ALDC

Local Elections 2012 - Tell us what you think!

Mon, 14 May 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Please help us learn and improve from the 2012 local election results by taking our short online survey. We know how much everyone hates long surveys, so its deliberately short, but if you want to write more then there is space to do so.

The survey has TWO aims:

to assess how the support and help provided by ALDC and the rest of the Party was helpful to candidates and campaigners, and to see how this can be improved.
to ask you what you think worked or did not work in the election campaign

We will use the aggregated information to inform the work of ALDC and the rest of the party, but otherwise your comments are anonymous and will not be attributed.

TAKE THE SURVEY NOW

Thank you for your help.

The Thursday After...

Fri, 11 May 2012 12:00:00 +0100

After an eventual slew of 26 by-election results on May 3rd, it was a relatively quiet day at the office for Lib Dem campaign teams across Britain. There were two principal council by-elections, and one reported town council contest, and very little of significance to report.

In the Kidsgrove ward of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Labour held their seat with a substantial 18% increase in their share of the vote. Our candidate came third, dropping just over 7%. Unfortunately the drop was enough to put the Tories into second place in a ward that we have held in recent years.

Whilst the 105 people who wanted to vote Liberal Democrat in Kidsgrove had the chance to do so, the same can’t be said for any of our supporters in the Chinnor ward of South Oxfordshire District Council, where the Tories, Independents, and Labour slugged it out between themselves. It’s hard to believe we don’t have a single member in all of South Oxfordshire who could have put their name forward, so getting a bird on the ballot next time would be much better. In the end, the Conservatives held comfortably.

Out in the towns, we had a contest for the Meeds North ward of Burgess Hill Town Council, where our candidate Kathleen Carman Willis took a respectable 19% of the vote – only four short of second place and thirty-four off a win. Onwards and upwards, Burgess Hill!

Finally, a quick note on ALDC’s online resources. Our ‘Time To Say Thank You’ guide is newly available on aldc.org (http://bit.ly/II3AVD), and there is a whole host of useful post-election discussion taking place on our new Facebook Group (http://on.fb.me/JHYOrh). Both are members-only, but for those of you who have not yet taken the plunge, this really is the time! You can find more details at aldc.org/join/.

The very best of luck to all of our councillors, candidates and campaigners out in the field.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

Campaign Countdown 12

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:30:00 +0100

Hopefully by now you will have caught your breath!
The count will seem an awfully long time ago, but for the new councillors, and indeed for those of you who are back on the council, now the real work commences - to represent those people who put their faith in you via the ballot box.

Whether you won or lost, or a local activist, there is one vital task immediately after the election and that is to say thank you to your helpers, deliverers and campaign colleagues. Often this is over looked and assumptions are made that ‘people will already know that their help is valued, so we don’t need to say thank you’ – WRONG! Use letters, cards, phone calls to people who helped in your election, don't forget paper candidates and people who helped on polling day. Hold a wake/post mortem and a "thank you party" in the next couple of weeks. There are some places that have already had their party, organising for just two days after polling day.

Saying "Thank You" to voters is traditionally done with a "thank you" FOCUS delivered as soon as possible throughout your ward. This includes saying thank you when we lost. If you're short of money why not do an A4 thank you FOCUS rather than A3? Templates are available here to ALDC members. Here’s how Hull did it last year.

Why not expand this and send a letter those who were canvassed as Liberal Democrats ("D&Ps"). Use the opportunity to inform them of the result and ask them if they would like to be help in the future, perhaps delivering FOCUS down their street? Don’t forget to email your email list and to post on your MyCouncillor site.

The ‘tidy up’ period starts from here. If you have not already done so please ensure that all your stake boards are taken down and recovered. Also remove posters from windows, trees, walls or wherever you were inventive enough to place them!

Here at ALDC we are still trying to analyse what happened and to do so we need YOU to tell us what you think! Please help us learn and improve from the 2012 local election results by taking our short online survey. We will use the aggregated information to inform the work of ALDC and the rest of the party, but otherwise your comments are anonymous and will not be attributed.

TAKE THE SURVEY NOW

Thank you for your help.

John Bridges
Campaigns Officer

PS. If you can't read the some of the attached articles it is because they are in the members only area of the ALDC website.

If you are already a member of ALDC you'll just need to log on when prompted. Your login and password are listed at the bottom of this email.
If you're not already a member of ALDC, to access these materials you’ll need to join ALDC.

Deadlines:

Timetable for Elections Expenses returns
All Scottish local elections and most in England and Wales were declared on Friday 4th May (if yours were declared before midnight on Thursday take each deadline a day earlier). We will circulate guidance on completing election expense returns next week.

25th May 2012 - All bills to be sent to the agent. The agent should not legally pay bills received after this date.

1st June 2012 - All bills to be paid by agent.

8th June 2012 - Election return and agents declaration to be received by the Returning Officer.

Within 7 days of submitting the return - The Returning Officer must receive the candidate’s declaration (though usual practice is to submit these forms at the same time).

Thursday's Other Elections...

Wed, 09 May 2012 16:57:00 +0100

With all eyes on Thursday’s local elections (see our report on defence rates, over), it is easy to forget that there were thirteen local council by-elections taking place on the same day.

The only significant result from a Lib Dem perspective is the successful defence of Hertfordshire’s Meriden Tudor ward, where Kareen Mary Hastrick added a little good news to what was another difficult night across the country. Of some national prominence was the Hackney Central by-election, where the ‘Hackney Heroine’ Pauline Pearce (pictured, second left) made the decision to stand for the Liberal Democrats in the wake of last year’s riots. Unfortunately, Pauline came third on the night but has been a welcome addition to our London campaign family, where we hope she will remain.

Elsewhere, we had two decent second places. Trailing the Tories by only 146 votes in the North Richmond ward in the London Borough of Richmond, and we also did well to come within touching distance of the successfully defending Conservative team in Bromley, where the Bromley Town ward remained blue. Our final pick of interesting results comes from Tower Hamlets, where Respect came second to Labour in the Weavers ward, being the only other party in the election to poll over 1000 at the ballot box.

Finally, we know that the Conservatives held Wimbledon Park in Merton, Kilburn Derby and Holbrook in Amber Valley, and Offington in Worthing. Labour held Blackpool’s Bloomfield ward and gained one seat in Marton. On an explanatory note, that last result is decided by the outcome of a double election; Conservatives held both seats going into the election and came first (with Labour second) in the double-election on Thursday. The second-elected member traditionally being treated as the victor in the by-election, so the result is Conservative hold the regular election seat but Labour gained a councillor in the by-election.

These aren’t easy times to fight local election seats as Liberal Democrats, but no Lib Dem ever signed up because we wanted an easy option. Thursday’s results simply do not reflect the work that many have put into wards and communities across the country. ALDC are proud of the way that every Liberal Democrat has got out there and fought for every single vote – now is the time to say ‘thank you’, have a well-earned rest, and get back out there to fight for them again!

ALDC would like to wish all of our councillors, candidates, and campaigners across the country, the very best of luck in your local campaigns.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

2012 Results - Compositions & Control

Fri, 04 May 2012 12:00:00 +0100

This section of ALDC's 2012 Local Elections Results Service tracks the new political compositions and overall councillor numbers for each council with elections on May 3rd.

Councils with their names highlighted in red are having 'all-out' elections after boundary changes and will resume their normal electoral cycles from 2014.

At a Glance:

Councillor Numbers:

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2012 Change in Councillors:

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In Detail:

New Compositions & Control Status:

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Change in Councillor Numbers:

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Membership - Two brilliant deals

Wed, 02 May 2012 14:27:00 +0100

Calling all councillors elected on 3rd May! We have two great discounts for ALDC membership.

1. New Councillors' Discount
All Lib Dem Councillors elected this year 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 Councillors benefit from the advice and support that ALDC offer from Day 1. This makes ALDC membership only 78p a week!

The new offer is only available until the end of July 2012 - after that it's back up to the normal rate. So don't miss out!

The deal is available to all newly elected Liberal Democrat councillors and this year for the first time - to all councillors who successfuly defended their seats (who were not previously ALDC members). It's only available by direct debit - but can be paid monthly, quarterly or annually.

Join online, with no paperwork today!

2. Group Membership Benefits
Most successful Liberal Democrat Groups are already 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".

If that doesn't include you - then your Group AGM is normally a good time to bring this up! This could either be a discussion at the AGM, or getting the group to agree to consider the issue at its next meeting.

- Group Members receive 12% off all membership rates
- Free places at the Local Government Conference (buy 2 get a 3rd 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 you think your group might be interested, we can prepare you a personalised quote for your group - please contact our Members' Services Officer, Emma Hall on 01422 843 785 or email emma.hall@aldc.org An FAQ sheet is available here

Discounts can be used together - so if you have newly elected Councillors in your group then they get both discounts added together!

2012 Election Results - Mayoral Votes & Referendums

Tue, 01 May 2012 12:00:00 +0100

In addition to the London Mayoral election, there are two elections for directly-elected mayors and ten referendums on the creation of elected mayors taking place on May 3rd.

Here is ALDC's brief summary of the results.

Mayoral Elections:

Mayoral Referendums:

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2012 Results - Seats Won

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:00:00 +0100

This section of ALDC's 2012 Local Elections Results Service tracks the outcome of each contested seat on the night. In England, most of these amount to one-third of the total number of council seats, although a number of District Councils elect by halves. In Scotland and Wales, the elections were 'all outs'.

Councils with their names highlighted in red are having 'all-out' elections after boundary changes and will resume their normal electoral cycles from 2014.

At a Glance:

Seat Results:

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Change in Seats:

In Detail:

Seat Results:

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Change in Seats:

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ALDC Election Results Service

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:31:00 +0100

ALDC will again provide an election results service showing the total number of seats won for each party by council and the change in those seats whether that's plus or minus. You can find our Election Results Service in the Local Elections section of our website.

We largely collate this information by using council websites as they usually publish the results as they happen, although this is by no means consistent. The counts are also split between Thursday night and anytime on Friday until well in to the evening. However, if you are able to help us out with information from your count this is what we need to know:

The total number of seats won on the night by each party in a council area (we don't need to know individual ward results at this stage).
Any interesting stories e.g. high profile councillors defeated (both ours and the opposition's), interesting Lib Dem candidates elected,
Wards won by us this year that we failed to win last year.

You can send us this information by emailing us at info@aldc.org, by posting in our Facebook group or by tweeting us.

Who's Up in 2012

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0100

Here is our summary of the composition of councillors, by authority-type and party, facing election in May 2012. 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 john.bridges@aldc.org.

Councillors up in 2012 - At a Glance

Councillors up in 2012 - In Detail

Note: Council names highlighted in red are having all-out elections on new boundaries, and will re-commence electing by thirds from 2014.

The Final Countdown!!!

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Everybody I know who is working on the campaign is already shattered and many will be behind on their campaign schedules after the weekend's dreadful weather. But the weather seems to be improving so let's keep going and try to spread the load. In many places turnout will be key. We need to focus on getting our vote out, the turnout of theirs is largely beyond our control. We’ve got 4 more days to make 4 years of hard work count – it’s votes in the ballot box that matter.
So look at your contact lists - including friends and family - ring and ask for a little help - they can only say no. That extra pair of hands, car or phone could really make the difference on the day. They can always use a phone however far away they live.

1.Things I usually forget:

Rosettes for polling day
Tellers pads
Hard copy back up shuttleworth - in case of computer failure
Election offences and committee room posters
Tally cards/sheets for our counting agents at the count
Eating properly – this includes massive bars of chocolate in case you're asking and copious Red Bull (other brands are available).
to vote myself!
mobile phone chargers

2. Expanding your shuttleworth
Your voter ID should still be continuing but in many wards we will not have enough "Definites and Probables" come Thursday morning to guarantee victory even if they are all knocked up properly. It's time to add in other groups to your shuttleworth - people who at worst are unlikely to vote for your main opponent and may vote for you - this must be balanced against the resources you have available to knock them up of course!
Such as:

Others in household - very easy option when printing shuttleworths in Connect or EARS
Supporters of third/squeezable parties/candidates
People you've done casework for
Key groups that when canvassed disproportionately support us and can be identified on the register e.g. elderly, Asian voters, an area/road where you've run a strong popular campaign.
Petition signers.

Try to do so in a way which can be identified on the shuttleworth and remember to brief your knockers up that these people have not committed to voting for us so:
a) they don't get despondent when there is the occasional rejection
b) they realise that there is an element of canvassing to do as they go round.

3. Still available on polling day
Replacement postal voting papers are available up to 5pm on the day of poll and includes all voting papers and the declaration of identity, not just ballot papers.
Proxy votes up to 5pm on polling day on production of proof of a medical emergency.
Postal votes can still be submitted to any polling station up to 10pm on polling day.

Make sure your literature tells postal voters that they can still use their postal vote even though its polling day - and how to do it. This could be specific leaflets for postal voters or on all your knock ups, good morning etc.

4. Targeting
Remember when you are asked to close your committee room and switch to a target ward - do it – targeting is key to our success. After last year’s results nobody should be under illusions about how necessary this is.

Good luck to all of you on Thursday – and well done for all the hard work you have put in to your campaigns. It may not always appear like it, but this is all appreciated, not only by your colleagues but, by the party at large.

John Bridges
Campaigns Officer

PS. If you can't read the attached articles it is because they are in the members only area of the ALDC website.

Deadlines

Friday 27 April 2012 - First date that electors can apply for replacements for lost postal votes.
5pm on Thursday 3 May 2012 Last time for re-issue of spoilt and lost postal votes
5pm on Thursday 3 May 2012 Deadline for emergency proxy applications
9pm on Thursday 3 May 2012 Last time to alter the register due to clerical error or court appeal

Checklist for this week

Deliver Squeeze letters
Deliver blue letters
Deliver endorsement literature
Start “soft” knocking your shuttleworth
Deliver Eve of polls and good mornings
Sort out volunteers for phone canvassing and phone knocking up and set it up on Connect if you’re using it.

Holding the Line...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:34:00 +0100

The last full week of campaigning in the 2012 local elections saw four by-elections reported to ALDC.

In the sole principal council contest, our Focus team in North Norfolk did sterling work defending the Waterside ward. A 9% drop in the second-placed Tory vote was of some assistance, although surprisingly UKIP do not appear to have been the beneficiary of the decline in Conservative support. A relatively busy slate for a local by-election also included a Green Party and Independent candidate standing for the first times, without making any real headway. Labour’s 2% increase in vote-share is far from impressive and may also indicate a healthy retention of squeezed Labour voters in the Lib Dem tally. Our congratulations to successful candidate Paul Howard Williams and the North Norfolk team on an encouraging defence.

Out in the towns, our vote held up nicely in Seaford East ward of Seaford Town Council. Whilst the headline story is a UKIP gain from the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrat vote remained solid and keeps us within touching distance of the Tories in second place. The election was triggered by the resignation of a Conservative Town Councillor in protest against his own administration’s 9.5% hike in the town council precept – only one year after an express promise not to raise the tax. Our box count showed that Lib Dem support in our best areas stayed solid and, when combined with the new reality of a fairly even Con-UKIP split in the vote, enhances our prospects of holding our local county seat in 2013.

Liberal Democrat Dave Dobbie prevailed in a straight-up fight with UKIP to hold the North West ward of Gainsborough Town Council, and Sue Griffiths came within a whisker of supplanting Labour as the second party in the Peacehaven North ward of Peacehaven Town Council. Well done to both.

ALDC would like to wish all of our councillors and campaigners across the country the very best of luck in all elections. See you on the other side!

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

Book now for Bedford!

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Lib Dem Local Government Conference

Saturday 16 June 2012, University of Bedfordshire.

Satellite events, and Dinner on Friday 15 June 2012.

Book now now to get your registration at the cheap rate - prices start from just £35.00 for ALDC members. (including all lunch and refreshments)

For Group Members of ALDC it's also "3 for 2" - buy two places and get the third entirely FREE!

ALDC and the LGA Liberal Democrat Group invite you to the main Liberal Democrat event of the summer, our Local Government Conference at the University of Bedfordshire, Bedford.

We've got a busy day planned for you, the programme will be available soon, but here are some highlights:

Training: Learning what worked in May 2012 and ideas for future campaigning success. Specific sessions will focus on the 2013 County / Unitary elections and also longer term planning for those with elections in 2014 and beyond.

Debate and discussion: There will be fringe events and policy sessions throughout the day. Sessions planned include Welfare Reform, Housing and Local Education Authorities.

Speakers: These include the Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg MP, Steve Webb MP and we will be able to confirm many more Keynote Speakers nearer the time.

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.

Register online, via credit or debit card here

Friday 15 June Programme:

On Friday 15 June 2012 we are planning a Group Leadership Day. We are currently consulting on the agenda but would expect this to include some facilitated seminars on Effective Opposition and Motivating your Team. More details to follow. This starts at lunchtime.

A Council Group Researcher's Away Day also takes place. (contact Rob Banks - rob.banks@local.gov.uk)

Local Government Dinner

On Friday evening we have the annual Lib Dem Local Government Dinner, also at the University of Bedfordshire - an excellent opportunity to catch up with colleagues old and new in a relaxed setting. We have been able to keep the price down and it is still only £30 per head for a 3 course meal, and this year includes a half bottle of wine per person.

Accommodation is available nearby at Park Inn and Premier Inn. Special rates are available to conference attendees. More details on our booking form.

Practical information:

Advance registration is £45 - with a massive £10 discount if you're a member of ALDC - so just £35 if you register before the end of May 2012.

If you are in Group Membership of ALDC, its "3 for 2" - buy two places and get the third for free. Council Group Researchers can register at the cheaper rate as previously.

Register online, via credit or debit card here. ALDC members need to LOG IN FIRST and your discount will be automatically applied.

Unfortunately our online system can't cope with the Group Members 3 for 2 offer, so you need to phone us on 01422 843 785!

Campaign Countdown 10

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:39:00 +0100

It’s time to pull together! - there's only one week to go!
Tempers in elections often get frayed. Competing priorities, the frustrations with computer systems and printers combined with activist exhaustion and grotty weather are a recipe for friction. After canvassing, in the next few days try and get your core team together, perhaps at a stuffing party or over a pint and agree your strategy for the final week. To quote somebody else, we’re all in this together…..

With a week to go your campaign should be peaking and your thoughts should be on getting the vote out and polling day.
Polling day is one of those occasions when you can ask friends, relations and colleagues from other local parties without elections this year to help out. It does not matter where in the country they are. Offer them accommodation or just get them on the phones. The new virtual phonebanks in Connect make this easier than ever. Going through your phonebook and talking to your members should give you a clearer idea of the resources you’ll have available and thereby inform your strategy.

Use your casework record.
If you’ve done more than the opposition in your ward or neighbouring wards, make the comparison. Make sure they can see that the choice is between a hardworking Liberal Democrat or another Tory/Labour time server. If you can clearly evidence this, it will be a very strong message in your final literature.
However much casework you have done, flag those you’ve done it for in EARS or Connect and then send them all a letter. Do an analysis of voting intention on this group. It ought favour us and if it does it is key group to add to the Shuttleworth and target for last weeks canvassing.

Connect and Polling Day
Connect is a new system for everybody using it. We discuss building your Shuttleworth in the article below but for Connect users particularly it is vital that you learn how to do this now and make sure it’s prepared well before polling day, so that any problems can be ironed out. So there are some things that every local party with elections needs to do:

Work through the two polling day training courses on OSKAR. It is absolutely essential that everyone who is going to run a committee room does this before polling day.
Download the PDF guide to using Connect on and before polling day and send a copy to anyone who’ll be using Connect on Thursday.
Build your shuttleworth and cut it into turfs. Don’t leave this until polling day, use the instructions in the above PDF or the OSKAR courses to do it now.
Connect Managers and Deputy Managers have access to the Polling Day tools already, but other users will need to be given access to them. Make sure you’ve got access to the tools well in advance of Polling Day. Make sure that everyone who needs a Connect login has one set up before polling day. Don’t leave this to the last minute!

Richmond/Chester Formula Calculator
Last week we talked about taking the tough decisions on targeting and polling day strategy. The department of Election and Skills have helpfully produced a handy calculator for the Chester formula with an accompanying instruction sheet for you. The Chester formula is a slightly modified version of the Richmond formula, that distributes “not Lib Dem”, “Refused” and a half “Probables” by the proportion of expressed voting intentions for the opposition parties.

Deadlines
Today, Thursday 26th April: The last day for the appointment of local election counting and polling agents.

Checklist for this week

Assess your canvass returns and revisit your targeting strategy.
Start planning for polling day
Attack the Tories locally.
Sort out the writing, stuffing and batching of your blue letters for next week
Sort out target mail and squeeze letters for next week
Flag your casework contacts and send them something!
Sort out volunteers for phone canvassing and phone knocking up and set it up on Connect if you’re using it.

Good Luck and please send/email your own leaflets and letters and those of your opponents to ALDC so that we can spread good practice and monitor the activities of the opposition.

John Bridges
Campaigns Officer

PS. If you can't read the attached articles it is because they are in the members only area of the ALDC website.
If you are already a member of ALDC you'll just need to log on when prompted. Your login and password are listed at the bottom of this email.
If you're not already a member of ALDC, to access these materials you’ll need to join ALDC. For candidates in the 2012 election joining by Direct Debit it only costs £3.41 per month.

6th time lucky?

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:47:00 +0100

You could be forgiven for having a sense of déjà vu with this week’s by-elections, as two of them have had multiple by-elections in recent years.

The by-election in the Spitalfields and Banglatown Ward of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets took the political headlines following the defeat of Labour’s candidate by an Independent aligned to the directly-elected mayor, Lutfur Rahman. This was the second by-election in this ward in 18 months and a second defeat for Labour. The ward is now represented by one Labour councillor, one from Respect and now one Independent.

For Liberal Democrats the best result of the night was in the Plaistow Ward of Chichester District Council in West Sussex. This was the fifth by-election in this ward in nine years following successive resignations of Conservative councillors. Plaistow is a large rural ward – 19 miles from one end to the other – in the far north of the district on the Surrey border. However despite the scale of the job we ran a strong campaign with a number of leaflets very much focusing on the reasons for the by-election and the local credentials of our candidate. Polling day saw torrential downpours all day and so postal voters ended up making up a large percentage of the turnout in parts of the ward. As a result this group became incredibly important to the final result, which is a lesson to take back for those with elections on 3rd May. If you haven’t run a ‘get out the vote’ operation amongst your postal voters there is still time. Despite our efforts we ended up 47 votes from victory. Perhaps it will be 6th time lucky for our regular candidate Ray Cooper.

