a seat in a split ward. Our candidate was well known as the local community bus driver, and this time there was no Independent. We concentrated on canvassing and then getting our supporters to turn out. In contrast the Tories just didn't work as hard and knocked-up every single house regardless of voting intention.

In the Shepway council seat of New Romney Coast in 2007 we narrowly won both seats by 20 votes over the Tories. But by September one of our councillors had defected to the Tories, one of a number of defections from the group in recent years. It was this “defected” councillor's resignation that caused the by-election. Technically a loss to the Tories but it felt like a Tory hold.

Most active campaigners will be preparing their Christmas focuses and perhaps Christmas cards and calendars as well. This is a really good time to include some direct mail. You could perhaps a personal “blue” letter into the envelope with your Christmas cards. Why not deliver to your “pool” along with your calendars with a New Year , new politics message?

Calendars are particularly useful as they emphasis how we can help and be genuinely, really useful. Many people keep them and pin them to notice boards at home or work, which gives them a permanent reminder of the local Liberal Democrat team.

Key features
·    Full calendar for 2010
·    Dates of advice surgeries highlighted on the calendar - if you don't have surgeries you could use this space to tell people what to do if they need help from their local Liberal Democrat team (you could also colour in the term dates on the calendar as well if you wished)
·    A place to put in the contact details for local councillors, MP, PPC or MEP
·    Contact numbers for key local services - this is often one of the main reasons keep our calendar over any others they might get.
Templates are available on the ALDC website for members.

London candidates' mailing

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:40:00 +0100

All known Liberal Democrat candidates and retiring councillors in London received a bumper mailing this week with information to help them win in 2010.

Next year's London elections are a big challenge. It is likely to be the first time there have been local elections and a general election on the same day - ever! But there are many places around the country who have considerable experience of winning both councils and parliamentary seats on the same day. Likewise, recent elections results show that it is possible to buck the trend and keep picking up council seats even in Labour - Conservative marginal parliamentary seats. So there's no need to panic.

The recent mailing included tips and goood practice as well as details on ALDC's services to help you win. Also enclosed was a copy of London Campaigner with help specially tailored to help campaigners in London. A PDF copy of London Campaigner can also be downloaded by ALDC members. Everyone also received a complimentary copy of ALDC's Winning Elections Volume 1, which you can also buy from the ALDC shop.

If you didn't receive a copy of this mailing then please make sure you send us details of your candidates for next year's elections using our online form.

Keeping within the Limits

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:43:00 +0100

There was one principal council by-election held on the 5th November. The Tories held the seat. There were no Parish and Town council election results reported to ALDC.

The Lower Sheering Ward of Epping Forest District council in Essex is a one member rural ward that has a polling station in Hertfordshire and lies in the highly marginal Harlow parliamentary constituency. Despite this Labour failed to nominate a candidate and the Tories increased their vote by less than 1%. We ran a paperless campaign yet got more than four times the vote we received in a by-election in the ward in June 2005.

As the 10:10 campaign gathers momentum the next campaigning step for us all is working towards Copenhagen, the United Nations Climate change conference 7-18th December. The party will be producing a range of materials to help you campaign on this and there will be a number of marches and events to attend in London on December 5th. However it’s worth finding out what is happening in your area e.g. local demonstrations and getting involved. We will keep you updated week by week as the campaign develops.

The Political Parties and Elections Act became law in July 2009. One key element of the act is that in the next six months the spending of political parties will be governed by three different regimes! In the period 1/1/2010 to the start of your local election regulated period (earliest 29/3/2010) materials and expenses can count towards:
·    the national parties limit where it promotes the national party
·    promoting the PPC counts towards the new “long” campaign limit and will need to be declared.
·    promoting anything else can be allocated to the local campaign, but needs no declaration before the start of the regulated period for the local campaign.
This is complicated and will require very careful attention to imprints, PPERA declarations, Long and Short Parliamentary campaign and local election campaign expense limits. As with the Euro campaign last year record-keeping is very important. There is a strong argument for the constituency general election agent being the agent for all the wards covered by the constituency in the local elections to keep the record keeping comprehensive and consistent.

SIX Months to WIN!

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Today is six months to the most likely polling day for a UK General Election, and for crucial local elections in London and much of England.

We do not need to tell you that these are vital elections for both the Liberal Democrats and the people that we represent and campaign for.

Support for our General Election work will obviously be coming from the Party at many levels. In addition to helping with the General Election effort, ALDC will be ensuring that there is help and support in place to ensure we succeed in the local elections as well.