The Watlington by-election in Oxfordshire County Council (Henley Constituency) kept up the theme of large electoral divisions being around 12 miles from end to end. We managed a modest increase in our vote and a small swing from the Conservatives. There was also a by-election in the Goresbrook Ward of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

This is the last by-election column before the local elections on 3^rd May and so ALDC would like to wish the best of luck to all of our candidates. Like last year it’s going to be another hard fight, but those places who’ve been putting in the work are generally getting a good response. Don’t forget that ALDC is here to support you with artwork templates and best practice on our website, as well as advice articles online or by phone.

Campaign Countdown 9

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Keep going! - there's only two weeks left!

If you're anything like me the last few days, and the days to come are a blur of activity around the postal vote. Teams up and down the country will be spending the weekend making sure as many of those postal votes have a cross next to our candidate(s)' name.

Once you've done this, it might be a good time to catch your breath and have a look at what's happened so far. Take a look at what your canvass data is telling you. Are we winning? Is there a swing against us and how big is it? Are we squeezing the third party or is there still more to do?

It is engrained in the foundations of ALDC's fabric that there are "no points for second place in electoral politics". What this means is that if you're not going to win somewhere you are probably better focusing your attention on somewhere you can win. If it's a difficult year for us in your area, then it is better to lose ONE seat, than lose THREE. Conversely if its a good year for us in your area, then it's better to win THREE seats, than win ONE by 1,000 votes. You need to be making those decisions now about the last stages of your campaign.

People often ask us “how is it going around the country?”.

We can only sensibly respond to this if you tell us what is going on where you are! So let us know.

A few things are clear however:
1. The response on the doorstep seems to better where we have worked hardest - hardly suprising, but encouraging.
2. Where our main opposition is the Tories we have not, in many places, been attacking the Tories on their local record sufficiently.

3. We need to make it clearer not only how strong our local record is but what the alternative might be. The choice that local voters have. It's either hardworking local campaigner Jo Bloggs or another Tory/Labour yes man ....or more Tory/Labour failure ......etc.

Deadlines

Next Wednesday 25th April is the deadline for people applying for proxy votes except for medical emergencies.
Thursday 26th April: The last day for the appointment of local election counting and polling agents.

Checklist for this week

Get blue letters and other target mail to postal voters posted or delivered.
Postal vote Good Mornings delivered
Knock Up your postal voters of foot and phone.
Assess you canvass returns and revisit your targeting strategy.
Start planning for polling day
Attack the Tories locally
If your using Connect, book on to one of their polling day training courses.

Good Luck and please send/email your own leaflets and letters and those of your opponents to ALDC so that we can spread good practice and monitor the activities of the opposition.

John Bridges

Campaigns Officer

PS. If you can't read the attached articles it is because they are in the members only area of the ALDC website.

If you are already a member of aldc you'll just need to log on when prompted. Your login and password are listed at the bottom of this email.
If you're not already a member of ALDC, to access these materials you’ll need to join ALDC. For candidates in the 2012 election joining by Direct Debit it only costs £3.41 per month.

Fighting Back in Darlington

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:55:00 +0100

With only three weeks left until polling day, and possibly no more than six until the postal votes begin winging their way to voters, April 12th was a good day to get a shot-in-the-arm election win. With four by-elections over the course of the week, the Lib Dem defence up in Darlington leapt out as a prospect.

The circumstances surrounding the election in Hurworth ward were complex, Group Leader Martin Swainston was controversially disqualified for non-attendance due to a compelling family issue. Martin was re-selected to stand again, and began the campaign with visits to local town councils and an article in the first by-election Focus, to explain the circumstances of his disqualification and re-affirm his consistent work in the ward over the period. The campaign itself was based on Martin’s strong record of local action, capitalising on his excellent reputation in the ward and previous successes fighting against a controversial housing development (to be sited on a local flood plain) and saving the local Hurworth School (pictured) from merging with another to form an Academy. This track record, Martin’s work in the ward, and his forthright explanation and apology, generated a significant amount of local goodwill on the doorsteps.

The campaign itself took the form of five black-and-white A4 Focus leaflets, combined with a prodigious canvass schedule that saw 80% of the ward covered. Outreach to postal voters was mainly via the doorstep. The ward is Tory-facing and Labour’s marginal increase in vote (around 2%) indicates that some of the Labour vote has remained effectively squeezed. The Conservative campaign won few friends with a series of very personal attacks against Martin, and fell short of unseating this popular local councillor by 38 votes. A hearty ‘well done’ to Martin and the team.

Darlington also had a second by-election, this one a Labour defence in the Harrowgate Hill ward, which was lost to the Conservatives. Elsewhere, in the East Finchley ward of Barnet Borough, Labour put 24% on their previous vote-share to make an easy defence, and the Tories held Newark and Sherwood’s Lowdham ward, despite the Liberal Democrat candidate polling a substantial 34% of the vote on their first time out.

ALDC received no reports of non-Principal by-elections for the week, and would like to wish the best of luck to all of our candidates and campaigners across the country.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

Campaign Countdown 8

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:05:00 +0100

Keep going! - there's only three weeks left!

It’s a 40 horse race in this Saturday's Grand National, but second place in politics is not an each way bet. Winning is what matters not good second places.

I don’t know about you, but having helped deliver my old ward fully once and been on four canvass sessions since the last email, I’m feeling battle hardened already. The wind, rain, sun and dogs have done their worst and I’m tired, but in total election mode.

With just a week till postal vote ballot papers start hitting doormats you need to target postal voters hard. Make sure they receive some quality literature this weekend together with some direct mail.
With three weeks left and lots still to do, we're all probably pretty tired by now. But keep up the hard work and we'll hopefully see some better results in May.

Deadlines

Next Wednesday 18th April is the deadline for people applying for proxy votes except for medical emergencies.

Thursday 26th April: The last day for the appointment of local election counting and polling agents.

Checklist for this week - this week should be all about postal voters

Deliver a quality campaign leaflet to peak for postal voters over the weekend – ideally, leaflets and direct mail
Deliver a mailing to postal voters and a postal vote recruitment letter to supporters without if not already done.
Get blue letters to postal voters addressed and stuffed and sent.
Canvass postal voters.
Start planning for polling day

Good Luck and please send/email your own leaflets and letters and those of your opponents to ALDC so that we can spread good practice and monitor the activities of the opposition.

Happy Campaigning!

John Bridges

Campaigns Officer

PS. If you can't read the attached articles it is because they are in the members only area of the ALDC website.

If you are already a member of aldc you'll just need to log on when prompted. Your login and password are listed at the bottom of this email.
If you're not already a member of ALDC, to access these materials you’ll need to join ALDC. For candidates in the 2012 election joining by Direct Debit it only costs £3.41 per month.

We Have A Winner!

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:22:00 +0100

No sooner did we predict no news for the week, due to an observant Maundy Thursday, than we received news from Pembrokeshire of our first 2012 local election win! Hard-working County Councillor Bob Kilmister has been returned unopposed to the Dinas Cross division. Well done, Bob, we hope you’re the first of many…

Without any further election news, we’d like to take the chance to promote our new conversation space on Facebook. The group ‘Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors’ has been redesigned as a secure online space for ALDC members to discuss campaign strategy, interesting articles, and campaign stories from across the country. We’d like all ALDC members to look us up as quickly as possible and join the conversation!

Looking forward, there are four by-elections slated for next week – including a very unusual Wednesday poll in the East Finchley ward of Barnet. The other three are in the traditional Thursday berth; Newark and Sherwood’s Lowdham ward (where a win could tip the Tories out of majority control) and two up in Darlington – Harrowgate Hill and Hurworth.

The best of luck to all of our candidates and campaigners across the country.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

New-Look ALDC Facebook Group

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:23:00 +0100

We have recently made substantial changes to the ALDC Facebook group.

The group has now become closed, meaning that non-members have been removed and only ALDC members will be permitted to join from here on. The group will become a secure online space for our members to discuss strategy, tactics, and campaign stories with ALDC officers and each other.

We would like to see as many members as possible take part. Simply log into Facebook, look up 'Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors', and join the conversation!

Campaign Countdown 7

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:09:00 +0100

Last call for nominations in England and Wales
Don't forget that the absolute final deadline is NOON, tomorrow, Wednesday 4th April. Returning officers have NO discretion to accept late nominations!!!

You just can't trust the weather!!! Rumour has it it’s going to get warm again, for the weekend. Which is great news for us.

The four-day weekend is perfect to get the first full leaflet out. Your priority in the early campaign should be on building your candidate’s profile and establishing their record. You should aim to get all your main campaign messages established in the early part of the campaign. Remember you should be promoting your candidate's record and what they have achieved for the area. There is little political advantage to be gained by a lengthy biography including details of school record, University achievements and club memberships!

You need to stamp your authority on the election. Getting lots of early literature out
a) Sets out the issues in the campaign, forcing others to respond to your agenda
b) Helps win the confidence battle, creating a micro-climate where local people believe we can win.

The next big thing to do is get your posters out to those who have offered to display one in the past. See the article below on making the most of your poster and stakeboard campaigns.

But don’t forget to take so some time with the family/friends - it’s going to be a tough 4 weeks. Depending on your religious convictions, Good Friday is perhaps a day for doing invisible things, artworking, batching leaflets, writing blue letter envelopes etc…

For those who are ALDC members we have launched a new closed Facebook group as a safe online environment in which members and staff can discuss strategy and campaign techniques. Look us up on Facebook and join in the conversation as soon as you can!

Legal Deadlines coming up:
Wednesday 4th April Noon - Nominations in England and Wales

Checklist for this week

Submit nominations!!!!!
Deliver first campaign leaflet over the weekend – ideally, leaflets and direct mail
Deliver a mailing to postal voters and a postal vote recruitment letter to supporters without.
Buy stamps, ink, paper and rubber bands Riso and laser printer supplies so that you don’t run out over the long Easter weekend
Letter to supporters asking for their help in the campaign, include an appeal for money! Including a poster?
Canvass main roads (for posters) and postal voters
Distribute blue envelopes to clerical helpers for address writing

Good Luck

John Bridges

We Should Not Be 'The 40%'!

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:10:00 +0100

Thursday’s by-elections gave us very little to work with, given that we only stood candidates in two of the five principal by-elections that took place. Whilst we understand that local circumstances can often throw up obstacles to a nomination, it is little short of unforgiveable to see candidates in only 40% of possible contests. ALDC’s advice remains the same: always, always, always stand a candidate!

In the two elections that we actually fought, the results were mixed. Whilst the 13% drop in vote in Wandsworth’s Southfields ward looks dramatic, it isn’t outside the percentage change we’ve seen in similar contests, and was enough to hold off the Green Party and UKIP on the night, with the Conservatives holding the seat against a 17% increase for Labour. Buxton Central in the High Peak was another Con-Lab horse race, but Derek John Webb and the local Focus Team held us fairly steady in percentage terms, whilst Labour held the seat by 20 votes against the Tories. Our congratulations to both Lib Dem teams for standing candidates (!), giving our supporters a Lib Dem on the ballot in two tricky seats.

As for the other three, we saw two holds and one change of hands. The Labour Party took the Crockenhill and West Hill ward of Sevenoaks BC from an Independent, whilst the Tories held their seats in Cowden and Hever (Sevenoaks, again), and North Kesteven District Council’s Heckington Rural ward.

Finally, our thanks to good Lib Dems of the Burbage Parish Council, who swept in with a late breaking headline to deliver some good news. Our candidate in St. Catherine’s Maureen Vivien Lynch, stole a march on the Conservatives and took the seat with a healthy majority of 52. Well done to the Burbage team for livening up a slow news day!

As of going to print, ALDC has not received notice of any by-election due for Maundy Thursday (in past times that would have been a given, but no longer). The very best of luck to all of our candidates and campaign teams across the country.

Craig Whittall

craig.whittall@aldc.org

Policy

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:50:00 +0100

Prior to the Coalition ALDC had very few requests for information about policy other than material to rebut the national Labour and Tory attacks on ourselves. When out of government this was reasonably straight forward exercise. In the fast moving media environment that we now inhabit it’s a tougher job.

So where can ALDC members and candidates access the information they need?

Lib Dem policy

The policy library is in the members area of the Party website and covers policy made at conference and national manifestos etc.
Lib Dem 2010 general election manifesto
Wales 2011 manifesto for the Assembly elections
Scotland 2011 manifesto for the Scottish parliament

Coalition Policy
The full text of the Coalition agreement is on the party website.
On the party’s website there is, available to download, a two page guide (colour) to the Liberal Democrat policies that are being implemented by the Coalition Government.

Day to day issues.
Obviously the government is announcing initiatives on a day to day basis. Probably the best way for key campaigners to keep up is using the Early Bird Briefings. It is a daily breakfast email briefing that contains the morning's national and Liberal Democrat headlines, talking points and diary items. If you'd like to receive it, please email Helen Duffett

Rebuttal and Campaigning issues

Material is produced by ALDC available on our website, usually in the Campaigner Section and send out in our weekly members email.
The Elections and Skills department have templates and standard letters on the “Huddle”

John Bridges March 2012

Campaign Countdown 6

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:27:00 +0100

It’s glorious around most of the country, and with the lighter evenings, great campaigning weather.

In today’s Election Briefing we thought we’d let you know what to expect over the next weeks from the Election Service.

Our emails will normally be on Monday or Tuesday each week. They will contain links to articles and materials on the ALDC website. Some will be available to all but most will be in the members-only area. To access these materials you’ll need to join ALDC if you are not already a member. For candidates in the 2012 election joining by Direct Debit it only costs £3.41 per month.
In all the emails we’ll remind you of legal deadlines coming up and give you a checklist for the week ahead.

On the 2nd April 2012 in Election Briefing 7 we’ll talk about activity and priorities over Easter and creating a “winning here” environment.
On the 10th April 2012 in Election Briefing 8 we’ll remind you to focus on postal voters and peak before their ballot papers are issued.
On the 16th April 2012 in Election Briefing 9 we’ll talk about your final week push.
On the 24th April 2012 in Election Briefing 10 we’ll talk about planning for polling day, and include the essentials like committee room poster artwork, Election Law poster, telling rotas etc…
On the 1st May 2012 in Election Briefing 11 we’ll focus on the Count, committee rooms and polling day strategy.

Legal Deadlines coming up:
Thursday 29th April 4pm - Nominations and withdrawals in Scotland
Wednesday 4th April Noon - Nominations in England and Wales

Checklist for this week

Submit nominations
Deliver final pre-election material – leaflets and direct mail ideally
Deliver a mailing to postal voters and a postal vote recruitment letter to supporters without.
Buy stamps, ink, paper and rubber bands riso and laser printer supplies so that you don’t run out over the long easter weekend
Letter to supporters asking for their help in the campaign, include an appeal for money!

Good Luck

John Bridges

London Calling...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:02:00 +0100

Thursday’s biggest news came from the capital, where established local campaigner Alison Hopkins (pictured, 3rd left) and the Brent Lib Dem team held the Dollis Hill ward against Labour. This victory is the first by-election win in a Labour-facing seat in London since the general election.

Alison’s long track record of campaigning in Dollis Hill, having spent 55 of her 57 years in the ward, set her in good stead, with community leaders and long-time local residents providing valuable endorsements in her leaflets. The use of ‘non-politician’ endorsements, both as ‘vox pop’ artwork and as street letter/blue letter authors is something that other parties use effectively in their campaigns, and is a tool that Lib Dems across the country should be making better use of. A particularly effective leaflet in this case came in the form of a timeline of Alison’s involvement in the ward, with photos and community campaigning details going back to the 1970s - firming up the essential message that Alison was by far the most local, and most accomplished, of the candidates on offer.

There were plenty of issues to choose from in Brent, and Alison’s prior work on saving Brent’s six (of twelve) libraries scheduled for closure, and the Brent Lib Dems dogged work on exposing wasteful spending by the Labour council clearly paid dividends in supressing the eventual Labour vote. A prodigious Tory squeeze knocked nearly 13% off their previous showing, another potential difference-maker when the day was eventually won by just 37 votes.

Particular emphasis was placed on winning the postal vote, with consistent PV recruitment activities prior to the campaign and an effective blue letter from Alison in the run-up to PV polling day. The emphasis was on door-knocking, with huge ward coverage, including lots of valuable doorstep work from Sarah Teather MP. The tactical side of the campaign was rounded off with full telling cover, Eve of Poll and targeted Good Morning, and a well-organised box count team on the night.

The real take-home themes of this crucial victory are consistent doorstep work, a well-prepared postal vote strategy, and the power of endorsements from local residents and community leaders (who are not affiliated with a political party). Our warmest congratulations to Alison and the Brent team, on writing a little bit of post-2010 by-election history!

Elsewhere, there were a further three principal by-elections. The Tories comfortably held Labour off in Hertfordshire County Council’s Waltham Cross Division, the Holland-on-Sea Residents Association kept their seat in St Bartholomew’s ward in Tendring, and, in the only change of hands on the night, West Devon’s Tavistock North ward was taken from the Conservatives by an Independent.

The very best of luck to all of our candidates and campaigners out in the field.

Craig Whittall
Communications Officer

Campaign Countdown 5

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:07:00 +0100

With the clocks changing this Sunday you’ll be getting an extra an hour in the evenings to get on the doorstep. In the next couple of days you should be receiving ALDC's “4 things to Win” checklist; key lessons for winning from the 2011 campaigns that we hope you will check against your own campaign plans for 2012.

One of the the 4 was Postal Votes. Postal voters have a higher propensity to use their vote, particularly in local elections - the postal vote turnout is normally at least twice that of other voters, and so its key to maximising our voter turnout and as a target group to campaign with as they will vote. See our 10 postal vote priorities attached.

Don’t be an April Fool
The deadline for the submission of nominations in Scotland is 4pm on 29th March.
The deadline for the submission of nominations in England and Wales is noon 4th April.
Your returning officer has NO discretion to accept late nominations.
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 forms and instruction can be found on the ALDC website

With the last flurry of literature hitting doormats this week before the regulated campaign many campaigners are asking when do Expenses start in England and Wales?
Expenses must be accounted for from the time that the candidate is deemed to have begun his campaign for a particular election and seat. The law relating to the start of candidacy for election expenses was simplified in 2000 as follows: A person becomes a candidate on either:
The last day for publication of notice of election (Tuesday 27th March for the 3rd May 2012 elections) if on or before that day he has declared himself a candidate (or someone has done so on his behalf)
OR after that date, on the day on which s/he (or someone on their behalf) declares their candidacy
OR on the day on which they are nominated (whichever is earlier).
Expenses do not relate to when you pay the bill or order materials but when you use them. You can print and pay for posters in January, it’s their use in the campaign period that needs to be declared. This advice applies to England and Wales only. See separate article on limits and deadlines in Scotland.

Connect Polling Day Training, The Bradford West By-Election team are running "Connect for Polling Day" training in Bradford next Tuesday, March 27th - at three times during the day at 11am 2pm and 7pm. The sessions will be run by Tim Pollard from the party’s Elections & Skills team. Please come to the Campaign HQ at 458a Killinghall Road Bradford BD2 4SL, at least 10 minutes before the training session is due to start. Just to be clear – each session will have the same content, they are not 3 different sessions. Lots of free parking is available across the road from the HQ, and the nearest railway station is Bradford Interchange which is a short taxi ride away. It would also be great if you and others coming could plan to spend some more time here during the day (before or after the Connect training session you choose) to help out Jeanette Sunderland and the very hard working Bradford West team, led by Adam Williams, by delivering some leaflets or knocking on some doors.

Everything you can do for the campaign while you are here, or from home, would be hugely appreciated. Here’s a map to the HQ

How's it going where you are?
Do let us know how the campaign is going in your council area. As the party's organisation for councillors, ALDC is often asked how the campaign is going around the country, but we only know if you tell us. This helps us to keep the wider party informed on where we are doing well and where we need extra support. Also, do let us know if there are any particular advice and templates that you could do with us making available to help you win. To let us know, please email Anders at anders.hanson@aldc.org

Can't see the articles? Remember that if you can’t see an article linked to this email it probably means that you’re not a member of ALDC. To help ensure that as many of the hundreds of Lib Dem candidates next May WIN, we're offering HALF PRICE membership of ALDC to every Lib Dem candidate in the May 2012 local elections, for as little as 79p week. See the article below for more details.

Good Luck

John Bridges

PS As in recent years Royal Mail price rises hit at the beginning of April so buy any stamps you may need for the campaign NOW. See story below for more details.

2012 Election Campaign Essentials

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:57:00 +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 and advice

Useful fonts including Democrat Sans and Helvetica Neue (zip file)

Liberal Democrat logos (zip file)
Liberal Democrat clipart
Liberal Democrat colours

Buy PagePlus x4 software

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

Watch Liberal Democrat training videos and download factsheets from OSKAR

Campaign template artwork

ALDC has commissioned this set of templates for use by Liberal Democrat campaigners. These are exclusively available to members of ALDC. This is in addition to the other templates, campaign toolkits, briefings and best practice available on the ALDC website.

Artwork Pack 1 - includes single issue and candidate canvass leaflet, A4 Focus and various surveys surveys

Artwork Pack 2 - includes 'candidate chosen' leaflet, cascade petition and members newsletter

Artwork Pack 3 - includes Conservative and Labour squeeze leaflets, new voter mailing and 18 year olds mailing

Artwork Pack 4 - includes 'back our campaign' letterhead, casework report cards, A3 Focus, postal vote form and leaflet and voter pledge card

Artwork Pack 5 - includes colour success leaflet with poster, Focus action leaflet, direct mail template and postal voters mailing

Artwork Pack 6 - includes 'get out the vote' materials, postal vote knock-up leaflets, good morning and knock-up leaflets

The following posts includes useful drop-in artwork and leaflets produced by the Department of Elections and Skills at Liberal Democrat Party Headquarters on a number of national issues.

Budget 2012 artwork

Campaigning on our national record - a list of some of our key achievements and links to relevant artwork.

Essential paperwork

Guidance on completing nomination papers

English and Welsh Nomination Papers

Nomination papers including candidate consent to nomination and agent notification forms (MS Word) - ward specific nomination papers will be available from your council
Certificate of Authorisation / Delegated Nominating Officer (DNO) form (PDF) - ALDC recommends you use this version rather than the one supplied by your council

Scottish Nomination Papers

Nomination papers including agent notification form and incorporating the candidate consent to nomination (MS Word) - ward specific nomination papers will be available from your council. Remember that in Scotland you only need a witness and not the signatures of ten electors.
Certificate of Authorisation / Delegated Nominating Officer (DNO) form (PDF) - ALDC recommends you use this version rather than the one supplied by your council

Generic other forms and paperwork

Polling agent notification form (MS Word)
Postal voting agent notification form (MS Word)
Counting agent notification form (MS Word)

Election expense forms and instructions - principal council elections (PDF)
Election expense forms - principal council elections (MS Excel)
Candidate's declaration (PDF)
Election agent's declaration (PDF)

N.B. The election expense forms have very slightly changed in the last two years to make them easier to complete, however forms from previous years are still valid.

Postal vote application form (PDF)
Postal vote application form (PagePlus)

Official guidance

Postal vote code of conduct (PDF)
Electoral Commission / ACPO guidance on preventing electoral malpractice (PDF)

Liberal Democrat Guidance

ALDC 2012 Council Candidate’s Handbook (PDF)

2012 Local Election Timetable - England and Wales (PDF)
Guidance on election expense limits and deadlines - England and Wales

2012 Local Election Timetable and election expense limits and deadlines - Scotland

Guidance on election imprints - England, Wales and Scotland

Don’t be an April fool

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:04:00 +0100

There were seven principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 15th March. The Lib Dems held one seat. Labour gained two seats from the Tories. The Tories held three seats and took one off the Greens. There were no parish or town council by-election result reported to ALDC.

If you have one of your sitting councillors disqualified for non-attendance - not something that should ever happen to a Lib Dem - then the only decent thing to do is to hold the subsequent by-election. In the Porchester East Ward in Fareham Borough council in Hampshire we had a good majority to defend but the Tories scented blood. They mobilised teams from far and wide using their 25 local councillors and 2 local MP’s to the full. The Tories threw the kitchen sink at the campaign and still lost.

In Broxtowe District council in Nottinghamshire, the 2011elections left the balance of the Council as 17 Labour, 9 Lib Dem and 18 Conservatives. Following discussions, a joint administration between the Lib Dems and Labour was agreed. Fighting by-elections whilst running the council is always hard work, but simultaneous by-elections for the County division and Borough ward in Toton and Chilwell gave us a crack at the Tories in an area we had long coveted.
Labour failed mysteriously to stand a candidate for the County division, but in both we fought a strong campaign with plenty of canvassing on foot and phone to deliver two encouraging results. With county elections in 2013 we have built infrastructure and positioning for future success.

Nominations Deadline
Nominations opened yesterday 22nd March in Scotland for the local elections on May 3rd and will close on Thursday 29th March at 4pm. In England and Wales nominations will close at noon on Wednesday 4th April. Don’t be an April Fool, 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 forms and instruction can be found on the ALDC website.
Please remember to tell us who your target candidates are so that we can add them to our free support service.

Other results:

Braintree DC, Great Notley and Braintree West
Braintree DC, Braintree East
Braintree DC, Braintree South
Scarborough BC, Hertford

Newcastle-Gateshead: Reporting Back

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC had a busy Spring Conference in Newcastle-Gateshead, with three new staff members (and one staff member in a new role), an exhibition stand, and two Fringe events.

In addition, we were glad to see a packed room at our ‘thank you’ event for members, where party President Tim Farron welcomed attendees, including our new recruits, to the fold!

Training and Publications

ALDC’s training schedule was full, packing in eight separate sessions into the two main Conference days. Training sessions on offer included, ‘Winning in the Last Week’, ‘Winning the Postal Vote’, ‘Elected Mayor Referendum’, and ‘Promoting Local Growth’. Conference also saw the launch of ALDC’s new Campaign Toolkits, with the first toolkit ‘Operation Clean Streets’ being made available to all members and publicised at the exhibition stand.

Nick Clegg joined ALDC Chief Executive Tim Pickstone and Membership Services Officer Emma Hall at the stand to discuss the wider local elections picture and promote ALDC’s joint publication with Mark Pack ‘Top Tips for Local Campaigners’.

ALDC officers also attended the LGA Local Government Awards, and CentreForum’s ‘Community Politics Reloaded’ event.

Development Officers

ALDC’s three Development Officers, Mike Bell, Neil Fawcett, and Mark Alcock, held introductory meetings with Lib Dem teams from the areas that they will now be assisting.

These short briefings were a valuable opportunity for Mike, Neil, and Mark to get a feel for each local campaign before visiting each team in the run-up to the local elections.

Communications Officer

Communications Officer Craig Whittall met with a number of keyfigures in the world of Lib Dem communications, including Helen Duffett and Mark Pack.

He also spent time at ALDC’s exhibition stand discussing developments in social media and the MyCouncillor website platform with members.

Fringe Events

Demand for our Friday evening Fringe Beating Labour Locally left the event ‘standing room only’, as Mark Pack, Mark Alcock, and Shaun Roberts discussed how to fight the Labour Party effectively in May’s local elections.

The Q&A afterwards was lively, as the full-house shared their stories of what has worked in their areas.

Our Saturday lunch-time Fringe event was a panel on Public Health, Local Control, with Paul Burstow MP, David Buck from the King’s Fund, and Baroness (Sal) Brinton. The Q&A kept the focus of the debate on Health &?Wellbeing Boards and the role of local government in the new NHS structures. The meeting was well-attended and conversations continued well into the afternoon.

Newcastle-Gateshead was a fantastic event, and we would like to thank all of our members who were able to pay us a visit and discuss events in their area.

Our next major event is the Local Government Conference in Bedford. With new training modules, special guests, and local government exhibitors, it will be a valuable opportunity for local campaign teams to build momentum going into the summer.

Always stand a candidate

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:50:00 +0100

There were three principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 8th March. Labour gained one seat from the Tories and held one seat. The Tories held one seat. There were no parish or town council by-elections results reported to ALDC.

Congratulations should go to our team in Kemsly ward of Swale borough council in Kent who managed to nearly double our vote. Even in situations where a win is unlikely plenty of useful work can be focussed around a by-election other than the duty to give the electorate a Liberal Democrat to vote for. A responsible local party should decide (quickly) at the first indication that a by-election may occur what its aims in the by - election will be. The default position should always be fighting to win, but there are other objectives:

Putting the party in a position to win the ward at a later date by:
•    Running a campaign sufficient to get to second place
•    Building a delivery network for the future
•    Recruiting membership, as part of Tim Farron’s membership drive,
are perhaps the most obvious, but it could also be training objectives. For instance:
•    practice using Connect in a live polling day situation is something many local parties (and neighbouring local parties) might find useful.

What is quite shocking is the number of times we still do not stand a candidate at all. Slough and Stafford should reflect on this. Sadly this is nothing new but it does not make it right.

With nominations already open in Scotland and only seven weeks to go to polling day, do let us know how the campaign is going in your council area. To let us know, please email John at the email address below.

Other elections

Slough BC, Bayliss and Stoke

Stafford BC, Rowley

Campaign Countdown 4

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:11:00 +0100

Today is just 8 weeks to go until polling day, but there's no need to panic.
In this edition of Election Briefing we will focus on guidance for the nomination process. Nominations for the local elections in England and Wales open in under 3 weeks, on 27th March, in Scotland they open next Tuesday the 13th!!

The deadline for the submission of nominations in Scotland is 4pm on 29th March
The deadline for the submission of nominations in England and Wales is noon 4th April

Make sure you get yours in early – don’t leave it to the last minute.

Resources
    Nominations Factsheet
    Eligibility Factsheet
    Election Timetable Scotland
    Election Timetable England and Wales

Nomination Forms from the Electoral Commission

Squeeze 2012

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Whilst promoting the merits of your candidate is the core of your campaigning, an equally important part of the campaign is to squeeze the 3rd, 4th or subsequent parties. Although many people actively choose to vote for a specific party, the key swing voters are often those whose motivation is to defeat a specific party instead. In many cases, those people will choose to vote Liberal Democrat to defeat whoever is the current incumbent party (or to keep out the main opposition, where we are the incumbents) but since the formation of the coalition that has got harder, so we need to hammer home the messages too.

You should include squeeze messages on your leaflets all year round. With all the national media focusing on the two bigger parties, you still need to keep hammering home the squeeze message even if you think that everyone must know by now and even if you think people will realise who the fight is between. The best known ways of emphasising the squeeze message are through using a bar chart as well as the "Two Horse Race" or "It's a straight choice" straplines. However, adding in extra squeeze leaflets that focus especially on the battle in that seat are very useful.

if you're fighting Labour you need to go after every single Conservative voter - even ones who have resisted 'being squeezed' in the past.
if you're fighting the Conservatives Labour-leaning voters who have traditionally lent us their votes need to be reminded again how important it is to vote Liberal Democrat. You need not just to convince Labour leaning voters that they can’t win and we can but that we are different from the local and national conservatives.
In Scotland and Wales, where we have a four party system, and in many local areas with Green or UKIP candidates we also need to squeeze the 4th and 5th parties, but the principles are the same.

Here we've provided a set of squeeze leaflets that you can use against either Labour or the Conservatives.If your squeeze message is working, you can include the 3rd party in your 'knocking up' and 'get out the vote' operations on polling day and immediately before.

Materials :

As always, all leaflets are available in three formats - mono (i.e. black and white), two-colour and full colour, depending on how you are planning to print them. Don't forget that these artwork packs have been commissioned by ALDC exclusively for ALDC members. They aren't available to anyone else. But the good news is that to help ensure that as many Lib Dem candidates this May WIN, we're offering HALF PRICE membership of ALDC to every Lib Dem candidate in the May 2012 local elections. Click here for details.

We are continuing to publish materials in PagePlus11, however we are urging everyone to take advantage of the special discount from Serif to upgrade to PagePlus X4 (buying via this link helps ALDC too). These templates do work in PagePlus X4, and over time we will start publishing only in X4.

If you haven't downloaded our fonts pack before, then you need to do that FIRST to make sure that these templates open right first time! Download the fonts here.

Zip files

All Conservative squeeze materials
All Labour squeeze materials

Winning Ways

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:38:00 +0100

There were two principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 1st March. The Lib Dems lost one seat to Labour but gained one seat from the Tories. There were four parish or town council by-elections result reported to ALDC, two Lib Dem holds, a gain from the Tories and one from Independents.

Shrewsbury’s Abbey ward is an urban unitary Shropshire county council division that surrounds the shire hall. It's one of those many seats we all know from around the country where we always thought we’d have a good chance if we had the time and resources to fight a full campaign. In common with many other by-elections it was predictable but what was good was that we not only saw it coming but we actually did something about it in advance. We found a good local campaigner to be the candidate and two leaflets went out in a largely unworked ward before the election was formally called.
In 2009 we had run a largely paperless campaign in the ward, and lost by 254 votes. Labour stood in 2009 and polled 269 votes. In the by-election they failed to nominate a candidate. We also benefitted from news breaking on polling day in the local media that Shropshire taxpayers must pay £820,000 to fund the unpopular Shrewsbury incinerator appeal - 90% of the appeal hearing costs.
Our sure footed campaigners made sure that our knock up leaflets on the day got that message across.
We ran a strong campaign including calling back three times on properties to make sure we got the maximum voter contact, and the biggest, freshest shuttleworth to knock that we could. The Tories were not complacent and had a local ex-policeman as their candidate, but to no avail. Beating the Tories by eight votes after recounts was brilliant but it again showed the need to carry on knocking till the close of poll.

In the Castle Ward, Carlisle in Cumbria things did not go so well. We were defending a county council seat won in 2009 that we had lost on co-terminus district boundaries in 2010 and 2011 so it was always going to be hard, and in the end we did improve our vote but not sufficiently. When we win wards on 34% of the vote they are always vulnerable.

Conference Planner

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:23:00 +0100

If you're going to Federal Spring Conference in Gateshead 9-11 March 2012 then take a look at our ALDC Conference Guide here with quick details of the ALDC and local government fringe programme, and the series of ALDC and ALDC/LGA training events that are taking place on Saturday.

Download our guide here (just 2 sides A4, if you want to print out).

Highlights include our Public Health Fringe on Saturday lunchtime with Paul Burstow MP (lunch included), a speaker session on Saturday afternoon on local economic growth with speakers from Bedford and Portsmouth, and a series of election campaign training for the forthcoming local elections.

Welsh Party Conference takes place this weekend, 2-4 March 2012 in Cardiff. ALDC will be there taking part in no less than five training sessions. Look out for the Welsh LGA lunchtime fringe Saturday 12-1 Argyll Room.

Scottish Party Conference takes place this weekend, 2-4 March 2012 in Inverness. ALDC and ASLDC will be there, including the ASLDC AGM 6.45pm on Saturday with Willie Rennie MSP as speaker - more details here.

New Staff Members and Update for Members

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC has recently completed a recruitment process for new staff members to join the team at ALDC. The new staff will be starting during March 2012. They are:

Development Officers
Neil Fawcett and Mike Bell

Neil Fawcett has a long history of working as a campaigner within the party, most recently as Deputy Director of Campaigns during the last Parliament. Neil is based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Mike Bell is our Group Leader on North Somerset Council, and based in Weston-super-Mare. He joins us from the office of David Heath MP and has previously worked as a regional campaigns officer in the South West.

Neil and Mike join existing staff member Mark Alcock to make up our new team of Development Officers. Between them they will be working to develop local campaigning across the country at a regional and local level.

Communications Officer
Craig Whittall

Craig Whittall joins us from the office of Gordon Birtwistle MP, and has previously worked for ALDC as a Temporary Political Officer during 2010.

Our new post of Communications Officer will be part of the team in Hebden Bridge, and will be responsible for improving how we communicate with members and other partners, as well as taking a lead on supporting the MyCouncillor websites.

We will be publishing an updated full list of staff, and updated roles and responsibilities shortly.

A quarterly update about the work of ALDC has been made available to members here (you need to log in first). A PDF version of the report is available here.

A tale of two defences

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:28:00 +0100

There were four principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 16th February. The Lib Dems lost one seat to the Tories and held one seat. Labour and the Tories held one seat each. There was seven parish or town council by-elections results reported to ALDC six Independents and a Liberal Democrat were elected.

For those outside the metropolis London Liberal Democrats are building a great team spirit. One by-election at a time “Team London” are building towards the GLA and Mayoral Elections in May. The Worcester Park Ward by-election defence in the London Borough of Sutton was another good step on the way.
In an election campaign that was strong in many areas they focussed a lot of effort on the postal vote. Both a postal vote good morning and knock up of non-anti postal voters are now becoming the norm in successful by-elections. They followed the good practice from recent Islington and Camden by-elections by making sure that every road received a locally relevant street letter. A good but very hard fought victory.

In Oadby Woodlands ward of Oadby and Wigston council on the outskirts of Leicester, we went to the count expecting to win. We were defending a seat on a council that we run with a healthy majority and Labour did not have a candidate. The local party have not come to final conclusions in their post mortem but it was clear on polling day that houses that we were knocking up were being knocked up by other parties, which indicates either poor canvassing or a late swing.

Ibstock and Heather Ward in North West Leicestershire is a semi -rural ex mining community that has had a few new housing estates added to it. It has traditionally voted Labour, and Labour are the opposition on the District council. In a political atmosphere where Labour has being holding 90% of its defence be-elections, a Labour hold here should have been no surprise.
What was a surprise was our jump from 4th to 2nd. Labour’s public local divisions led to the by-election and perhaps led them to parachute a candidate in. The Tories did the same. Our candidate was the only one to live in the ward. Labour did a very intensive door to door campaign. We concentrated on direct mail to postal voters and a six leaflet campaign. Not a victory but we now have more members and delivers in the ward and it is a potential target for the future from fighting it seriously.

Other Elections

Horsham DC, Itchingfield, Slinfold and Warnham

Going to Gateshead?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Federal Spring Conference takes place 9-11 March 2012 in Gateshead. Any Party member is welcome to attend, either as a delegate or as a day visitor. Click here for more details on how to register for the event.

ALDC has a busy programme of training and events for Liberal Democrat councillors and local camapaigners. Please note that everything is in the Sage Gateshead Conference Centre, so you will need to be registered to attend. This does include training sessions which normally take place in a separate venue.

Friday 9 March 2012
ALDC stand is open from 2.00-6.00pm. Come and find us at Stand 120/122 in the main exhibition area for advice, information about membership, help with ALDC's member services, or just to say hello!

ALDC Fringe: Beating Labour Locally 20.15 - 21.30 Room MEC7

Come and join leading local and national campaigners as we discuss strategies for how to effectively fight Labour at the local level. Come and have your say! Drinks provided, strictly Party members only.

Saturday 10 March 2012
ALDC stand is open 9.00am-6.00pm.

9.15-10.45am MEC6
Winning in the Last Week
Make sure you peak your campaign in the final week using the right techniques to get as many Lib Dem votes in the ballot box on 3rd May with Cllr Mark Alcock (ALDC).

9.15-10.45am MEC7
Election Planning Workshop
Workshop for people with local elections on 3 May 2012, all groups have been separately invited with Cllr Anders Hanson (ALDC), Victoria Marsom (Elections & Skills) and others.

11.00am -12.30pm MEC6
Elected Mayor Referendums Workshop (invite only)

11.00am-12.30pm MEC7
Making the most of the Localism Act
Implications and opportunities of using the Localism Act with Cllr Howard Sykes (Oldham).

ALDC Fringe: Public Health - Local Control 1.00-2.00pm Barbour Room
Paul Burstow MP (Minister of State for Health), David Buck (Kings Fund) and others discuss what opportunities and challenges lie ahead for public health under local government control. Lunch provided.

14.30-15.45 MEC6
Winning the Postal Vote Campaign
How to target this key group of voters throughout your campaign to make sure you peak your campaign just as the postal votes land on the mats with John Bridges (ALDC) and Simon Drage (London Region).

14.30-15.45 MEC7
Promoting Local Growth
Dealing with the Economic Downturn in your Council with Mayor Dave Hodgson (Bedford) and Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson (Portsmouth).

16.00-17.30 MEC6
Effective Squeeze
Using your squeeze message to attract the voters of the other parties to maximise your vote on 3rd May with Richard Cole (Portsmouth).

16.00-17.30 MEC7
Running an Effective Polling Day
Organising your polling day operation to make sure you reap the rewards of all the hard work throughout your campaign and maximise the Lib Dems votes in the ballot box with Paul Trollope (Westmorland & Lonsdale)

Sunday 11 March 2012
ALDC Stand is open 9.30am - 1.30pm

Council Group of the Year Awards 2012

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0100

From the LGA Liberal Democrat Group:

Love telling people about your good work and making your troops feel just great but hate ticking boxes and filling out forms? If so, you'll really like this year's Council Group of the Year awards. We got lots of appreciative letters last year telling us how you welcomed the fact there were no forms to fill in, no word limits and no Stalinist formatting to be done. (Ok, there weren't letters as such but we sensed your appreciation :) .

So it's the same this year - tell us what you've done that makes you think you deserve an award this year by the closing date Friday 2 March and we'll enter you into this year's awards. It can be for something you did in your ward, an achievement in a service area, or an overall strong performance by your group that might earn you the overall award of Council Group of the Year. As true localists, we're not producing guidance all you need to do is send us a compelling case by the deadline.

Why should I enter? Because:

we could all do with some good news – including your own group (and council staff)
you have earned a pat on the back after all your hard work
other Lib Dem councils are crying out for more effective ways of spending what money they have and want to learn from you
it’s nice to get a bit of recognition
the LGA Lib Dem Office will pass on your achievements so they can be picked up and shared more widely
you get to have your picture taken at Spring Conference with one of our judging panel, which can use it in your Focuses and website even if the nationals don’t pick it up!

As keen recyclers and fans of efficiency, as submissions, we’re happy to take award entries from LGC, MJ or other awards, committee reports, even press releases with weblinks. Whatever is easiest for you. We require only a convincing submission before the deadline.

alanna.coombes@local.gov.uk

Toasting Tories in Towcester

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:24:00 +0100

There were eight principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 9th February. The Lib Dems gained two seats off the Tories and held one seat. The Conservatives held three seats and gained one from UKIP. Labour gained one from UKIP. There were two parish or town council by-elections results reported to ALDC a Labour hold and a Labour gain from UKIP.

South Northamptonshire is a Lib Dem good news story. In February 2011 we targeted five wards in and around Towcester. In May 2011our team won two seats in the Towcester Brook Ward – our first two on the council. In September they won an ALDC award for their campaign. After conference the third district councillor in Towcester Brook,a Tory was diagnosed with cancer and as the Tory county councillor for Towcester had already moved to Launceston in Cornwall both by-elections were called together.

Our candidate for the district was an active local campaigner who had already fought to save a local lollipop lady and we stood one of our two existing district councillors for the county seat. They were the only local candidates in the election.
We started early, delivering a focus and holding canvas sessions every week from the beginning of December.

We had some great issues to fight on for instance:
1) the proposal to move the town hall - it was moved in the 80’s but they wanted to move it again.
2) the Tory county councillor who moved to Cornwall had her portrait painted rather than photographed (as county council chairman) at a cost of three thousand pounds!!
We ran a good campaign using Connect for the first time, the Tories, UKIP and the BNP did a few glossy leaflets but did not do much and Labour submitted incomplete nomination papers and so did not have candidates.

We now have ten Councillors on the County, the first time since 1949 we have been in double figures. However, in 1949, only eight of those were elected - three were aldermen.So as far as the records show (there is a gap between 1919 and 1937) this is the first time since 1919 that we have been in double figures on the County. That's the first time in 93 years!

Elsewhere we had held our seat in Windmere Town - South Lakeland council with a mere 72.9% of the vote - up 3%.

A very good night

Other Elections:

Hampshire CC, Winchester Southern Parishes
Staffordshire CC, Leek South
Staffordshire Moorlands DC, Leek North
Suffolk Coastal DC, Kesgrave East
Suffolk CC, Kesgrave and Rushmere St Andrew

Willie Rennie MSP to speak at ASLDC AGM

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0100

The Association of Scottish Liberal Democrat Councillors (ASLDC) is to hold its AGM during the Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference on Saturday 3rd March 2012. Their guest speaker is the Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Willie Rennie MSP.

The Annual General Meeting of ASLDC will take place in the La Scala Cinema of Eden Court Theatre in Inverness on Saturday 3 March at 6.45 pm.