Training - our busy programme of training for the elections is nearing its conclusion this year with Regional Conferences, and the (fully booked) Kickstart Residential Weekend.

Candidate Support Programme - For the first time we'll be sending out a Liberal Democrat "Candidates Handbook" at the start of January free for all Lib Dem candidates in the local electons. It will contain all the essential advice that candidates need about elections, staying on the right side of the law, campaign planning, and crucially where to go for more help. This is being accompanied by monthly Election Briefing emails

But we can only send the information if we have the candidates. Register your candidates this weekend online here.

Last Minute Candidate Helpline

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0100

As part of the Liberal Democrat programme of the Be A Councillor initiative, an Candidate Advice Helpline service is being offered for Liberal Democrats with local elections in 2010.

If you are having issues finding the right number and quality of candidates, the helpline will be able to talk you through the issues, give you ideas about where to look and who to ask, and other practical information and advice.

To arrange help, please email lastminute@aldc.org, answering the following questions in your email.

Name of council

Your contact details: name

Your contact details: phone

Your contact details: email

Total no. of councillors

Total no. of councillors to be elected

No of Lib Dem held seats to be contested

No of candidates selected & approved for these Lib Dem held seats

No of other candidates approved & selected for other TARGET seats

No of other Lib Dem candidates approved & selected for other seats

All questions apply only to this council and only to elections to this council on 6th May 2010.

Remember, Remember the 11th November

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:22:00 +0100

There was one principal council by-election held on the 29th October. The Liberal Democrats held the seat. There was one Parish and Town council election results reported to ALDC, a Tory hold.

In the Huntingdon North Ward of Huntingdonshire District Council they had their third election of the year. The County elections were followed by a town council by-election where we made a gain off the Tories before our sitting district councillor moved. In a two-member ward the Tories had won well in 2008 and in the by-election we were defending a majority of 19 from 2007. Our strong campaign was matched with a five-leaflet UKIP campaign, which may have taken votes from the Tories. UKIP tried to mobilise resentment in a very deprived ward against East European migrants whilst Labour mobilised them to vote. We ran a proficient campaign holding all others off to increase our majority from 19 to 30.

The 11th of November is the first date on which a death or resignation of a councillor who would otherwise be up for re-election on May 6th 2010 will cease to cause a by-election under the “six month rule”. To avoid unnecessary by-elections for the last six months of a councillor’s period of office no by-election is normally held if they resign or die. The vacancy is held open until the normal date for the election of that office. This Is not to be confused with the other 6 month rule that relates to the disqualification of any councillor who fails to attends council meetings for 6 months.

The six-month rule applies only when the vacancy is deemed to have occurred within six months. It is not enough that the election has only been triggered within the six months. So an October death, will cause a by-election even though the election may not be triggered until the vacancy is formally notified, which could be later and within six months of the next election. For those who would normally be up for election on May 6th 2010, their term of office would expire on May 10th 2010 (4 days after the election) and therefore resignations, deaths etc that occur after November 10th 2009 will not trigger a by election.

The truth about Watford's ban on parents in playgrounds

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:54:00 +0100

A number of national newspapers have been carrying stories about Liberal Democrat-run Watford Borough Council banning parents from parks throughout the borough. Indeed the story even made it to the front page of the Metro. But, the truth on this story is very different.

The reality is that the only places affected by this ban on parents is TWO adventure playgrounds, that are specifically designed as supervised play facilities. Every other playground in the borough is still free, open, unsupervised and can be freely accessed by parents. In fact, parents have always been able to enter these adventure playgrounds to help settle their children in. But, just as with nursery schools, parents then leave their children in the care of council staff, so they don't get in the way of the activities that are taking place.

Liberal Democrats are used to getting unfair coverage in the press. But it's a shame that when we achieve the front page of a national paper, it's as a result of an unfair and misleading story.

You can read more about this story from local Lib Dem councillor Sara Bedford.

Kickstart FULL

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:46:00 +0100

Please note that ALDC's Weekend Kickstart event 27-29 November 2009 is FULL.

The weekend event, the main training event in the year for Lib Dem volunteer campaigners has been heavily oversubscribed this year, and as a result we are unable to take any further bookings.

It is brilliant that so many people are keen to get involved and kickstart their campaign. More information emma.hall@aldc.org

ALDC Signs-up to 10:10 Campaign

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:18:00 +0100

ALDC Management Committee at its meeting on 24 October 2009 agreed to "join-up" the Assocation to the 10:10 Campaign to reduce carbon emissions by 10% in 2010, and to encourage members and all Lib Dem Councillors to support the campaign.