The agenda is as follows:

Apologies
Minutes of 2011 AGM
Matters Arising therefrom
Convener's Report
Treasurer's Report
Election of office-bearers
Election of Committee
AOCB

For more details of the ASLDC AGM contact ASLDC's secretary Caron Lindsay. To book for the Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference you can find further details on the Scottish Liberal Democrats website.

Back to Beating Labour

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:58:00 +0100

There was one principal local council by-election held on Thursday 2nd February. The Lib Dems gained one seat from Labour. There was one parish or town council by-election result reported to ALDC, a Lib Dem gain from the Tories.

Madeley is a pretty, vibrant and successful village just inside Staffordshire, between Crewe and Newcastle-under-Lyme, and is on the border between Staffordshire and Cheshire (and close to the Shropshire border too!) . The two member ward is in Newcastle Under Lyme. The Labour vote has historically been based in the old pit village area despite the pit closing in 1957.
Over the years its often been a close three way fight. In 2006, for instance, there were just 75 votes between the Labour victor and ourselves in third. In 2010 we took the seat off Labour. Labour's candidate won the second seat off the Tories in 2011 but his death led to the by-election.

So how did we win our first principal council seat from Labour in 2012?
Some key factors:
1.    The strong record of our existing councillor Billy Welsh in the ward. We then emphasised the team with our newish candidate who had built his personal record since he fought in May and was well-known as the owner of an award-winning guest house.
2.    The record of our group on the council which is in coalition (since 2006) with the Conservatives on issues such as the environment, recycling and carbon reduction improvements, new developments and a brand new leisure centre. We specifically highlighted the contributions of LD cabinet members and how those actions made a difference to Madeley.
3.    Both the Tories and Labour ran lacklustre campaigns – perhaps due to complacency and the inclement weather.
4.    The Tories failed to oppose the Boundary commission’s plans to abolish the Newcastle Under Lyme parliamentary constituency and put Madeley into a Stoke seat. We did not.
5.    We expected and duly got attacked (largely on local issues) by Labour but we anticipated and rebutted their main attacks.
6.    A small but dedicated cohesive Lib Dem team who ran their best campaign for years.

To top off a good day we won a parish seat off the Tories in Amersham, by four votes in the Old Town ward. Vera Head, of conference office fame, was our successful candidate. The two big issues that dominated the campaign were the HS2 route going through the ward and Buckinghamshire County council wanting to set up Waste Transfer Station in the ward

Less than 90 days to polling day…

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:51:00 +0100

There was one principal council by-election held on the 21st January. The Conservatives gained a seat from an Independent in the Uppingham ward of Rutland UA. Last May, the ward elected one Conservative, one Liberal Democrat and one Independent, with the Conservatives topping the poll. Unfortunately, in this by-election the Lib Dems came third behind Labour who had not stood last year. The Liberal Democrat candidate Peter Golden’s vote share went down by 2.1% polling200 votes, which was 24.0% of the vote share.

There were three Town Council by-elections reported to ALDC, the Lib Dems gained two seats and held one. The seat we held was in the Morpeth TC, Kirkhill ward, "The actual result was a dead heat - we got the extra vote when lots were drawn." The first seat we gained was in the Leighton Linslade TC, Barnabas ward, in the second town council by-election we gained the seat off an Independent in Berwick-upon-Tweed, St Boisil ward. This by-election in Berwick was the first time the party's new Connect system had been used in an election, and it performed the job incredibly well.

With less than ninety days to polling day, we all need to up our game in our campaigning for the elections on 3rd May. On ALDC’s website you will find all the templates and artwork examples you will need along with literature from the party's Department of Elections and Skills, which will save you time and effort that you can use knocking on doors and talking to the people who will vote in May.

ALDC has commissioned a series of FOCUS and campaign material templates for use by Liberal Democrat campaigners available exclusively to members of ALDC.

Packs 1,2,3 and 4 for 2011/2012 have been released and packs 5 and 6 will follow over the next two months:

The templates include: A3, A4 FOCUS, ideas for direct mail - new voter letters and inserts, postal voter recruitment letters and forms, casework cards, back our campaign artwork, squeeze materials, canvassing leaflets, members newsletters, single issue canvass leaflets, national and local surveys, these along with packs 5 and 6 will give you all the artwork you need for your election campaign and your year round campaigning - all of which have been produced in black and white, two colour (for RISOs) and in full colour (Colour RISO or commercial printer). All the FOCUS leaflets have variations to allow for single and for two and three member wards and election campaigns, and different bar charts for fighting the Tories and Labour.

Two difficult elections lead to two defeats

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:00:00 +0100

There were two principal local council by-elections that took place on Thursday 19th January 2012 resulting in Labour gaining two seats from the Lib Dems.

There was one town council result reported to ALDC which resulted in a gain for the Lib Dems from Labour on Horwich Town Council in Bolton. This meant the Lib Dem group on the council increased to 5 councillors and Labour losing its majority control on the council.

Of the two principal elections, the one in Redcar & Cleveland resulted in Labour running a very negative campaign and highlighting a controversial article that our candidate had on his Facebook site. We ran a very good campaign with all that you would expect, from lots of literature, good postal vote campaign, lots of voter contact and a full polling day operation. We seemed to have suffered with the negative campaign that Labour ran especially the article from our candidate’s Facebook account resulting in the Lib Dems losing our seat by 56 votes.

In the second by-election in St. Albans we were defending a seat we took from Labour by one vote with a paper candidate in 2010. The defeated Labour councillor, who’d represented the ward for 22 years, then re-stood in this by-election. In the 2011 election we lost to Labour coming third behind the Tories. The Lib Dem campaign was a positive one whereas the Labour campaign was negative attacking the Tories and squeezing the Lib Dems as the Tories only need one more seat to have a majority on the council. The Lib Dems improved and came second this time.

The Doorstep Challenge

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:58:00 +0100

We deliver leaflets till our shoes are worn out, now-a-days we also deliver letters, send emails and update our blogs and twitter feeds, but there is NO SUBSTITUTE for knocking on doors and talking to people.

The experience of last year’s local elections as a Party of Government in Westminster has taught us the importance of talking directly to voters. This is why you and your team to be knocking on doors now.

Why is this so important?
1 - It's very easy for politics and politicians to become remote. But as campaigning local Liberal Democrats a fundamental core of our belief is that we stand up for local people. To do this we need to talk to people, we need to find out what issues concern people as the basis for our local campaigning. People are genuinely pleased to see local politicians talking to them outside of election time.

2 - Not everybody hates us! It's true - have you knocked on any doors recently? Despite what those increasingly nasty people in the Labour Party would have us believe, most people understand the issues that the country is facing, and most people understand the commitment that Liberal Democrats have to their local area.

3 - Getting out "our vote" and squeezing the third party is crucial in winning local elections. But we can't do this unless we know who our supporters are, and who 3rd party supporters are. Use your door knocking to update your voter ID - compare this to previous data and you can see how you're doing in different areas.

4. Getting real data from real people makes it easier to plan your strategy for the campaign if you have good data on voting intentions now. It helps you understand which wards are safe, which ones need more work, and if any particular target literature is needed

Why Now?
This election is going to be a challenge. Starting your campaign in April is not going to work this time. By starting now you give yourself a better chance of being re-elected. Many people have already started, or started last year, or do this continuously - they have an even better chance of winning in May.

How to get going

1 - Sort out some calling leaflets. There are some really good simple A4 leaflets on the ALDC website which will work in any area - all you need to do is add your picture(s) and contact details. It might be a good idea to give the door-knockers some "action forms" to take a note of any casework - including email addresses!)

Candidate canvass leaflets from our Artwork pack 1 first published in August last year :
Black and White PagePlus11
Black and White PDF
Two colour PagePlus11
Two colour PDF
Full colour PagePlus11
Full colour PDF

2 - Sort out when you're going. Choose two or three times a week when you're going out as a "team" (it's much more satisfactory as a team). Tuesdays at 6, Saturdays at 10, Sundays at 4 - whatever works for you and your team.

3 - Sort out who you're calling on. Some people "filter" the canvass sheets so we only call on more important households - if you put on the marked register from the General Election you could "filter out" people who didn't vote in the General (if they didn't vote then they're unlikely to vote in the locals!), if you're fighting Labour it might be an idea to filter out HARD Labour households (and people down as Anti or Not Voting or BNP) - no point wasting your time is there?

4 - If it's raining have some telephone canvass sheets as a backup. Invite people round to your house, give them a cup of tea and some biscuits and do a couple of hours phoning round the kitchen table as a group (most people have minutes on their mobiles, or get some old mobiles out of an old drawer with a pay as you go SIM).

ALDC has written a series of articles on voter ID that explains all different aspects of voter ID. The full series is available to be viewed by ALDC members on our website.

Campaign Countdown 3

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:32:00 +0100

At 10pm in 100 days time and it will "all be over bar the counting" for this year's local elections. I do not need to tell you that the next 100 days are going to be tough for Liberal Democrats up and down the country to get the message across and campaign to have more Lib Dem Councillors representing local people on the 3rd May 2012.

Target Ruthlessly
If you've not done this already the campaign from now on should be only about targeted seats. This means campaigning in the local elections where we plan to HOLD a Lib Dem seat, or WIN a new Lib Dem seat. Remember ALL your historic canvas data will need to be revisited before May 3rd. This will require a lot of extra work in wards which we have historically regarded as safe and targeting plans need to reflect this. If you don’t recruit new members, canvassers and deliverers in the next few weeks you will need to target your existing resources on fewer wards to be successful. It’s that simple.

Half Price ALDC Membership for Candidates!

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0100

We don't need to tell you how important the elections in May 2012 are to the Party.

To help ensure that as many of the hundreds of Lib Dem candidates next May WIN, we're offering HALF PRICE membership of ALDC to every Lib Dem candidate in the May 2012 local elections.

For as little as 79p week, all ALDC members will be able to benefit from:

exclusive access to campaign literature templates, artwork and advice
exclusive weekly "Campaigner" email, packed full of campaign issues, ideas, council motions and best practice
ALDC's bi-monthly members magazine "Local Campaigner"
a free "MyCouncillor" website
full access to our advice line and online advice - exclusively available to ALDC members.
Free Connect Casework for ward work, worth £36

It's not just councillors who join ALDC, we're also proud to have a large number of candidates, agents, local campaigners, Parliamentary and local party staff as members.

The 50% discount is only available for people who join us by direct debit. Join us "paperfree" online today by filling in your details here. Call us on 01422 843 785 for more information.

Group Members of ALDC? - why not add your candidates?
The most successful local party in the 2010 elections was the London Borough of Sutton. What did they do in advance of the elections - sign up every single candidate as a member of ALDC through their group membership scheme. With the 50% discount this is even more affordable.

Job Opportunities at ALDC

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:29:00 +0100

ALDC is currently recruiting for a Communications Officer (Hebden Bridge) and 2 x Development Officers (location flexible). Deadline for applications is 6 February 2012.

Following the receipt of new income from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd, and after an internal re-organisation we are currently looking for three new staff members to join the ALDC team.

This includes a Hebden Bridge based Communications Officer who will lead the development of our communications, particularly online and social media, as well as taking forward our councillors’ website platform “myCouncillor”. We’re also looking for two new part-time Development Officer posts to work on the ground to develop the capacity and success of Liberal Democrat activists outside of target parliamentary seat areas. We’re specifically looking to extend the on the ground support we can offer away from Hebden Bridge, so we are NOT looking for staff to work in the nearby regions of North West and Yorkshire and the Humber.

Communications Officer

(Full Time, Hebden Bridge)
Help lead ALDC’s communications with our members and partners through taking forward our online communications and use of social media. Help our members communications by taking forward our “MyCouncillor” website platform for Lib Dem councillors and campaigners.
SO1-SO2 £24,646-28,636 + 8% pension contribution

Download Application Pack here

Development Officer x 2
(3 days a week, location flexible)
Help us support and develop teams of Liberal Democrat activists around the country in our ambitious programme to help develop effective campaigning and local election success. We are looking to extend the on the ground reach of ALDC, so are not looking for staff to be working near to our base in Hebden Bridge (ie not North West, not Yorkshire and the Humber), but otherwise location flexible).

SO1-SO2 £24,646-28,636 pro-rata + 8% pension contribution

Download Application Pack here

The deadline for application is 9.00am 6 February 2012.

All interviews will take place on 15 February 2012 in Manchester.

Principal Local Byelection Analysis for 2011

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0100

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Defence by Party for all of 2011

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Our performance against other parties in 2011

Cumulative votes cast in the whole of 2011

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Campaign Countdown 2

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:04:00 +0100

It’s wild and windy but there’s just 120 days till polling day on May 3rd 2012 so why should I appoint my agent now?

Being the agent for an election candidate is a highly responsible and legally significant position (see the article below) and one that many candidates (and local parties) leave to the beginning of the regulated election period (27th March). True, you have to appoint an agent as part of the nomination procedure between 27th March and noon on 4th April 2012 or else act as your own agent (not at all advisable) but an agent can be much more than the legal limiter and conscience of the campaign.
An agent can be the one person you can rely on to be out with you canvassing on a cold dark night. The person who can be honest both to you about how you’re doing and honest to those overseeing our campaigning in the authority on how we are doing, free from the usual candidate’s rose tinted spectacles. They can be the one who keeps track of the stats and figures, the one who keeps you to your agreed campaign plan. They can both keep your feet on the ground and tell when you need and deserve a rest. In some campaigns this is separated out into a “campaign manager” role. The joint role has the advantage of somebody who can keep you up to the mark.
Obviously the more experienced your agent is the better. .It’s an ill wind that means that we have a lot of very experienced campaigners around the party at the moment who are not elected or defending seats, some who lost seats last May through no fault of their own. Grab them, grab their experience and get them helping you in the final 120 days of the campaign, not just the last 30.
So find your agent now!!

How can ALDC help?
In many cases agents are new to the job and learning their way. What is available to help you?
In the legal role of an election agent there is Winning Local Elections volume 3 “The Election Law Handbook” this is getting a bit dated but is still available in the ALDC online shop. The most up to date articles on new developments are in the Election Law part of the Advice section of the ALDC website. We will also produce a number of Factsheets and articles on key issues such as the nomination process in the Election briefings over the next months. Why not get your Agent to sign up for Election Briefing? It’s not just for candidates! In addition, as the election approaches, we will be launching our usual Election Law phone line.
In their campaign management role (if they’re taking this on as well) then most of ALDC campaigning publications and advice will be invaluable. Why not get them to join ALDC its only £6.83 per month. Join here to get access to all our services.

G8 Deadline

The G8 Grants Committee is looking to make grants to local parties in Scotland, Wales and England who have local elections in May 2012. We know from experience that early campaigning activity works. We want to reward those that are starting early on their campaign for 2012 and are therefore "Round 2" of the grants, will be to reward local parties who can demonstrate a good level of campaigning activity in the Autumn/Winter period running up to Christmas. Remember applications must be returned by this Sunday 8 January 2012.

John Bridges
Political Officer ALDC

These emails are being sent to our target candidates and key activists in the run up to the local elections in May 2012. If you should not be receiving this email, or you know of others who should but don’t contact me at ALDC and we’ll update our records!!!

G8 Grants for 2012

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0100

G8 Grants for Local Campaigning for the 2012 Local Elections

Where people have elections by 1/3rds we are keen to support wards that we are defending in 2012 but that we lost in 2011.

To be eligible for a grant we will need to see most of the following in place:

knocking on doors has been taking place, and that a plan of knocking on doors, and phoning voters is in place up to the elections in target wards
regular delivery of FOCUS and other literature and a literature plan in place up to the elections.
candidates in place in target wards
a good strategy in place for the May elections across the authority including which wards will be targeted, with strong leadership and the team on board

Applications are through a simple online form, Link to application form for England, Scotland and Wales .

Applications must be returned by Sunday 8 January 2012

Campaign Countdown 1

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:08:00 +0100

It’s cold, wet and dark but there’s just 20 weeks till polling day on May 3rd 2012.

Welcome to the first of our campaign emails. These are being sent to our target candidates and key activists in the run up to the local elections in May 2012. If you should not be receiving this email, or you know of others who should but don’t contact me at ALDC and we’ll update our records!!!

In many wards we will need to identify 2,000 supporters between now and polling day to give us a chance of winning. That’s 100 a week. Start now, don’t wait until this becomes an insurmountable problem.
Here are some things you can do to gather voter ID, even at this time of year…..

Knock and drop surveying
Chat canvassing
Canvass old people’s homes and sheltered housing
Tower blocks
Phone surveying

Spreading the load is important, so take some time over the holiday period to say "thank you" to your helpers and supporters, whether it’s a card or a phone call it will pay dividends over the coming weeks.

New free booklet from ALDC - Introduction to Connect

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:24:00 +0100

All ALDC members will shortly receive a FREE booklet all about how to use Connect - the party's new data management system. The booklet will come with the next members mailing that will be arriving in the post next week.

The booklet has been written by Tim Pollard and Austin Rathe from the party's Department of Elections and Skills who have been leading on the project. It includes:

Ten ways Connect will help you win
How to first start using the system
How to search for information and use lists
Tags, questions and scripts (or how to record different sorts of data)
Creating reports and canvass sheets
Entering data
Printing letters
Managing casework using Connect Casework (free to ALDC members early in the New Year)
How to get more help

The booklet is designed as a simple introduction to get people going and further booklets and advice will be produced at a later. All ALDC members will receive one free copy and further copies will be available to purchase for £4 via the ALDC shop in the New Year.

You can find out more about Connect on the ALDC website.

Time to reflect

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:22:00 +0100

There were five principal local council by-election held on Thursday 15th December. The Tories held three but lost one to an Independent and there was an Independent hold. There were no parish or town council by-election result reported to ALDC.

Coombe Vale Ward in New Malden is part of the Lib Dem controlled London Borough of Kingston upon Thames. The balance on the council as a whole is LD 27 Con 21. We held three seats in the ward until 2002, when the Tories took one but it’s been solidly Tory since 2006. Despite it being in the Richmond Park parliamentary constituency it did not have a great record after 2006. However in 2010 we came within 89 votes of taking a seat and we had high hopes of two gains in this double by-election. We lost both seats.
So what happened?
As ever with our ruminations on by-elections, it’s early days and there is much analysis to be done. The first thing to say was that it was not due to a lack of work or expertise. We had experienced, reliable canvassers on the doorsteps, good literature and a great team using the latest techniques. Two years ago this campaign would have won.
The Tories should have been on weak ground. One of the their two resignations was for a councillor who had moved to the US and continued to claim his allowance for four months. However they sought to insulate themselves from this by running two female candidates out of the well-resourced Richmond Park (Zac Goldsmith’s) office.
We thought we were squeezing the Labour vote hard but obviously not effectively enough as their vote went up. They repeated the mantra that “it’s Labour or the Coalition” whereas the reality was that voting Labour let the Tories in. The turnout, 43% was much higher than expected in a by-election a week before Christmas. In the 2006 all-outs it had been 51% and on general election day in 2010 74%. Much higher than in the Feltham and Heston parliamentary by-election down the road.
We had a huge amount of canvass data two thirds of which was current, and our eve of poll and polling day feedback suggested that we were winning. But we lost all the ballot boxes at the count. This suggests some fundamental problems. As we develop our responses to those problems over the coming months we need, as London have done, to use by-elections to test their impact.
We can, and should use the time over Christmas to reflect on whether the problem is:

Voters are being truthful but change their mind (why?) before they get to a ballot box. - do we need to counter late voting influences, if so how?
Voters don’t like to offend the nice local Lib Dems and even good canvassers are failing to pick it up - do we need better methods of gathering voter ID that avoid this misinformation, if so, what?.
Are we mistaken in our previously held beliefs about who votes when they are identified and knocked up?

ALDC would be keen to hear from those who have theories or suggestions to make.

Other elections

Mid Devon DC, Clare and Shuttern
Melton BC, Frisby on the Wreake
Shetland UA, Shetland Central

Christmas Opening Times

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0100

The ALDC Office will be open until 3.00pm on Friday 23 December 2011, and re-open at 9.30am on Tuesday 3 January 2012.

Messages on the answerphone will be dealt with in the new year, so if there are any urgent advice queries please use the "Advice" facility on this website, which will be checked over the holiday period.

If there are any urgent queries over the myCouncillor system, or any system problems, these should also be reported through the same link.

Can we take the opportunity to wish all our members and friends a very Happy Christmas, and the very best for 2012.

Anders, David, Eleanor, Emma, John, Mark and Tim!

Where there's a Wells there's a way

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:34:00 +0100

With the cold winter weather now set in, the result in a by-election in Wells Constituency in Somerset at least gave us some heart-warming news. Although we didn’t managed to win we achieved an impressive 15% swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat.

The Brent division of Somerset County Council is a collection of small villages in the Somerset Levels sandwiched between the resorts of Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea. Until 1988 it had a Liberal councillor, but since then it has become the safest Conservative seat in Somerset with them receiving nearly 70% of the vote in the last county council elections. The death of the previous Conservative councillor gave us a chance to win the seat back, and although we had a very active candidate and ran a strong campaign we couldn’t quite overturn their huge majority.

Our candidate Helen Groves was a town councillor from Burnham-on-Sea who was involved with a number of local community groups. As soon as we knew back in September that there was to be a by-election the campaign started with our candidate and her team knocking on loads of doors over the coming months. We also had lots of help from across the South West. Certainly this face-to-face contact and identifying local issues early made a big difference as it allowed us to run very local leaflets picking up on specific campaigns in each individual village.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives chose a local farmer and district councillor as their candidate. He already represented part of the division and so in that area at least he had good name recognition. However, he did also have a somewhat controversial reputation following an incident in 2007 when he threw a dead sheep at a crowd of school children. The Conservatives had few people on the ground until right at the end and spent a lot of money on posting out huge volumes of professionally printed direct mail, leaflets and even a tabloid newspaper. Much of the direct mail was targeted at getting their voters out – a potentially good tactic when turnout is likely to be low – but it only had one uniform message across the whole division. We spent far less, however we had far better campaign messages that combined the very local and the countywide. During the campaign the Conservative county council spent £61,000 on losing a judicial review on library closures and had decided to turn off speed cameras – a big issue in a division that includes the M5 and the busy A38.

What this by-election showed though was that even in big very rural county divisions, it’s still possible to run very intensive election campaigns that make an impact. We didn’t win, (although we think it was the biggest swing from the Conservatives to us in the constituency in 30 years), but if we can get a 15% swing against the Conservatives in other places in the next county council elections we will do very well indeed.

The other by-election on the day was:
Rochford DC, Rayleigh Central

Another successful Kickstart event

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0100

The Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors (ALDC) recently held another successful Kickstart event over the weekend of 25-27^th November. 140 keen Lib Dem campaigners and candidates from across Britain, gathered in a hotel near Birmingham for a weekend of training and mentoring. Over the many years it has been running you can trace the electoral success in a range of different places back to their decision to attend the event. With 20 different training sessions, three drop-in Q&A sessions, several hours of mentoring with an experienced campaigner and inspiring speeches, the participants came away with improved campaign plans, refreshed knowledge and loads of new ideas to try out.

One participant, Sarah McStravick from Lewes said: “It was very thought provoking, motivating and gave me plenty of ideas. I have come away, more focused, enthusiastic and knowledgeable about how to help the local community in action. I would highly recommend this training to all members of the party at all levels.”

Louise Shaw from Stockport said: “From Friday night until Sunday afternoon, our time was packed with training sessions, time with our mentor and of course socialising. It was a great event to attend and be a part of and our mentor really knew her stuff.”

The date for next year’s event is already set for 23^rd-25^th November 2012 and so put it in your diary now. Bookings will open around the time of the next Autumn Federal Conference.

One up One down

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:00:00 +0100

There were five principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 24th November. We gained a seat off the Tories but lost one to Labour. Mebyon Kernow gained one seat from Independents and there were two Labour holds. There was one parish or town council by-election result reported to ALDC, an Independent hold.

Hazelmere South, is part of a large, largely 70’s overspill estate around Hazelmere village that effectively merges into the wider Wycombe conurbation, in Buckinghamshire. Over the year despite being briefly held by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats the area has been solidly Conservative. In 2007 the Tories elected two councillors unopposed and in 2011 we came third with a paperless campaign. Both Tories elected in May blotted their copy books. One had a homophobic rant on his blog and the other it is suggested fled to the Midlands when dubious material was found on his council computer and resigned to cause the by-election.
Enter our candidate embedded in his community and regarded by many as “Mr Hazelmere”. We front loaded our campaign targeting postal voters with three letters prior to the issue of postal votes including and endorsement letter from a local resident. Only our candidate and the UKIP candidate lived in the ward. UKIP rallied behind their candidate including a visit by Nigel Farage but it was too late. Our candidate did not just raise local issues he had a track record of tackling them.

The Lakenham division of Norfolk County Council actually lies in Norwich, and in the Norwich South constituency. In a held parliamentary seat we naturally fought a strong campaign. The boundary is coterminous with the three councillor city council ward where our by-election candidate is one of the three councillors. In May labour held one of their two seats in the Ward by a larger margin so we knew it was going to be a tough fight. In the end we held off the Green challenge and pulled some ground back from Labour’s result in May.

Other results

Bradford MBC, Great Horton
Cornwall CC, Wendron
Ashford BC, Beaver

Nominations open for the 2012 LGiU and CCLA C'llr Achievement Awards

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:00:00 +0100

The 2012 LGiU and CCLA C'llr Achievement Awards are open for entries. Liberal Democrat councillors have done very well in these awards since they first started two years ago. Last year, Cllr James Barber from Southwark won Online Councillor of the Year and two years ago we had three winning councillors. They are now established as the only national ceremony that recognises and rewards the fantastic work of councillors from across the political spectrum.

In light of the ever-growing popularity of the awards, they have created some exciting new categories for 2012, including the Age UK Pride of Place Award, the Judges’ Special Award for Contribution to Local Government, and the Bruce-Lockhart Member Scholarship.

With these additions, there will be a total of 11 different awards on offer at the 2012 ceremony. The Bruce-Lockhart Member Scholarship will be of particular interest as the winning councillor will be presented with a £10,000 bursary, supported by Kent, Essex, and East Sussex councils.

It is free to enter the 2012 awards, and the closing date is set for Friday 30th December 2011. The ceremony is due to be held in late February 2012.

For further details on the different awards and the new streamlined nomination process then visit www.lgiu.org.uk/cllrawards or contact the LGiU at awards@lgiu.org.uk.

Four votes away from four holds

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 23:01:00 +0100

There were seven principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 17th November. We held three seats and lost one to the Tories. The SNP held one seat, the Tories gained one from Independent and Labour gained one from Plaid. There was one parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC, a Lib Dem hold.

In Warrington we were on our third by-election in 7 months in Poulton North. Avid readers of this column will remember our first success in a Labour facing ward in July. Unfortunately our excellent popular councillor died shortly after the by-election and triggered a third election in the Ward. A tribute leaflet was the first to hit the doormat but the campaign revolved around issues of trust. In July Labour claimed that the Lib Dems had colluded with developers in an unpopular planning decision in the area. They were forced to retract the story and were fined by the courts. In this by-election Labour continued with their innuendo. We could simply state that they had been found guilty of lying.
Having canvassed the ward heavily earlier in the year we focussed our doorstep work on talking to our existing, identified support. A good, well deserved hold.

Elsewhere in the North West things did not go as well. In Ribble Valley’s two councillor Salthill ward we lost by four votes. The Tories normally top the poll in the ward with us picking up the second seat, but with just one vacancy we didn’t hold on. Our activists reported that the Tories were using their mobile phones as part of the knocking up process and using celebrity phone knocking, in this case Baroness Warsi on the relatively small Asian vote.

In Redcar and Cleveland we took both seats in Zetland ward in last years locals, one off the Tories and one off Labour. Our existing and excellent councillors then had to resign following a qualification issue (more about this in a later column) . One, Ron Harrison was eligible to restand in the by-election and was joined by 23 year old, now Cllr Josh Mason. Both Labour and the Tories fought hard. The Tories only used the name of one of their candidates on the posters and seemed to accept that we would retain at least our existing councillor – targeting the second seat. Labour stood candidates that didn’t live in the ward. We focussed on canvassing -knocking on every door in the ward. The double victory is a tribute both to our council team and excellent MP.

Other Elections

Glasgow City Council UA, Hillhead
Isle of Wight UA, West Wight
Wrexham UA, Ruabon

The French Revolution

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:22:00 +0100

There were four principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 10th November. There was a Lib Dem gain from the Tories, two Labour holds and a Labour gain from Respect. There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

In Ipswich we took revenge on the Tories for losses last May. St Margaret’s ward was first won in 1994 but we started to take control in 1999 and have had all three councillors for the ward from then onwards. In May our elderly sitting councillor stood down for Cathy French to pick up the baton. Along with many others across the country she lost in May. The Tory victor, perhaps not expecting her success, resigned after four months citing lack of support from her Tory colleagues.

We pulled together with support from across Suffolk, pounded the streets, used a bolder Focus style and phoned knock up over 800 households on the day. The Tories fought hard but this was the sixth defeat for their candidate. This leaves the overall political balance of the 48-member Ipswich Council as Labour 28, Conservatives 15 and Liberal Democrats 5.

In the St Marys Ward in Islington we threw the kitchen sink at the election. We pulled a huge amount of support and effort in from all across London and failed to get the turnaround in support that we had hoped. This was partly because of the number of Labour activists that hit the street and partly because of their negative scaremongering. We had much to be proud of including delivering target mail to the 1000 plus new voters that were added to the register on the Friday before polling day.

It’s clear that the Tories are again vulnerable and Labour, fighting dirty are a tougher prospect and we may need to develop new techniques and approaches over the coming months to deal with them.

Other principal elections:

Redbridge LBC, Aldborough
Birmingham City Council, Sparkbrook

Scottish Seven Vote Stunner

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:09:00 +0100

There were four principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 3rd November. There was a Lib Dem gain from Labour, two Tory holds and an SNP hold . There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

The Inverness South ward by-election ends a run of poor Scottish by-election results, and will be used to encourage activists to keep going to the close of poll for some time to come, seven votes being the margin of victory.

The sitting Labour councillor was jailed for a year for benefit fraud totalling £43,000 . It perhaps is indicative of the different political atmosphere that STV elections generate that this was hardly mentioned in any of the campaign literature from any of the parties. Labour were not in contention in a by-election situation in the ward, and given the extensive media coverage of the trial alienating voters potential second preference voters was not top of anybody’s campaign plan.
There was no big issue in the campaign other than who was the best person for the job but as is usual the SNP did glossy leaflets sloganizing. We focussed on the nitty gritty of the issues that local people raised with us.

The ward is urban by Highland standards including the southern suburbs of Inverness but at 522sq km it is larger than 42 English Authorities. It will therefore surprise few that we did six editions of some Focuses to reflect local concerns.Given the size of the ward our campaign was strong on door knocking and postal vote activity, but we stll did target letters, a survey, two leaflets to every household, a blue letter and a "Good Morning". A feature of the campaign was a dedicated poster team as the Highland local authority take a relaxed attitude to poster boards on lampposts and it is a battle at every election. This is in not unique, Birmingham, for instance, have the same traditions. It is always strange to realise in the aftermath that many candidates had more Correx poster boards than votes.

This is only our second by-election gain off Labour this year.

Other elections:

Argyll and Bute UA, Oban North and Lorn
East Staffordshire DC, Yoxall
Leicestershire CC, Syston Ridgeway

Battling Bude

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:04:00 +0100

There were six principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 27th October. There was one Labour hold, two Tory holds and one Lib Dem hold. There were two Labour gains from Tory. There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

In the Bude North and Stratton ward of Cornwall County Council we held our seat convincingly, but - because we were starting from such a high mark - we officially suffered a swing against us of 4.4%. This wasn't due to the Tories (they lost vote share too) but because of additional candidates - in this case Labour and a local Independent.

Our message was threefold, as ever:
1.    The candidate: Although not a sitting councillor, our candidate David Parsons is “Mr Bude”. He has great ties to the town going back generations and has been very closely involved with local projects that mattered.
2.    We attacked the Tories who run the council: for the cuts and for waste.
3.    Our squeeze message was everywhere.
We did three full focuses, a set of target letters to definites and probables, a letter to postal voters, blue letters, good mornings and polling day literature. We also got useful information from 30% of the electors during the campaign and knocked on virtually every door.

The Tories did comparatively little and what they did appears to have been of pretty poor quality. With a better candidate than in 2009 they still went backwards. The Labour candidate was pretty much a one man band. Despite doing little (and our squeeze) he picked up just under 8% simply by being on the ballot paper.

We often have strong sitting councillors who are known for their work battling the administration and sticking up for their local area. But it's no good doing the work unless people get to hear about it month in/month out through the press and through our leaflets. Seats are not going to be won by a single person working flat out any more.

Other elections:

Lancashire CC, Wyreside
Newcastle Under Lyme BC, Newchapel
North Lanarkshire UA, Coatbridge North and Glenboig (ward 6)
North Yorkshire CC, Thornton Dale and the Wolds
Walsall MBC, Bloxwich East

Always stand a candidate

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:55:00 +0100

There were eight principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 20th October and one on Tuesday 18th. There were four Labour holds, three Tory holds and one Lib Dem hold. There was one Independent gain from Tory. There was one parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC, a Lib dem gain from the Conservatives.

In a pretty busy week for by-elections the highlight was undoubtedly holding our seat in the Bookham South , By-election in Mole Valley District Council in Surrey. Bookham South is three Councillor ward where we held all three until last May, when we lost one. One of our remaining two then died – hence the by-election.

We ran a pretty standard campaign with a Focus before the campaign started announcing Anne Howarth’s death avoiding expense limits. Then three full A3, full ward elections leaflets, a target letter and black (they didn’t have a blue drum!) letters to both PVs and non PVs. PVs were reminded, there were “Good Mornings” and 2 full knock-ups plus some phone follow-up.

A recurring feature in recent success was the focus on canvassing which was done very thoroughly – around 90% contact was achieved.
The Tories put a lot of effort in and the MP was spotted several times. UKIP also made an effort. Good for morale and it leaves us the largest Group as a result.

In the London Borough of Bromley, we had a creditable result in the Shortlands By-election. There were several reasons to be cheerful; Lib Dem vote share rose by 6.4%; we moved decisively from 4th place to second place and the Lab and Green vote shares were down.

In two elections we failed to stand candidates, Stafford and Great Yarmouth. We have argued week in, week out,in this column, win or lose standing a candidate is always the right thing to do. This applies to the Police Commissioner Elections as much as any other. The Constitution makes it plain:

The objectives of the Party shall be to secure the election of Liberal Democrats as Members of Parliament, UK Members of the European Parliament and members of local and other elected public authorities.

Other elections:

Mansfield DC, Park Hall
Cheshire West and Chester UA, Ellesmere Port Town
Nottingham City Council, Bridge
Salford MBC, Eccles
Great Yarmouth BC, Bradwell South and Hopton
Stafford BC, Walton
Adur DC, Cokeham - on Tuesday

Set SMART targets for your by-election

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:12:00 +0100

There were four principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 13th October. There were two Labour holds and two Tory holds. There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

In Sleaford West and Leasingham Division of Lincolnshire County council we ran minimal campaign, one leaflet, no canvassing and a candidate that did not live in the division. This is not normally a recipe for success and so it proved to be. Standing a candidate is always the right thing to do (and this includes Police Commissioner elections!) but when outright victory is unlikely, it’s important that you set specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely organisational targets. Often this will be about developing membership and delivery networks. Just putting a single leaflet across the whole division without structure or purpose can be and often is pointless and demoralising. It would, for instance, have made more sense to put three different leaflets out in a third of the ward. If you are not sure on what your best strategy is for a by-election, ring ALDC, your region or contact your nearest campaigns officer.

For those outside Lincolnshire the result for the Independent candidate may look unlikely. In Lincolnshire the Independents are an organised party with a leader. They stand candidates at every level of government including at the General Election and have their own website and organisational structure. They are a party machine masquerading as honourable amateurs. They are not unique but have been a notable obstruction to Lib Dem progress in the County.

ALDC is asking every local party who has local elections in May 2012 to let us know NOW the details of all candidates that area has already in place. Elections take place in Scotland, Wales and in many parts of England.

Each year ALDC provides a free support programme for Liberal Democrat local election candidates and organisers - in the next few weeks we'll be sending out a Liberal Democrat "Candidates' Handbook". This is being followed by regular emails and mailings. But we can only send the information if we have the know who your candidates are.

Register your candidates online or If it's easier just send these by email to david.ball@aldc.org.

Don't forget to receive our full advice service candidates will need to be members of ALDC. To help we're offering HALF PRICE membership of ALDC for all 2012 local election candidates

Other results

South Ribble BC, Bamber Bridge East
Gravesham BC, Meopham North
Barnsley MBC, St Helen's

Don't Miss Out! - One Day Lib Dem Localism Conference

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:32:00 +0100

Localism the New Opportunities
A Conference for Liberal Democrats

Book Online Now

Don't miss out on the chance to spend a day with other Liberal Democrats in local government, the Deputy Prime Minister and others at our one day Lib Dem Localism conference taking place on Friday 21st October 2011 (LONDON).

9:30am - 3.30pm (lunch and refreshments provided), Smith Square, Westminster, SW1P 3HZ

This is a conference and workshop for Liberal Democrats to look at the new opportunities provided by the Localism Bill.

Speakers:
Rt Hon Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister
Lord Victor Adebowale, Chief Executive, Turning Point
Gordon Lishman CBE, Author of the 1970 Community Politics Resolution to the Liberal Assembly
Andrew Stunell OBE, Lib Dem Minister DCLG
Helen Williams, Deputy Director of Neighbourhoods, National Housing Federation
Cllr Richard Kemp CBE, Deputy Leader, Liverpool Liberal Democrats
Chaired by Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Leader LGA Liberal Democrats

Who should attend?

Liberal Democrats who are: • Councillors • Community activists • Campaigners • Health Trusts and Housing Association Board members • School Governors

Afternoon workshops include:
Localism the Whole council approach
Cabinet Member for your Ward
Housing and neighbourhoods
Integrating Town Hall and Campaigning

The conference will be immediately followed by a discussion of the Resource Review (business rate) proposals at 3.00pm with Andrew Stunell MP and advisors to Danny Alexander MP. (this is for Group Leaders or other representatives, please email alanna.coombes@local.gov.uk if you are interested in attending.)

Book Now

Tell us who your Candidates are!

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:25:00 +0100

ALDC is asking every local party who has local elections in May 2012 to let us know NOW the details of all candidates that area has already in place. Elections take place in Scotland, Wales and in many parts of England.

Each year ALDC provides a free support programme for Liberal Democrat local election candidates and organisers - in the next few weeks we'll be sending out a Liberal Democrat "Candidates' Handbook". This is being followed by regular emails and mailings.

But we can only send the information if we have the know who your candidates are.

Register your candidates online at www.aldc.org/elections/candidates/ If it's easier just send these by email to david.ball@aldc.org

Don't forget to receive our full advice service candidates will need to be members of ALDC. To help we're offering HALF PRICE membership of ALDC for all 2012 local election candidates.

Join by direct debit online and paper free here.

Leaflets are not enough

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:48:00 +0100

There were three principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 6th October. There were two Labour holds and a Tory hold. There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

Kensington and Chelsea have pioneered developing their local parties capacity in the last couple of years following their tremendous victory in Colville Ward By-Election in July 2009. They have worked on neighbouring wards and used the combined strength of the London parties to build their strength in other recent by-elections such as Brompton and Queens Gate.
A sensible tactic for those who can afford it was used to get a quick first leaflet out in Norland before the start of the regulated period using paid delivery. As is often the case in safe Labour or Tory seats our relatively standard by-election methods can have dramatically more impact when they’re novel to the electorate. In Norland it was the “blue letters”. Residents really liked them, read them and responded to them.

In Watford we had two concurrent by-elections. Nascot, where we were defending, polled last week. For the first weeks of campaigning we naturally focused on holding Nascot successfully; the Vicarage campaign suffered as a result. With Nascot held, we condensed a five week campaign into five days in Vicarage. A piece of literature was delivered every day but we could not turn it round in such a short space of time. The message from most recent by-elections is that it is the doorstep work that is crucial to success and this fell by the wayside. We were not aided by a previous Lib Dem supporter standing as an independent and splitting the vote. In the circumstances second was a creditable result. What must be worrying for the Tories in a parliamentary seat that they won at the general election is that from the two by-elections in two weeks their aggregate position is now third.

Other Byelections:

Coventry City MBC, Lower Stoke

Kickstart Weekend - cheap rates end this Saturday!

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Cheaper "Early Bird" registrations for ALDC's Kickstart Training weekend end this Saturday (8 October 2011).

Kickstart takes place 25-27 November 2011, just north of Birmingham.. This is the main training event of the year for volunteer campaigners, and a great opportunity to ensure your team is a WINNING TEAM at your next local elections

Click here to go direct to the online booking form.

We've had an unprecedented level of interest in the event this year. It is great to see that so many people are up to the challenge of fighting local elections and sending a team to Kickstart.

WHAT YOU GET:
Over 20 hours of training – both advanced and beginner.
Over six hours for your team working with an experienced mentor to develop your campaign plan.
A weekend's accommodation at the Holiday Inn (M6 Junction 7 near Birmingham), food and training rooms. (There's even time for both the pool and the bar...). The weekend starts at 6:00pm on Friday and finishes 2:30pm on Sunday.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
Kickstart is great if you can bring along your campaign team. Imagine a whole weekend of campaign planning with expert help without any interference! This year we're encouraging everyone with elections in 2012 and 2013 to attend, but everyone is welcome.

Individual campaigners are also welcome - they will work together in small teams to develop plans and ideas. Kickstart works for experienced campaigners and new campaigners. It’s a great way to develop ideas and bring on new people.

IS MONEY A PROBLEM?
Many council areas provide assistance to their team to attend out of group funds. We know this isn't possible for everyone so there are a number of ways we can help.

- The G8 committee is happy to support council areas with elections in 2012 and 2013 with up to two "Half Price" places, with a priority for places with less resources than others. Contact ALDC for more details or email eleanor.ritchie@aldc.org

- If you've not got elections in 2012 or 2013, ALDC has a fund to support "Black Holes" attending Kickstart (no councillors or councillors in only one ward) - contact anders.hanson@aldc.org for more information.

- Save £60 by sharing a room (with someone you know!)

- If you're near to Birmingham we have some low-cost non-residential rates - not available to book online but contact emma.hall@aldc.org

HOW DO I BOOK:
You can book now – online at ALDC’s website – click here to go direct to the booking form. Remember you need to LOG IN as an ALDC member FIRST to receive your members discount which will then be applied automatically.
More information from Emma Hall – 01422 843 785 emma.hall@aldc.org

Autumn Arrivals

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:56:00 +0100

A flurry of new publications from ALDC and the Elections and Skills department and the Party President came out for Conference, and are all now available for sale:

Campaigning in your Community by Mark Pack and Shaun Roberts,
This ALDC booklet is about how you too can join the ranks of successful campaigners. It shows you how to find the right issues to campaign on, how to run successful campaigns and how to build up the team and the track-record which then wins your election, and re-election, as a councillor. Copies are available from the ALDC shop.

Building a winning team by Austin Rathe
This booklet from the Election and Skills Department is designed to show you how to build, motivate and organise a small committed team who have a winning attitude.
As well as practical advice it includes stories from Lib Dems across the country who bear testament to what we know works, and activities which will help make the theory relevant to your campaigns. It concludes with a task list to help you to start now to build your winning team. Copies are available from the ALDC shop.

Ask Every Time by Austin Rathe
When Liberal Democrats talk about local campaigning ambitions, the discussion often seems to end up in a familiar place; not enough money not enough people. “We don’t have enough volunteers because we don’t ask enough people to help” This booklet from the Election and Skills Department is based around that simple idea that is about recruiting that team of people who will deliver leaflets and knock on doors for you. It’s not about the “core” campaign team Copies are available from the ALDC shop.

Strong candidates, strong records, strong results

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:34:00 +0100

There were five principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 29th September. We held two seats, the Tories held one, Plaid one and Plaid gained one off Llais Gwynedd (Voice of Gwynedd). There was one parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC - a Tory hold.