10:10 is a broad campaign to ensure that we make positive start to reducing carbon emmissions immediately, rather than relying on long term targets alone.

Already many Councils, have signed up to 10:10 - including many Lib Dem run and influenced councils. If yours hasn't then there is a model Council Motion (for ALDC Gold Members) here.

Everyone can sign up to 10:10, and already individual Lib Dem Council Groups have joined up, as have companies, NHS Trusts, charities, trades unions and more. Individuals can sign up too!

Here's the individuals 10 point plan for cutting emissions:

ALDC's Management Committee have asked the staff team to develop an action plan for the Association to reduce its own carbon footprint by at least 10% by the end of 2010. We'll keep you updated on how we achieve this.

Tory 'morons' attack on Cotswold Lib Dems

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The Conservatives on Cotswold District Council are in deep water after describing local Liberal Democrat councillors as morons on Facebook.

Tory council leader Lynden Stowe and fellow councillor Chris Roberts said that local Lib Dem rivals "have a reputation... for being morons" on Facebook. The comments were then reported to the press by friends of the councillors, rather than by any Liberal Democrat members.

Despite this, rather than apologising the Conservatives have gone on the defensive accusing the Lib Dems of stirring up trouble and complaining that Facebook must have been infiltrated by Lib Dem sympathisers. The comments have now been reported on the BBC website, on local TV news and on the front page of the local newspaper.

Local Lib Dem Leader Paul Hodgkinson is now considering whether to report the Conservative councillors to the Standards Board for England.

Tory housing plans - bribery or merely compensation

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0100

In a speech to the IPPR, Conservative Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps has announced what a possible Conservative government would do to encourage more house building. Some has been announced before, but the speech emphasised what the Conservatives believe are key.

The centrepiece is a proposal to scrap regional and national housing targets, but instead encourage councils to accept housing by increasing funding for local services. In many respects it is similar to the current Section 106 agreements whereby developers must pay for improvements in the local area, if their planning application is approved. However, the Conservative proposals would actually agree to allocate 100% of the council tax from any new homes (or 125% for social housing) towards improving services in that community. The intention being that local communities would welcome new housing if they felt they were getting an actual benefit for their local area. Grant Shapps also believes this would therefore allow councillors to campaign for more housing in their community as they would genuinely benefit, rather than having to become NIMBYs to keep on the right side of local residents.

In his speech, Grant Shapps also promoted some ideas that Liberal Democrats will welcome, such as increasing the amount of the business rates that is retained locally and ensuring that major development projects must involve the community from the beginning when being planned. However, one thing that will concern Liberal Democrats is the suggestion that Planning Control Committees may be removed from the process completely when applications are made by Local Housing Trusts, (a Conservative idea where communities would be able to set up a trust to build affordable homes just for local residents). In effect Local Housing Trusts would give themselves planning permission.

It is good to see the different parties actually discussing housing issues - an issue that has long been neglected - but whether these proposals will be what people who are struggling to find suitable places to live actually need, is another question.

Updated Advice on Candidate Approval and Councillor Contributions

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Selections for council candidates are now well underway in most areas with local elections next May; and if they aren't then now is the time to start.

Many areas have had robust approval procedures for a number of years, but this is now compulsory for all candidatess wanting to stand for the Liberal Democrats in council elections in England. The English Liberal Democrats have also brought in new rules that require candidates in England to make a financial contribution to aid party campaigning if they get elected. Again, this has been standard practice for a long time in many areas, but this is now a requirement in England and highly recommended in Scotland and Wales.

To help local parties implement these changes, and to improve their current procedures if they do it already, ALDC had produced guidance that is available to ALDC members via the ALDC website (don't forget you need your email address and ALDC membership number to access the website).

Currently available on the website (for ALDC Members) is:

Approving council candidates
Councillors contributions
Setting up council co-ordinating groups

We will also be updating our guidance on selecting candidates in the near future. Please remember to log-in as an ALDC member first.

Please note that these materials are a CONSULTATION DRAFT and we would welcome your welcome feedback on this guidance to make sure that it is as clear and as useful as possible. Feedback should be sent to Anders Hanson at anders.hanson@aldc.org

In this busy period in the run up to the General Election and important local elections in many areas it is important to keep campaigning! Rules are important, but please don't stop campaigning. If you have any problems or issues please don't hesitate to contact the team at ALDC.

ALDC

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