Bishops Castle is a geographically large rural division on the Welsh border of Shropshire Unitary authority. Newton and Welshpool in Montgomeryshire are closer than either Shrewsbury or Ludlow. We won it 20 years ago after the hard graft of Peter Philips whose resignation caused the by-election. Peter suffered a pulmonary embolism on election day so a resignation for health reasons was always likely. He put it off to complete some major political projects dear to his heart, the local BioMass project and saving his local school. Once they were achieved he stood down. Bishops Castle was lucky that we had such a good candidate to replace Peter. Charlotte Barnes is a businesswomen, local campaigner, a local Parish Councillor and a parent governor at Bishop's Castle Primary School.
Sometimes by-elections struggle to get help in, not this one. Help came from Herefordshire, Montgomeryshire as well as from across the county. Even Tim Farron and Vince Cable found time to help. The glorious weather on polling day may have helped.
We delivered four leaflets in the three months before the election was called and then out shone all the other parties in quality, variety, content and volume of literature. Every house was canvassed by the candidate and or the outgoing councillor twice and in some cases three times. We relentlessly squeezed Labour (standing their first candidate since 1985 -“ what do you do with the numbers?” she asked our tellers!) and the Greens. Despite the massive turn out for by-election 51%, we got the green vote down from 186 to 74. Key again in this was posters – and not just window bills but stake-boards and even super-boards. In the current climate it’s even more important to give voters the clear message from posters that we can win.

In 2006 we won a notable by-election in the Watford Tory stronghold of Nascot. We held it in 2007 and then lost it by 3 votes in 2008 following Tory scaremongering. Our candidate again great local credentials, she lived in the ward, she was a local school governor and she was married to the local GP! Without a full slate in the ward we had been building her up for the vacancy in 2012 anyway, but here she got an earlier opportunity. Labour supporters who had voted in May to “give us a kicking” switched back noting our strong local record and following a heavy squeeze campaign. We cut the Labour vote in half.

Other results

Gwynedd UA, Diffwys and Maenofferen
Gwynedd UA, Penrhyndeudraeth

Cherwell DC, Bicester North

ALDC Campaigner Awards Winners

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:25:00 +0100

ALDC presented its annual Campaigner Awards at its AGM during Federal Conference in Birmingham. We had a large number of entries from across the country and the standard of entries is improving every year. Once again, the awards were kindly sponsored by Midshire and Riso. The awards were presented once again by our Party President, Tim Farron MP.

Pictures of all the winners can be found on ALDC's Flickr site.

The winners were:

Overall Winner

Bath and North East Somerset

Best Focus

Winner: Cambridge
Highly commended: North Somerset and Eastbourne

Best literature by a volunteer campaigner

Winner: Cotswold
Highly commended: Preston and South Northamptonshire

Best ward campaign

Winner: Brent
Highly commended: Southwark and Lewisham

Best election campaign material

Winner: Portsmouth
Highly commended: Wycombe, Manchester Withington and Swansea

Best online / e-campaigning

Winner: Wiltshire
Highly commended: Mid Sussex

All of the artwork from the winners and highly commendeds will be uploaded to the Best Practice area of our website over the next few weeks. Links will be added in above as appropriate.

ALDC at Autumn Federal Conference 2011

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Autumn Federal Conference is always a busy time for ALDC, and this year's event in Birmingham was no exception.

ALDC's training programme saw 27 different sessions highlighting issues as diverse as: email campaigning, being an effective ward councillor, campaigning against organised independents and campaigning in your local community.

Our Fringe programme kicked off on Saturday evening with our Annual General Meeting which included the 2011 ALDC Campaigner Awards presented by Party President Tim Farron (see separate story). This was followed by our members reception, with kind support from the Co-operative, and guest speakers Nick Clegg MP and Andrew Stunell MP. You can see a short video of Nick's speech to ALDC members below or on our YouTube site here.

Three policy fringes included a fringe on campaigning locally on national issues where speakers included Andrew Stunell MP; a "Green Deal" event (with kind support from B&Q) where speakers included Chris Davies MEP, and a Community Politics event with speakers (Lord) Paddy Ashdown, Tim Farron MP, Daisy Cooper and Director of Elections and Skills Hilary Stephenson.

More photos on our Flickr site here.

Community Politics fringe, local campaigning fringe, Nick visiting the ALDC stand, the members' reception, and two pictures form the Campaigner Awards.

Nick Clegg speaking at the ALDC Members' Reception 2011, thanked by ALDC President Cllr Veronica German

Ashcroft’s Polling suggests that Lib Dem hard work could make the difference

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:00:00 +0100

There was one principal local council by-election held on Thursday 22th September. The Tories held the seat. There were two parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC. One seat was held by the Tories, one by the Lib Dems.

Fenland District Council, in Cambridgeshire, has two Lib Dem councillors. It held a by-election in the Staithe ward on the edge of Wisbech. In 2010 we did not stand a candidate and we had not campaigned there in living memory.

We ran a decent campaign with a survey, postal vote letter, three Focuses plus polling knock up, but as ever we would have benefited from more time on the doorstep. We had no historic data so 20% contact this time was a decent first shout but limited our polling day activity. The Tories we worried, both by our activity and the potential of UKIP and a non-selected Tory standing as an Independent splitting their vote. Labour got very excited pulling in help from as far away as Leeds but their vote was only marginally up.

Quoting Conservative Lord Ashcroft is not a Liberal Democrats first instinct; however some of his recent polling of eight Tory held Lib Dem marginals has suggested that by out working the Tories and Labour on the ground we have significantly boosted our support. In those eight parliamentary seats more voters interviewed thought that we had
a) knocked on their door
b) telephoned them
c) delivered literature to them and
d) sent them direct mail than the Tories or Labour.
Voters asked about their intentions in these specific seats were 13% more likely to vote Lib Dem.
Alternatively this may be to do with voters understanding and continuing to respond to our squeeze messages, but without the high level of activity how would we deliver that squeeze message?

Either way this is positive news.

Phoenix rises again

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:16:00 +0100

The winning team in Surbiton Hill - From left: Cllr Liz Green (Deputy Leader of the Council), Edward Davey MP, Cllr John Ayles, Cllr Derek Osbourne (Leader of the Council).

What better start could we have had to Federal Conference than our first gain from Labour in a principal council by-election since the formation of the coalition.

The Borough of Gedling covers a number of towns and villages around the edge of Nottingham, and was the scene of a massive swing to Labour in May when they gained 23 seats and took control. One of those 23 gains was Phoenix ward where sitting Lib Dem councillor Andrew Ellwood lost his seat by just four votes. However, just three months later one of the ward’s Labour councillors resigned after deciding to go off and teach in Mexico.

The by-election was an incredibly hard fought campaign on both sides. Labour swamped the ward with huge numbers of helpers and ran a campaign that focused solely on heavily attacking us on national issues. Instead, we ran a very local campaign emphasising the credentials of Andrew Ellwood. This consisted of regular canvassing along with weekly leaflets using lots of photos and articles about how good a councillor he was for the area. This message contrasted sharply with the lack of commitment from the outgoing Labour councillor after quitting so soon. We managed to get lots of help from surrounding areas, but were still vastly outnumbered by Labour on polling day. However, in the end our message was much more effective and it saw Andrew elected back on to the council.

The other significant by-election for the Lib Dems was our defence of the Surbiton Hill ward in the London Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Surbiton Hill had traditionally been safely Conservative but we gained it by just 103 votes in 2010. The circumstances of the by-election were unfortunate when hugely promising Lib Dem councillor Umesh Parekh had to resign when his new employers decided his job should be politically restricted. The Conservatives put up their former councillor who had expected to be council leader until his defeat, but they were no match for a very effective campaign that saw excellent candidate John Ayles win. The big lesson was to keep knocking on doors. Not only did this gather huge amounts of canvass data, but it also helped to reconnect us with those supporters who had become less enthusiastic about voting for us.

Federal Conference - Highlights for Councillors and local campaigners

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Liberal Democrat Federal Party Conference takes place this Saturday 17 September, to Wednesday 21 September 2011, in Birmingham. All Party members can attend, more details on registration are available from the main party website here.

Download and print out ALDC's Conference Planner for our full guide to training and fringe events for this year's September Conference.

Come and visit us in the Exhibition Hall - we're at Stand 104 in the main Hall 4. Come and tell us how you think ALDC is doing - staff, Management Committee members and volunteers will be on hand from Saturday through to Wednesday to help with advice, information, membership information and technical queries.

Fringe Highlights

Saturday 17 September 2011, 8.15pm, ICC 10B (Conference Centre, just after the Rally)

ALDC Annual General Meeting and Campaigner Awards 2011
Party President Tim Farron MP presents the 2011 Campaigner Awards. £500 for the top prize sponsored by RISO and Midshires. We've received a record number of entries so it looks set to be a great evening (drinks provided).

Sunday 18 September 2011, 8.00pm Jury's Inn 112
Local Campaigning on National Issues
How do we campaign as a party in the new political environment? What are the best ways we can deliver our Autumn party campaign locally and nationally - “Save money, Stay Warm, Go Green”. Speakers include: Andrew Stunell MP, Shaun Roberts.

Training Highlights

ALDC have 22 training session and six workshops at this Autumn’s conference in Birmingham. See our guide for the times for each session.

Winning Ways
We are running a set of six ‘Winning Ways’ training sessions, these sessions will be run twice once in the morning and once in the afternoon:

Campaigning in your Community
In Touch All Year Round
A Record of Action
The Best Person for the Job
Voter ID
Targeting Voters

You might have missed:
Next Generation Alumni
Update training session for the participants of Lib Dem Next Generation 1-5 and Lib Dems on previous Leadership Academies.
Jury’s Inn room 114 – Sunday 9-15 to 10-45

Mayoral Campaigning - How we won in Bedford
Sunday Morning at 11am Room 113/115/117 of the Jurys Inn
Find out how we doubled our vote this May in Bedford with Mayor Dave Hodgson, Christine McHugh & Shaun Roberts.

Campaign Workshops
We have to half-day Campaign Workshops on Saturday afternoon:

Winning Elections for Beginners
This workshop is for people just starting out, it will give you the basics you will need to start campaigning in your ward, area, with practical ideas and examples to take away. Ideal for local election candidates and new campaigners.
Hyatt Regency Hotel Andante – Saturday – 2-30 to 5-30

Why should anyone vote for me in May?
This special session workshop will work though developing your message for next year's local elections. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.
Hyatt Regency Hotel Allegro – Saturday – 2-30 to 5-30

Download and print out ALDC's Conference Planner for our full guide to training and fringe events for this year's September Conference.

Conference Photo Opportunities

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Cllr Jonathan Wallace has arranged some photo ops for conference which will be of interest to ALDC members and other Councillors.

All will be held in Hall 5 of ICC. The Nick Clegg photo op is for council candidates for 2012 only (Leader's office stipulation) and members will need to notify Jonathan in advance if they are coming to the NC event by email to jonathanwallace@compuserve.com.

Sunday 11-11.30am Stand alone session (no MP but with props for income tax cut and pupil premium)

Monday 11-11.30am Chris Huhne (Green Deal)

Tuesday 4.30-5pm Nick Clegg (for 2012 council candidates only, no props)

SMF at the Lib Dem Conference 18-21 September 2011

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:20:00 +0100

ADVERTISMENT

Sunday 18 September

18.15-19.30

Keeping the home fires burning: who’s to blame for spiralling energy bills – companies, consumers or government?

Soprano, Hyatt Regency

Speakers: Rt Hon Chris Huhne MP (tbc); Richard Lloyd, Which?; Christine McGourty, Energy UK; Matthew Sinclair, The TaxPayers’ Alliance

CHAIR: John Springford, SMF

20.00-21.15

Pensions auto-enrolment: nudging to higher or lower savings?

Fortissimo, Hyatt Regency

Speakers: Steve Webb MP, Pensions Minister; David Nish, Standard Life; Dr Ros Altman, Saga; Dr Adam Marshall, British Chambers of Commerce

CHAIR: Ian Mulheirn, SMF

Monday 19 September

13.00-14.00

Success by degrees? Social mobility and higher education

Chamberlain Suite, Council House

Speakers: Baroness Sharp; Professor Julia King, Aston University; Professor Nick Barr, London School of Economics; Phil Collins, The Times

CHAIR: Ian Mulheirn SMF

18.15-19.30

Routes to success: improving skills to encourage social mobility

Executive Room 8, ICC

Speakers: Simon Hughes MP, Access to University Tsar (tbc); Heather McGregor, Taylor Bennett Foundation and Adam Hopley, a recent graduate from the Career Academies programme; Paul Johnson, Institute for Fiscal Studies; Tom Clark, The Guardian

CHAIR: Mary Ann Sieghart, SMF

20.00-21.15

No NEET solution?

Room 105, Jury’s Inn

Speakers: Stephen Lloyd MP, Work and Pensions Select Committee; Graham Hoyle OBE, Association of Employment and Learning Providers; Katja Hall, CBI; Rafael Behr, New Statesman

CHAIR: John Springford, SMF

Tuesday 20 September

08.00-09.00

Whose crime is it anyway?

Room 104, Jury’s Inn

Speakers: Rt Hon Sir Alan Beith, Chair of the Justice Select Committee; Tom Brake MP, Co-Chair Parliamentary Party Committee on Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities; Paul McDowell, Nacro

CHAIR: Ian Mulheirn, SMF

13.00-14.00

Smart on crime, tough on the causes of crime

Chamberlain Suite, Council House

Speakers: Lord Thomas of Gresford, (tbc); A representative from the Community Justice Partnership; Ashley Ames, Ipsos MORI; Brian Paddick, Liberal Democrat Mayoral Candidate (tbc)

CHAIR: Ian Mulheirn, SMF

18.15-19.30

Growing Pains? Where next for jobs and the economy?

Executive Room 8, ICC

Speakers: Rt Hon Danny Alexander MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury; Rt Hon Oliver Letwin MP, Cabinet Minister; Brendan Barber, TUC; Ian Mulheirn, SMF

CHAIR: Olly Grender, Liberal Democrat Commentator

18.15-19.30

The Green Growth challenge: opportunities for public-private partnerships on development finance

Dolce, Hyatt Regency

Speakers: Baroness Kramer; Yvo De Boer, KPMG; Ingrid Holmes, E3g; Fiona Harvey, The Guardian

CHAIR: John Springford, SMF

Read All About It! 9/9/2011

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:19:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

There has been two bits of news on police this week. Firstly, the good news that the elections for Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales will be delayed until November 2012 instead of being held on the same day as next year's local elections. Secondly, in Scotland there has been opposition from local authorities to proposals by the SNP government to merge all of the police forces in to one force. Something which the Scottish Lib Dems have been campaigning against for some time.

This week, the first 24 free schools opened in various places around the country, but there was controversy within the coalition when Nick Clegg demanded that whilst they should have flexibility in their curriculum and how they are run they shouldn't be allowed to make a profit. On the opposite of the argument saying that free schools would have to make a profit was fellow Lib Dem Phil Willis.

On Lib Dem Voice, there was a discussion about the 'general power of competence' that local authorities will receive under the Localism Bill and whether these will be used effectively enough.

Lib Dem Voice's Local Election Channel praises Conservative MP Andrew Selous for tackling Eric Pickles on the amount of money that council chief executive's pocket for being the local returning officer.

There's a useful article myth-busting the current proposals to change the planning process on Conservative Home. For a bit of balance there was an article in the Daily Telegraph by National Trust Director-General Fiona Reynolds criticising the changes.

Around the country:

Cornwall Council is to tighten up on people who have second homes who register to vote.

In Southwark, the local Lib Dems block a plan by the Labour council to build a £120,000 roof terrace at their council offices.

Within the Liberal Democrats the big news of the week was the announcement that Chief Executive Chris Fox is to step down from his job before the end of the year.

Read All About It! 2/9/11

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:04:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

In general political news, the Tory press have started their pre-conference Lib Dem bashing pretty early. For instance they’ve picked up on:
“Local councils should have the right and ability to raise additional taxes that they see appropriate for their circumstances. Not all places would be able to apply each levy, but this should not block those that were willing and able. Councils could also raise revenues to cover the costs of specific extra costs and services that they bear. For example, a small per drink surcharge in town centre bars and pubs, borne by drinkers themselves, could offset additional policing and health costs that drinkers impose on councils, and therefore residents, in many towns and cities.” from page 13 of our local government finance consultation document going to Birmingham conference.

No matter that it’s only a discussion document - not a policy paper or motion, just one suggestion from a 22 page document full of ideas nor that it merely varies a principle on the under used existing Alcohol Disorder Zones that the government may abolish in its forthcoming Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill.
For them it’s the “Tipple” tax, The Sun started, and the Mail followed, even the Mirror had joined in.

Vince has come out fighting for small business against the banks and big business.
This is one of many around the same issue but the tory press seem to think that we’re getting uppity, which is excellent.

In the local government world: Eric Pickles has been trying to reduce bureaucracy at the expense of monitoring.... again.

In Scotland the Lib Dems have been pressing ahead for the completion of the Edinburgh tram system against the “bonkers” proposal from Labour that stopped the trams short of the city centre.

Our sister party, The Alliance Party, in Belfast, bolstered by excellent results in May, have been doing great things.Who would have thought that the "peace" walls would still be up?

Keswick Comeback

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:22:00 +0100

There was one principal local council by-election held on Thursday 1st September. We took a seat off an Independent. In the only parish or town council by-election result reported to ALDC we held a seat.

Elections in Allerdale Borough council in Cumbria can at times be strange. In the Keswick Ward, for example, they had, without contest, elected one conservative, one Labour and one Lib Dem councillor in 2007 in a three councillor ward, all out election. In 2011 the same individuals were elected, again without contest but the Lib Dem from 2007 stood without party label. His lack of party label reflecting that at the same time he stood against our selected candidate for the county seat in a by-election, split the vote and allowed the conservatives to take the seat off us. He then resigned from the Borough due to ill health to cause the by-election!!

We stood the former Town Mayor who had been our unsuccessful candidate in May for the Cumbria County Division by-election, this time he had more success. After some years of uncontested elections Keswick felt the full brunt of a Lib Dem By-election campaign. We took it seriously, fought it seriously and won. We did three leaflets, postal vote letter with instruction leaflet and a good polling day operation. The candidate was made to canvass and canvass again rather than deliver – always a good decision from the agent. With Martin’s election we now have a foot back in the door after we lost all representation on Allerdale council in May. Allerdale remains exactly half Labour (28 of 56) and they failed to take overall control.

Elsewhere in Cumbria we had a good result in the Kendal Town Council, Mintsfeet Ward. As part of the Westmorland and Lonsdale parliamentary constituency we take all parish council elections extremely seriously. Here we looked at our early canvas returns and changed what we did in response to what we were being told on the doorstep. The first 50 contacts will give a you snap shot of what’s happening in a campaign, use it - don’t ignore what it’s telling you

For analysis of byelections for the year to date see our new by election analysis page

Below are PDF copies of the literature used in the by-election

Federal Conference: Ideas and Inspiration!

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Party conference is a great time to learn new ideas and pick up a bit of motivation from Liberal Democrats campaigning in the rest of the country.

Download and print out ALDC's Conference Planner for our full guide to training and fringe events for this year's September Conference.

Come and visit us in the Exhibition Hall - we're at Stand 104 in the main Hall 4. Let us know how ALDC is doing and tell us how we can help you be a more effective Liberal Democrat councillor or campaigner.

ALDC Fringe Programme

Saturday 17 September 2011, 8.15pm, ICC 10B
ALDC Annual General Meeting and Campaigner Awards 2011
Party President Tim Farron MP presents the 2011 Campaigner Awards for the best campaign literature in the last year. Drinks available.

Sunday 18 September 2011, 1.00pm, ICC 8A
ALDC Members Reception (Members Only)
Join Nick Clegg MP and Andrew Stunell MP at our annual members reception in partnership with the Co-operative. "How can partners encourage and empower volunteering in our communities, to the co-operative and mutual benefit of all?" Refreshments provided.

Monday 19 September 2011, 6.15pm ICC 8A
Community politics for 2011 and beyond
Come and hear how we can use community politics in 2011 to shape both our local communities and our distinctive identity as a party. Speakers include Paddy Ashdown, Tim Farron MP, Hilary Stephenson and others. Drinks available.

Monday 19 September 2011, 8.00pm Jury's Inn 106
Localism & the Green Deal
Turning the Green Deal into a Great Deal for Councils Cllr Keith House, Liz Hutchins (FoE), Ben Earl (B and Q) Chris Davies MEP. Refreshments provided.

Inspired

Winning in 2011
How we won in Portsmouth, Eastleigh, Hinckley & Bosworth and Oadby & Wigston against Labour and the Conservatives. If you are a candidate, sitting councillor or campaigner or campaign team member, you will benefit from their experience.
Jury’s Inn room 114 – Tuesday 9-15 to 10-45
Cllr Keith House – Leader Eastleigh, Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson - Leader Portsmouth, Cllr Stuart Bray - Leader Hinckley and Bosworth, Cllr John Boyce - Leader Oadby and Wigston

Facing a new challenge – Defending your council seat in 2012
If you are standing for re-election in 2012 this session is a must for you
Room 113/115/117 - Sunday 9-15 to 10-45 and
Tuesday 9-15 to 10-45 - Jury’s Inn room 102
Dave McCobb, Elections and Skills & Cllr Mark Alcock, ALDC

This is just a part of the over 50 hours of training that ALDC is involved in this year!

Download and print out ALDC's Conference Planner for our full guide to training and fringe events for this year's September Conference.

G8 Grants 2012 (Scotland)

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:00:00 +0100

G8 Grants for Local Campaigning (Scotland)

The "G8 Grants" Committee is now seeking applications for funding for "Stage 1" grants in Scotland. Stage 1 for England and Wales is now closed. Later in the year we hope to be running a "Stage 2" round of grants, subject to funding.

2012 Local Elections in Scotland: Rewarding Early Campaigning

We know from experience that early campaigning activity works. We want to reward those that are starting early on their campaign for 2012 and are therefore making grants to local parties to reward early campaign activity in the summer and autumn of 2011 and help finance their campaign during the autumn.

- funding is for wards we are defending in 2012, and for gains where a local party can put forward a strong case for targeting
- where people have elections by 1/3rds we are keen to support wards that we are defending in 2012 but that we lost in 2011.

To be eligible for a grant we will need to see most of the following in place:

- delivery of literature has been taking place in summer 2011, and a literature plan in place up to the elections.
- knocking on doors has been taking place in summer 2011, and that a plan of knocking on doors, and phoning voters is in place up to the elections
- a candidate is in place, or you are well on track towards getting a candidate in place as early as possible
- you have agreed a clear and realistic strategy across the authority for the 2012 elections, and which wards will be targeted.

Link to application form

If you need further information about G8 , please email Eleanor Ritchie eleanor.ritchie@aldc.org

The deadline for applications is 28 September 2011

Real Time By election Analysis Launched

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC has for many years provided local election By-Election analysis for the rest of the party. Up to now this information has been shared with the rest of the party at internal party meetings and to ALDC’s members every six months via our Local Campaigner publication Given that we accumulate the data for this analysis it seemed like common sense to develop our service online. We are now launching to ALDC members a “real time”, week by week analysis of our by-election performance for the year to date in a new “By-election Analysis” section of our www.aldc.org/elections website. So now our online by-election service is in five parts:

1. Forthcoming By-elections - When you tell us when there are by-elections coming up (you can do this online) we will list them on our website in date order and this forms the basis of those subsequently printed in Lib Dem news.

2. Results - we publish the results of these by-elections usually around lunchtime on Friday on our website and in the following weeks Lib Dem news. The results and forthcomings can be sent to you each week as an email on request, again usually on a Friday afternoon.

3. By election Commentary – every week we give a commentary on the more interesting or informative by-elections. This is published here in Lib Dem news (this article) and online at http://www.aldc.org/elections/by-elections-commentary/

4. Campaign Stories. For those campaigns of particular merit or interest we ask the organisers of the campaign to write a more extensive report and publish some in our Local Campaigner publication and others in http://www.aldc.org/campaigner/campaign-stories/

5. By - Election Analysis – see above.

We also give advice and support to members who are facing a by-election, including our “Winning Your Local By-election” publication.

In order to make this service as effective as possible, ALDC needs to be informed about by-elections as early as possible. You can do this on the phone or online whether you are a member of ALDC or not.

When the campaign is over please let ALDC have copies of your by-election artwork and copies also of any opposition artwork, email them to john.bridges@aldc.org

Read All About It! 25/8/2011

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:02:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

In general political news, Neil Monnery reports that Nick Clegg's approval ratings have gone up dramatically during August amongst Liberal Democrat supporters.

Richard Morris and Nick Thornsby highlight an article in the Evening Standard that complains about the Liberal Democrats getting in the way of the Tories - something that many Lib Dems will be pleased about.

On Liberal Democrat Voice Chris Rennard asks us to remember what was happening in politics four years ago and why we shouldn't lose heart now.

In the local government world:

The LGA has an overview of the work councils are doing to help those places hit by the riots to get back to normal and to improve local communities.

The government is currently consulting on proposals to allow councils to charge utility companies and anyone else who wishes to dig up roads during rush hour.

The BBC Scotland website profiles the Lib Dem Leader of Edinburgh City Council Jenny Dawe, including her history of golf club snake slaying!

In Shropshire, long-serving Liberal Democrat Peter Phillips is stepping down from Shropshire Council after 30 years of service.

Finally, for those who want to know more about the Localism Bill there's a useful 'plain English' guide to the Localism Bill which you can download as a PDF.

Federal Conference: Training for Councillors

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Party conference is a great time to take part in training to help you succeed as a Liberal Democrat campaigner and councillor. Training in Birmingham is all free and available to all Party Members. Most of it is just outside the conference "secure area" so you don't event have to be registered for Conference to attend.

Download and print out ALDC's Conference Planner for our full guide to training and fringe events for this year's September Conference.

Thanks to Jonathan Swift for kindly giving permission to use this photo.

Here's just a small part of ALDC's 50 hours of training.

Training for Lib Dem Councillors

Working Smarter for Councillors
As councillors and campaigners we have very limited time, this session will help you make best use of your time. Ideal for all local election candidates and councillors.
Jury’s Inn room 114 – Monday 4-00 to 5-30

Power of the Small Group
If you are a small voice by number in your council group or in viewpoint then this session is your guide to winning the argument.
Jury’s Inn room 114 – Tuesday 11-00 to 12-30

Next Generation Alumni
Update training session for the participants of Lib Dem Next Generation 1-5 and Lib Dems on previous Leadership Academies.
Jury’s Inn room 114 – Sunday 9-15 to 10-45

Why should anyone vote for me in May?
This special session workshop will work through developing your message for next year's local elections. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.
Hyatt Regency Hotel Allegro – Saturday – 2-30 to 5-30

Winning Ways 1: Campaigning in your Community
In communities across the country there are improvements just waiting for a successful campaign to bring them about. If you are a candidate, campaigner, councillor or Member of Parliament this is your chance to update your knowledge and skills needed to work with people to bring about change.
Jury’s Inn room 112 – Sunday 9-15 to 10-45 and Tuesday 2-30 to 3-45

Winning Ways 3: A Record of Action – Delivering on Community Politics
This session looks at how we use Community Politics to get the best for our residents and our area. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.
Jury’s Inn room 112 – Sunday 2-30 to 3-45 and Monday 9-15 to 10-45

Winning Ways 4: The Best Person for the Job
How can we build and sell the profile of our candidates, make the electorate see that our candidate is the best person for the job, and how you can do this between now and polling day. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.
Jury’s Inn room 112 – Sunday 4-00 to 5-30 and Monday 11-00 to 12-30

Getting Technology Right

CONNECT for Councillors
See the party’s new campaign database system CONNECT (VAN) in action. Focus on how CONNECT can empower Councillors to campaign more effectively in your community.

Soprano Room, Hyatt Regency Hotel - Saturday – 2-30 to 3-45

Room 101, Jury’s Inn - Monday - 9.15 to 10.45

MyCouncillor Basics

Now is the time to get your ward website up and running. Regardless of where you are in the country there is now an expectation that local representatives will have a website. Come here and learn how easy it is to set up and manage a free MyCouncillor website through ALDC (for ALDC members)

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Sunday 2-30 to 3-45

MyCouncillor Advanced

This session is for users of the My Councillor websites provided free to ALDC members. This session will explore ways of making the most of your website and look at the latest technological developments.

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Tuesday 2-30 to 3-45

ALDC's full Training Programme consists of over 50 hours of training - Download and print out ALDC's Conference Planner for our full guide to training and fringe events for this year's September Conference.

If You're Campaigning - We want to give you money!

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:00:00 +0100

The "G8 Grants" Committee is now seeking applications for funding for "Stage 1" grants in England and Wales. Separate information will be sent out for grants in Scotland.

The application process is simple and the criteria for grants are kept as basic as we can!

HURRY - the deadline is 29 August 2011.

Rewarding Early Campaigning

If you have elections in May 2012, we will give you a grant for the work you are already doing - we just want you to start early!

To be eligible for a grant we will need to see most of the following in place:

Link to application form

Help to Attend Kickstart (2013 and 2012)

If you have elections in May 2012 OR May 2013 (the English Counties and Unitaries) then we will help people attend the Kickstart Training Weekend in November.

We are keen to support campaign teams to develop their skills and ensure they have the right plan in place to win in 2012 and 2013. We will be providing grants to pay for 50% of the cost of attending the important Kickstart Training weekend 25-27 November 2011 in Birmingham. Priority will be given to teams who don't have the group funds available to pay for this and the limit is two subsidised places per authority area.

Link to application form

If you need further information about G8 , please email Eleanor Ritchie eleanor.ritchie@aldc.org

LGA Lib Dem Group Election Results

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:00:00 +0100

The Liberal Democrat Group in the Local Government Association has announced the results of its elections to group positions and the various LGA commissioners, boards and panels. Those elected are listed below with the results available here and the full breakdown of the results by stage available here.

Group Executive

Group Leader - Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Portsmouth (Elected unopposed)
Deputy Leader (Policy) - Chris White, Hertfordshire (Elected unopposed)
Deputy Leader (Political) - Dorothy Thornhill, Watford
Group Chair - Jill Shortland, Somerset (Elected unopposed)
Group Whip - Howard Sykes, Oldham (Elected unopposed)

Commissions

Fire

Jeremy Hilton, Gloucestershire - Lead
Paul Shannon, Manchester - Deputy

Rural

Stan Collins, Cumbria - Lead
Heather Kidd, Shropshire - Deputy

Urban

Abigail Bell - Hull (Elected unopposed)

Panels

Audit & Scrutiny

David Neighbour, Hart - Lead
Gary Scott, Tendring - Sub (Elected unopposed)

Resources

Keith Whitmore, Manchester - Lead
Sam Crabb, Somerset - Sub

Programme Boards

Children & Young People

Liz Green, Kingston-upon-Thames - Lead
David Bellotti, Bath and North East Somerset
Kath Pinnock, Kirklees - Sub

Community Wellbeing

David Rogers, East Sussex - Lead
Zoe Patrick, Oxfordshire
Doreen Huddart, Newcastle - Sub

Culture, Tourism & Sport

Chris White, Hertfordshire - Lead
Brendan Jameson, South Lakeland
Flick Rea, Camden - Sub

Economy & Transport

Roger Symonds, Bath and North East Somerset - Lead
Richard Knowles, Oldham
Heather Kidd, Shropshire - Sub

Environment & Housing

Keith House, Eastleigh - Lead
Terry Stacy, Islington
Simon Galton, Leicestershire - Sub

European & International
Richard Kemp, Liverpool - Lead
Zulfiqar Ali, Rochdale (Elected unopposed)

Safer Communities

Duwayne Brooks, Lewisham - Lead
Lisa Brett, Bath and North East Somerset
Anita Lower, Newcastle - Sub

Workforce

Stephen Knight, Richmond-on-Thames - Lead
Steve Comer, Bristol
Simon Shaw, Sefton - Sub

Festival Fight

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:05:00 +0100

There were two principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 18th August. Both Labour and the SNP held a seat.
In the one parish or town council by-election result reported to ALDC the Tories took a seat off Independents.

There seems to have been a spate of Royal related by-elections. On the 18th August there was a by-election for the City Centre ward in which Holyrood House falls in Edinburgh. Last week it was Windsor castle. It is also where most of the venues for the Edinburgh festival lie and this may have led to the drop in turnout from 51% in 2007 to 24% in 2011. The election was called following an SNP resignation. We currently hold one of the three seats in the ward but dropped back in line with other results in Scotland this year. The Tories were ahead on first preferences but the SNP overtook them on transfers.

In the Page Moss ward of Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council in Merseyside we made modest progress, but Labour still won with 82% of the vote.

Read All About It! 19/8/2011

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:30:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

In national news that affects local government:

PFI schemes have come under further criticism following a report from the Treasury Select Committee.

The BBC have a discussion on their website on whether political parties will become extinct.

The Association of Police Authorities sent an open letter to the Home Secretary criticising her over comments she made comparing Boris Johnson’s high profile role following the riots and the lack of an equivalent position in the rest of the country.

The Department of Health is making a record £800 million investment in medical research.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has highlighted the lack of women in senior posts in the public and private sectors, with a staggering 5,400 women missing!

Around the country, some of our local councillors have been very busy.

A very brief post on Councillor Iain Roberts’ MyCouncillor website is a good reminder that ‘restorative justice’ is nothing new and some Lib Dem councils, such as his in Stockport, have been doing it for years.

Councillor Alex Folkes from Cornwall uncovers the size of his council’s bill for new vehicles - £5.5 million in two years.

Finally, the first official biography of Nick Clegg comes out at the weekend and last week extracts appeared in the Mail on Sunday. You can read more about it here. Don’t forget that if you buy the book through this link then you are helping ALDC as we receive a small commission.

Winning Ways - Training at Conference

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:19:00 +0100

Party conference is a great time to take part in training to help you succeed as a Liberal Democrat campaigner and councillor. We're all learning to operate in the different circumstances of campaigning as a Party that's in Government, so keeping up with new skills and ideas is more important than ever.

Training in Birmingham is all free and available to all Party Members. Most of it is just outside the conference "secure area" so you don't event have to be registered for Conference to attend

Download and print out ALDC's Conference Planner for our full guide to training and fringe events for this year's September Conference.

Thanks to Jonathan Swift for kindly giving permission to use this photo.

Here's just some of our 50 hours of training.

Make the most of Saturday!

On Saturday afternoon we have two workshop sessions which take up the whole afternoon.

Winning Ways!

We've developed a set of six training modules, each of which are being repeated twice during conference which identify areas of campainging which we we need to see more of, or need to be improved or changed.

Winning Ways 2: In Touch All Year Round
It's never been more important to communicate effectively with the residents in your ward. Get an overview of the different techniques ranging from Focus to social networking, via direct mail and the local media. Find out more about the advantages of each approach and how to choose the best technique for your different messages.
Jury’s Inn room 112 – Sunday 11-00 to 12-30 and Monday 2-30 to 3-45

Winning Ways 3: A Record of Action – Delivering on Community Politics
This session looks at how we use Community Politics to get the best for our residents and our area. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.
Jury’s Inn room 112 – Sunday 2-30 to 3-45 and Monday 9-15 to 10-45

Winning Ways 4: The Best Person for the Job

How can we build and sell the profile of our candidates, make the electorate see that our candidate is the best person for the job, and how you can do this between now and polling day. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.
Jury’s Inn room 112 – Sunday 4-00 to 5-30 and Monday 11-00 to 12-30

Winning Ways 5: Voter ID
Most pre-2010 historic voter ID data is now less reliable and many canvassers in May found it harder to get accurate information from voters. This course will go over the basics of voter ID and look at how to approach it in the new environment.
Jury’s Inn room 112 – Monday 4-00 to 5-30 and Monday 9-15 to 10-45

Winning Ways 6: Targeting Voters
You have lots of data you have collected about your electorate; this session will give you ways to use that data to target your voters throughout the year. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.
Jury’s Inn room 112 – Monday 2-30 to 3-45 and Tuesday 11-00 to 12-30

Getting Candidates Right

Finding Council Candidates
More than ever finding the right candidate to WIN elections is critical. Use this programme to identify new and different potential candidates including from people who may not even yet be Party members.
Jury’s Inn room 114 – Sunday 4-00 to 5-30

Candidate Approval and Selection
Approving and selecting council candidates properly is vital in ensuring we have candidates that will represent the party well to the electorate and reducing potential for embarrassment later. This training course will tell you what you need to do as well as good practice from elsewhere.
Jury’s Inn room 114 – Monday 11-00 to 12-30

Tories Eton alive

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:45:00 +0100

There were three principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 11th August. The Lib Dems and an Independent each gained one seat off the Tories and Labour held the third. In the two parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC an Independent took a seat off the Tories, and the Lib Dems held one seat.
In the Windsor and Maidenhead Unitary council ward of Eton and Castle - and yes it includes Eton College and Windsor castle - we took a seat off the Tories with a dramatic swing. Only a couple of months after the local elections there was a by-election - the Conservative councillor who won in May got a better offer and resigned.
So how did we do it? We did standard leaflet, target mailing, canvassing and election day campaign – as we did in the local elections in May.
We ran on very local but strong issues: anti-social behaviour, paving slabs and pot holes and parking.
We had a very strong candidate with a great credentials; 25 years a local resident , Teacher at Eton and governor at a local girls school, green and a known blogger.
We ran an internet campaign with

an improved website – based on wordpress
a strong email list campaign
a facebook and twitter campaign.

- making sure that they were all integrated.

The absence of Eton’s sixth form voters and the low turnout from the grace and favour properties on the Windsor estate may, or may not have favoured us.

Other coverage has appeared in the local press and on the BBC website.

There seem to be a spate of Royal related byelections. There is a by-election next week for the ward in which Holyrood House falls in Edinburgh. It's a SNP vacancy following a resignation. We currently hold one of the three seats in the ward.

In the London Borough of Islington we had a tougher time against Labour despite the resignation of the sitting Labour councillor after she had been charged with fraud. In the St Peters ward we retained second place but fell back.

Other Byelections

North Devon DC, Fremington

Read All About It! 10/8/2011

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:02:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

With the news dominated by riots in London and other cities around the country, that is where this week’s Read All About It! will start off.

In the latest edition of his news email Hughes News, Deputy Leader Simon Hughes talked about the effect the riots had on his own constituency and about Nick Clegg’s visit to talk to local residents.

On a visit to Birmingham, Nick Clegg also called for people to work together to ensure there was no repeat of what has happened.

On Liberal Democrat Voice, Stephen Tall wrote about the debate on the causes of the riots and whether it’s all about the economy.

On her own blog Caron Lindsay made a plea for a liberal response to the riots.

On LocalGov you can read about the package that DCLG is putting together to help those areas affected by the riots:

Away from the riots there have been other bits of news this week of interest.

The Information Commissioner has ruled that Freedom of Information requests received by Twitter should be dealt with in the same way as other requests.

Some councils are looking at using the new Localism Bill to extend the ban on smoking in public places to parks, play areas and streets.

LocalGov covers a report by the Financial Times which shows that PFI adds £20billion of interest to the cost of public sector infrastructure projects.

MPs have called for an end to the NHS Electronic Care Records (ECR) system describing it as “unworkable”.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps has announced plans to make it easier to evict 'neighbours from hell'

Eric Pickles has launched a consultation in to how councils will take control of council tax benefits, but under certain conditions:

Around the country:

The Labour leader of Greater Manchester Fire Authority has been criticised for claiming £20,000 of expenses in a year.

And in North Yorkshire, the Conservative group researcher is in court accused of smuggling drugs in to the country via his address at County Hall.

ALDC Artwork Templates 2011-2012

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Following on from the success of our 2011 artwork pack, ALDC has again commissioned a series of FOCUS and campaign material templates for use by Liberal Democrat campaigners. These are exclusively available to members of ALDC.

Pack 1 was released at the start of August:
The templates include: a range of A4 focus templates (to add to the A3 templates produced last year), and a wide variety of materials for "knocking on doors" - surveys (national and local), single issue door-knocking and candidate calling leaflets. - all of which have been produced in black and white, two colour (for RISOs) and in full colour (Colour RISO or commercial printer). All the FOCUS leaflets have variations to allow for single and for two and three member wards and election campaigns, and different pull outs for fighting the Tories and Labour.

The templates use a standard set of fonts, which you need to install on your computer first - or the templates won't work correctly!

Remember you need to "log-in" as an ALDC member to download these files - your log-in details are the bottom of your weekly Campaigner email.

ALDC members can download PDF and PagePlus files of all the Pack 1 templates from our website here.

If you're not a member of ALDC please join us! Join today, without any paperwork here.

Kickstart Scotland 27 August 2011

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:04:00 +0100

Kickstart Scotland 27^th August – Perth – Salutation Hotel

The full programme will be on the Scottish Parties website later this week at: http://www.scotlibdems.org.uk, but the draft agenda includes:

- Basic Skills for new candidates / recruit - Peter Barrett

- Reinvigorate seasoned campaigners

- Running the council, getting back to campaigning

- Using administration to further Liberal Democrats cause

– Elizabeth Riches and Paul Edie

- Succession planning

– Fred Mackintosh and Caron Lindsay

- New media – Caron Lindsay and Fraser MacPherson

- Briefing by Alison McInnes NE perspective.

Keynote speaker Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson - Leader Portsmouth City Council, Leader (elect) Liberal Democrat Group Local Government Group (England)

To book please send cheque for £10 for ASLDC and LYS members or £15 for none members, for each person along with their contact details to:

Caron Lindsay

139 Buchanan Crescent,

Livingston,

EH54 7EF.

One of our Political Officers from the team at ALDC, Cllr Mark Alcock, will also be in attendance to provide advice throughout the day.

Super Somerset

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:13:00 +0100

There was one principal local council by-election held on Thursday 4th August. The Lib Dem gained one seat off the Tories. In the two parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC the Lib Dems made two gains from Independents.
In 2009 we lost the South Petherton Division, of Somerset County Council in the Yeovil Constituency by just 94 votes. In Thursday’s election we had a strong candidate in Paul Maxwell who is the district councillor for Eggwood in the division. The Tories tried the same tactic and stood one of the two councillors for South Pemberton on the District council. We had the advantage of some great issues. The Tory county council were trying to close a Library in South Pemberton. The Tories tried to convince voters that they were campaigning to save it!! Voters saw through this and three days before polling day the independent campaign group put out a newsletter endorsing our candidate. Third party endorsements are very powerful !!!
The Crewkerne recycling centre that is used by most residents, charges for people to use it !! If this were not bad enough a week before polling day they upped the charge from £1.20 to £2. Two great issues that we used to the full.
We never stopped reminding people that there were only 94 votes in it and we successfully squeezed the 222 green votes polled in 2009 down to 104.
We achieved a remarkably high level of voter contact and with a good evening eve of poll and good morning leaflets we ran an intensive polling day that produced a remarkably high turnout to add to the 60% from the postal vote.
The Tories tried to disown responsibility for the decisions they were making on the County, but it did not work. Let’s hope this is the first of many to come.

Conference: Localism the New Opportunities

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 14:50:00 +0100

Localism the New Opportunities
A Conference for Liberal Democrats

Book Now

On Friday 21st October 2011, in Westminster, an important one day conference will take place for Liberal Democrat involved in local government. This is a conference and workshop for Liberal Democrats to look at the new opportunities provided by the Localism Bill.

Guest Speakers:
Rt Hon Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister
Lord Victor Adebowale, Chief Executive, Turning Point
Gordon Lishman CBE, Author of the 1970 Community Politics Resolution to the Liberal Assembly
Andrew Stunell OBE, Lib Dem Minister DCLG
Helen Williams, Deputy Director of Neighbourhoods, National Housing Federation
Cllr Richard Kemp CBE, Deputy Leader, Liverpool Liberal Democrats
Chaired by Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Leader LGA Liberal Democrats

Bevin Hall, Local Government House, Smith Square, London SW1

Who should attend?

Liberal Democrats who are: • Councillors • Community activists • Campaigners • Health Trusts and Housing Association Board members • School Governors

Taking place at: Local Government House, Smith Square, City of London SW1P 3HZ

Programme

9.30 Reception and Coffee

10.00 Introduction.
Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Local Government

10.20 An external perspective.

The challenges to politicians in the localism agenda by: Lord Victor Adebowale, Chief Executive, Turning Point Helen Williams, Deputy Director of Neighbourhoods, National Housing Federation Followed by Q and A

11.00 Speech by Rt Hon Nick Clegg followed by Q and A.

11.45 Making things happen the Lib Dem Way
The long term view – Gordon Lishman
Legislation into action – Andrew Stunell MP
Inside the Council Chamber – Cllr Richard Kemp
Followed by Q & A

12.45 Lunch

13.30 Workshops
Localism the Whole council approach - Carl Minns
Cabinet Member for your Ward – Cllr Erica Kemp
Housing and neighbourhoods – Cllr Richard Kemp
Integrating Town Hall and Campaigning – Howard Sykes.

15.00 Finish

Book Now

Kickstart 2012 and 2013

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Registrations are now open for ALDC's Kickstart Training Weekend - 25-27 November 2011, near Birmingham. This is our main training event of the year and a great opportunity to ensure your team is a winning team at your next local elections - click here to go direct to the online booking form.

FACT:
In the couple of years years almost all of us face local elections of some sort. Scotland, Wales, English Mets and Districts and London in 2012, English Counties in 2013.

FACT:
To win in challenging circumstances your team needs the skills and information to campaign effectively. You need a campaign plan that can build success across subsequent elections.

FACT:
It is never to early to start. Experience has shown us that starting early, and campaigning continuously will reap rewards.

SOLUTION:
ALDC’s Weekend Kickstart event takes place on 25-27 November 2011. Each year it is the most important training opportunity each year for Lib Dem volunteer campaigners. It's proven to work - with Lib Dems going on from Kickstart to win in subsequent elections.

WHAT YOU GET:
Over 20 hours of training – both advanced and beginner.
Over six hours for your team working with an experienced mentor to develop your campaign plan.
A weekend's accommodation at the Holiday Inn (M6 Junction 7 near Birmingham), food and training rooms. (There's even time for both the pool and the bar...). The weekend starts at 6:00pm on Friday and finishes 2:30pm on Sunday.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Kickstart is great if you can bring along your campaign team. Imagine a whole weekend of campaign planning with expert help without any interference! This year we're encouraging everyone with elections in 2012 and 2013 to attend.
Individual campaigners are also welcome - they will work together in small teams to develop plans and ideas.
Experienced campaigners and new campaigners. It’s a great way to develop ideas and bring on new people.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST:

Kickstart is financially supported by the G8 process, so the cost is right down to the minimum we can charge.
Save £60 by sharing a room – (twins and doubles available!)
G8 will can provide grants to groups to subsidise attendance - for people with elections in 2012 AND 2013.
We have a small number of HALF PRICE places for groups starting off (see below).
WHY NOT ask your council group to pay or pay half of your costs – it could be the best investment they make all year?

If you're near to Birmingham we have some low-cost non-residential rates - not available to book online but contact emma.hall@aldc.org

HOW DO I BOOK:
You can book now – online at ALDC’s website – click here to go direct to the booking form. Remember you need to LOG IN as an ALDC member FIRST to receive your members discount which will then be applied automatically.
More information from Emma Hall – 01422 843 785 emma.hall@aldc.org

50% DISCOUNT
ALDC has set aside a fund to pay for a small number of half-price places available for groups who are starting off. This is only for councils where we have NO COUNCILLORS or very few Councillors (e.g. one or two wards).

If you are interested in taking us up on this please contact anders.hanson@aldc.org before 9 October 2011 deadline.

G8 Grants 2012 and 2013

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:01:00 +0100

G8 Grants for Local Campaigning (England and Wales)

The "G8 Grants" Committee is now seeking applications for funding for "Stage 1" grants in England and Wales. Separate information will be sent out for grants in Scotland.
Later in the year we hope to be running a "Stage 2" round of grants, subject to funding.

For stage 1, two types of grant are available:

A. 2012 Local Elections in England and Wales: Rewarding Early Campaigning

To be eligible for a grant we will need to see most of the following in place:

Link to application form

B. 2012 Local Elections in England and Wales, and 2013 County and Unitary Elections in England: Kickstart Training We are keen to support campaign teams to develop their skills and ensure they have the right plan in place to win in 2012 and 2013. We will be providing grants to pay for 50% of the cost of attending the important Kickstart Training weekend 25-27 November 2011 in Birmingham. Priority will be given to teams who don't have the group funds available to pay for this and the limit is two subsidised places per authority area.

Link to application form

If you need further information about G8 , please email Eleanor Ritchie eleanor.ritchie@aldc.org

The deadline for applications is 29 August 2011

Where we work we can still win

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:00:00 +0100

There were four principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 28th July and one on Tuesday 26th . The Tories held three seats, the Lib Dem held one and Labour gained one off Independents. In the only parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC an Independent took a seat off the Tories.

In Warrington we got hammered in May 2010, but not quite as badly as other areas in the north. We ended up with a majority of one for the LibDem/Con coalition that had been running the council. In May 2011 it got worse and we lost further seats and control of the Council. Our remaining councillor in the Poulton North ward resigned having taken a job in the south of England. We knew it would be a tough fight and stood our very popular councillor who had lost in May after seven years on the council. He has a tremendous reputation in the ward.

We did a full canvass in our two best and highest turn-out polling districts and quite a lot in another. We did not canvass the other two small polling districts, which have poor turnout and are mostly Labour. We delivered everywhere. We did three Focuses and an Eve of Poll. On polling Day we did a good morning leaflet to Ds and Ps and then two knock ups with different leaflets until after 9pm. We did a Postal voter letter and insert 'How to do it' card and an eve of poll handwritten letter to supporters.

Labour threw the kitchen sink at us, accusing us of an unnecessary, expensive election and of secret deals to build on green land. They did six leaflets including three full colour glossies - one an A3. They were mostly negative attacks on “Con/Dem cuts” eg save the NHS petition; save Peel Hall Park petition (based on a made up story that Lib Dems were talking to developers!!!) They put up a Leeds based college student as their candidate.

The Tories put up a candidate who did three leaflets.

This is a ward we have won with large majorities in the past – 743 in 2008 with 59.9% of the vote. The fact that Labour can still get that close, with a weak candidate, shows that Labour people are still voting tribally, are getting better at campaigning but can still be beaten.

Other byelections:

Bush Hill Park - London Borough of Enfield

Beardwood with Lammack - Blackburn and Darwin UA

Stanmore Park - London Borough of Harrow

Snatchwood - Torfaen County Borough Council (Tuesday result)

Read All About It! 29/7/2011

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:56:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

This week the government launched the 'Big Society Bank' which will help fund social enterprises and charities.

The government has also launched the Draft National Planning Policy Framework, to mixed reviews. This framework will see the scrapping of Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) and various other documents and advice, with just one document.

The l atest set of Enterprise Zones have been officially announced by the government for Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds.

The Liberal Democrats in the Greater London Assembly have announced plans for electric vehicles to be used throughout the capital by 2020.

Councils throughout the country have submitted their dates for when the public will be allowed to inspect the accounts for each local authority.

The discussions over police commissioners continues whilst the House of Lords decides whether to support the bill or not. ALDC Management Committee members Cllr Chris White has written a piece for Lib Dem Voice on whether the Conservatives will even put up candidates.

In Reading, Lib Dem Cllr Warren Swaine has had his party membership reinstated over a remark he made on Twitter.

Simon Titley writes for Liberator with his take on the reasons why we performed so badly in the local elections in May.

Jo Swinson MP has managed to gain news coverage both in this country and in the United States for her campaign for body confidence and against the digital manipulation of photographs in this regard.

Mark Pack reports on moves by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Nick Clegg to you and me) to lengthen the timetable for parliamentary elections and as a result the various deadlines associated with the election.

Birmingham 2011: ALDC Highlights

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Liberal Democrat Federal Party Conference takes place Saturday 17 - Wednesday 21 September 2011, in Birmingham. All Party members can attend, more details on registration are available from the main party website here.

Come and visit us in the Exhibition Hall - we're at Stand 104 in the main Hall 4. Staff and volunteers will be on hand from Saturday through to Wednesday to help with advice, information, membership information and technical queries.

Thanks to Jonathan Swift for kindly giving permission to use this photo.

ALDC Fringe Programme

Saturday 17 September 2011, 8.15pm, ICC 10B
ALDC Annual General Meeting and Campaigner Awards 2011
Party President Tim Farron MP presents the 2011 Campaigner Awards. £500 for the top prize sponsored by RISO and Midshires. Submit your campaign materials for an award here.

Sunday 18 September 2011, 1.00pm, ICC 8A
ALDC Members Reception (Members Only)
Join Nick Clegg MP and Andrew Stunell MP at our annual members reception in partnership with the Co-operative.

ALDC Training Programme

ALDC have 22 training session and six workshops at this Autumn’s conference in Birmingham.

Winning Ways

We are running a set of six ‘Winning Ways’ training sessions, these sessions will be run twice once in the morning and once in the afternoon:

Winning Ways 1:
Campaigning in your Community
In communities across the country there are improvements just waiting for a successful campaign to bring them about. If you are a candidate, campaigner, councillor or Member of Parliament this is your chance to update your knowledge and skills needed to work with people to bring about change.

Jury’s Inn room 112 – Sunday 9-15 to 10-45 and Tuesday 2-30 to 3-45
Cllr Jeanette Sunderland ALDC - Shaun Roberts Campaigns Department

Winning Ways 2:
In Touch All Year Round
It's never been more important to communicate effectively with the residents in your ward. Get an overview of the different techniques ranging from Focus to social networking, via direct mail and the local media. Find out more about the advantages of each approach and how to choose the best technique for your different messages.

Jury’s Inn room 112 – Sunday 11-00 to 12-30 and Monday 2-30 to 3-45
Cllr Anders Hanson ALDC – Cllr Adam Williams

Winning Ways 3:
A Record of Action – Delivering on Community Politics
This session looks at how we use Community Politics to get the best for our residents and our area. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.
Jury’s Inn room 112 – Sunday 2-30 to 3-45 and Monday 9-15 to 10-45
Cllr Howard Sykes – Isobel McCall ALDC

Winning Ways 4:
The Best Person for the Job
How can we build and sell the profile of our candidates, make the electorate see that our candidate is the best person for the job, and how you can do this between now and polling day. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.
Jury’s Inn room 112 – Sunday 4-00 to 5-30 and Monday 11-00 to 12-30
Cllr Tim Pickstone - Cllr Claire Hudson ALDC

Winning Ways 5:
Voter ID
Most pre-2010 historic voter ID data is now less reliable and many canvassers in May found it harder to get accurate information from voters. This course will go over the basics of voter ID and look at how to approach it in the new environment.
Jury’s Inn room 112 – Monday 4-00 to 5-30 and Monday 9-15 to 10-45
Cllr John Bridges ALDC - Ian Horner

Winning Ways 6:
Targeting Voters
You have lots of data you have collected about your electorate; this session will give you ways to use that data to target your voters throughout the year. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers"

Jury’s Inn room 112 – Monday 2-30 to 3-45 and Tuesday 11-00 to 12-30
Cllr Mark Alcock ALDC – Tim Pollard Campaigns Department

CONNECT for councillors

See the party’s new campaign database system CONNECT ( VAN) in action. Focus on how CONNECT can empower Councillors to campaign more effectively in your community.

Soprano Room, Hyatt Regency Hotel - Saturday – 2-30 to 3-45
Room 101, Jury’s Inn - Monday - 9.15 to 10.45
Austin Rathe, Elections and Skills & Cllr Anders Hanson, ALDC

MyCouncillor

MyCouncillor Basics
Now is the time to get your ward website up and running. Regardless of where you are in the country there is now an expectation that local representatives will have a website. Come here and learn how easy it is to set up and manage a free MyCouncillor website through ALDC (for ALDC members)

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Sunday 2-30 to 3-45
Laura Willoughby – Cllr Anders Hanson ALDC

MyCouncillor Advanced
This session is for users of the My Councillor websites provided free to ALDC members. This session will explore ways of making the most of your website and look at the latest technological developments.

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Tuesday 2-30 to 3-45
Cllr Tim Pickstone ALDC

Council Candidates

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Sunday 4-00 to 5-30
Steve Hitchins ALDC – Cllr Anood Al Samerai

and once you have found your potential candidates:

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Monday 11-00 to 12-30
Laura Willoughby – Cllr Anders Hanson ALDC

Email

Keeping in Touch – by Email!
Workshop to look how best to use email in our campaigning and communications.
Looking at the emails we send, collecting addresses and different systems we can use. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Monday 2-30 to 3-45
Cllr Tim Pickstone ALDC

Councillors and council groups

Working Smarter for Councillors
As councillors and campaigners we have very limited time, this session will help you make best use of your time. Ideal for all local election candidates and councillors"

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Monday 4-00 to 5-30
Cllr Erica Kemp

Power of the Small Group
If you are a small voice by number in your council group or in viewpoint then this session is your guide to winning the argument.

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Tuesday 11-00 to 12-30
Cllr Jeanette Sunderland ALDC

Next Generation Alumni
Update training session for the participants of Lib Dem Next Generation 1-5 and Lib Dems on previous Leadership Academies.

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Sunday 9-15 to 10-45
Cllr Erica Kemp

Campaign Workshops

Police & Crime Commissioner elections
The Police & Crime Commissioner elections are coming up and we need to be prepared. This session will help highlight the policies and messages that will allow us to maximise our vote.

Hyatt Regency Hotel Allegro - Saturday – 11-00 to 12-30
Hilary Stephenson Campaigns Department

Hyatt Regency Hotel Andante – Saturday – 2-30 to 5-30
Rhiannon Wadeson Campaigns Department - John Bridges & Cllr Mark Alcock ALDC

Hyatt Regency Hotel Allegro – Saturday – 2-30 to 5-30
Cllr Howard Sykes ALDC & Shaun Roberts Campaigns Department

Using the Localism Bill to boost your campaign
The Localism Bill offers some real campaigning opportunities for Liberal Democrats in their local community. Key tips and a chance to discuss how you can use this with Andrew Stunell MP and the LGA Lib Dem Group.

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Sunday 11-00 to 12-30
Andrew Stunell MP – Rob Banks LGA

Lib Dem Council Group Researchers
An opportunity for Lib Dem Council group political assistants and researchers to get the latest briefings and to learn best practice from colleagues in other authorities.

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Monday 9-15 to 10-45

Workshop on Organised Independents
This is a workshop on how other groups have worked to combat organised independent groups. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Tuesday 4-00 to 5-30
Cllr Chris White - Cllr Claire Hudson ALDC

Inspired

Jury’s Inn room 114 – Tuesday 9-15 to 10-45
Cllr Keith House – Leader Eastleigh, Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson Leader Portsmouth, Cllr Stuart Bray Leader Hinckley and Bosworth, Cllr John Boyce Leader Oadby and Wigston

Facing a new challenge – Defending your council seat in 2012
If you are standing for re-election in 2012 this session is a must for you

Room 113/115/117 - Sunday 9-15 to 10-45 and
Tuesday 9-15 to 10-45 - Jury’s Inn room 102
Dave McCobb, Elections and Skills & Cllr Mark Alcock, ALDC

We have to believe we can win, to convince others

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:01:00 +0100

There were two principal local council by-election held on Thursday 21st July. The Tories held one seat and Plaid Cymru held the other. In the only parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC the Tories took a seat off the Lib Dems.

At times in Welsh elections there can be an “anyone but Plaid” mentality from both activists and voters. By-elections naturally encourage a wider field of candidates than usual and this was the case in the Glyder ward of Gwynedd Council and split that vote. This Bangor ward divides into two; a council estate and a largely Welsh speaking area. We canvassed around 95% of the houses but needed to get on more doorsteps in peoples first language. Our candidate was a well-known local figure and Bangor City Councillor. We fought on local issues, notably the terrible state of local roads and pavements. This is a both a frustrating and encouraging result. In May we lost our deposit in the Arfon Welsh Assembly seat that includes this ward, so a huge improvement but frustrating that we fell just 13 votes from victory.

In the very rural Remenham, Wargrave and Ruscombe ward of Wokingham Unitary Authority in Berkshire, one of the two sitting Tory councillors resigned to cause a by-election. Four days earlier she won a seat in the neighbouring Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead!! She could have resigned in the run up to the May local elections, rather than afterwards. If that had happened, then the by-election could have been run on the same day as the local elections. Strangely we pointed this out to the electors who were none too amused.

Our vote share dropped from the election held on the same day as the general election to a figure comparable to previous local elections. Turnout was below normal for the ward possibly due to the unforecast heavy rain during the afternoon and evening, yet the postal vote turnout was 61%.

Labour and UKIP both did one leaflet to the central parts of the ward, both for the first time. The Greens did nothing. We did two leaflets, some canvassing, target letters to non-Tories in two tranches (postal voters, non-postals). The Tories did full canvass for the first time ever, one leaflet, target letters (postal and non-postal).

This ward, whilst in Wokingham Authority, is in the Maidenhead parliamentary seat and as such had some attention up to the 2005 General Election but had not been high on our priority list. Our aims were thus limited; we maintained our second place, trialled some key messages (which worked well for us) and got everybody helping after the May elections – all achieved.

Read All About It! 22/7/2011

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:15:00 +0100

First the good news, and that’s the poll from ICM which shows the Liberal Democrats up 4% to 16%. OK, so it’s only one poll but it’s a start.

On to other news:

In today’s Times, 115 Liberal Democrat councillors have called for the scrapping of plans for Police and Crime Commissioners. You can read more about the story at LocalGov, thereby saving you having to pay News International for the privilege of reading the story.

The government has announced plans for a coastal communities fund using money raised through the Crown Estates. This will allow people to bid for funds to support economic development along our coasts.

Andrew Stunell has written for Liberal Democrat Voice about the government’s plans to relocalise business rates and and at Huffington Post UK about the government’s first boost to social housing in over 30 years.

Around the country,

Hertfordshire County Council’s Conservative Deputy Leader says what he really thinks about consulting and involving local residents on issues “in local government, there’s a feeling you’ve got to involve the public. I think perhaps we try to involve the public for too long.”

In news from Liverpool, the Liberal Democrats there are leading the charge in trying to curb Labour’s gravy train of allowances at Merseytravel, the local Integrated Transport Authority.

Within the Liberal Democrats,

Linda Jack joins the debate on the reform of public services and Peter Downes writes about the overspend on academies.

Get an exclusive look at VAN, the party's new campaign tool

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Development of the party's new campaign management and voter contact system from the Voter Activation Network (VAN) is now underway and we’ll be writing to you next week with more information.
In the meantime, we’re running a series of demonstrations online for local party Data Officers, Treasurers and Chairs.

We’ll run through the basic system and some specific areas of interest to people holding these positions. Please feel free to sign up to which ever session works for you though.

Please click on the link for the session you would like to attend and register online. You’ll be sent an email with details of how to join the demonstration.

If you’ve got any questions, please email campaigns@libdems.org.uk

Yours sincerely,
Jake Holland
Head of Campaign Development

Local Party Data Officers

Date: Monday, July 25, 2011
Time: 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM BST
Reserve your space at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/171391694

Date: Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Time: 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM BST
Reserve your space at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/225007566

Local Party Chairs

Date: Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM BST
Reserve your space at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/410245198

Date: Thursday, July 28, 2011
Time: 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM BST
Reserve your space at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/507682598

Date: Friday, July 29, 2011
Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM BST
Reserve your space at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/505868318

Local Party Treasurers

Date: Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Time: 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM BST
Reserve your space at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/658619390

Date: Thursday, July 28, 2011
Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM BST
Reserve your space at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/688109198

Date: Friday, July 29, 2011
Time: 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM BST
Reserve your space at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/158117598

Police and Crime Commissioners: Lib Dem candidates start here

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0100

The Liberal Democrats are inviting potential candidates for the new Police and Crime Commissioner posts, which, if the legislation is passed, are expected to be elected in May 2012.

The party wants to encourage the widest possible range of applicants so the membership can select from the best possible choice of candidates.

So if you’re interested in applying, you need to be an approved Parliamentary candidate:
The Bill to create directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners is currently before Parliament. The first elections of Police and Crime Commissioners are expected in May 2012.

The English Regional Parties will be inviting applications to be candidates for Police and Crime Commissioners in the autumn. All candidates will be required to be on the Party’s list of approved parliamentary candidates. Therefore anyone who may be interested in being a candidate who is not currently on the Party’s list of approved parliamentary candidates should now apply for approval.

Applications for approval should be made by Friday 29th July to enable them to be considered by September.

Application packs for approval can be obtained from the English Candidates Office, 4 Cowley Street, London, SW1P 3NB candidates@libdems.org.uk - 020 7227 1204

Last chance to save 30% off conference booking

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:12:00 +0100

Liberal Democrat Autumn Federal Conference

17-21 September 2011

Birmingham

If you’ve not already signed up, this is your last chance to save up to 30% on members’ registration rates. Register online by 29 July to take advantage of fantastic offers. Don’t forget - full week, weekend and day passes are all available to members online so make the most of your time at conference by registering in advance. You’ll receive your pass and any papers straight to your door, avoiding any queues at on-site registration.

Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference Bristol 2011 in Photos

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0100

June 2011 saw the 2011 Local Government Conference, at Clifton in Bristol.

Friday saw a range of satellite events, including a Liberal Democrat "Group Leaders Day", and a training day for Liberal Democrat Council Group Researchers. In the evening Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Kirsty Williams AM addressed the annual LIberal Democrat Local Government Dinner.

Over 200 Lib Dem councillors and local activists from around the country attended the main conference on Saturday 18 June. Parliamentary speakers included the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg MP, Deputy Parliamentary Leader Simon Hughes MP and ministers Andrew Stunnel MP and Paul Burstow MP.

The day was a packed agenda of training sessions and policy workshops including councillor skills training (e.g. public speaking, time management and more) and campaigning training such as 'talking to voters' and 'building the team'.

More photos from the event are at ALDC's flickr site here. The 2012 Lib Dem Local Government conference takes place Friday 15 and Saturday 16 June 2012.

Solid result in Norfolk

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:56:00 +0100

There was one principal local council by-election held on Thursday 14th July and the Tories held the seat. There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

The Tory Parish, District and County councillor for Old Catton Division of Norfolk resigned from just his county seat. In reality the ward is a largely suburban fringe of Norwich, but falls into Broadland District Council where we have one councillor. In campaigning terms it’s virgin territory for us outside the parliamentary 2009 by-election and two freeposts in the 2010 General Election.
With a small local party, stretched by holiday and health absences we set out a series of clear objectives for the campaign, high amongst which was building up the ward’s organisation and training.

From a slow start we ran a four leaflet campaign, with a target leaflet to postal voters and a “Today is Polling Day” leaflet across the whole ward. Where we were less good was on canvass contact and work on the postal vote, both key to success in any election. Canvassers on the final week felt that with more doorstep contact the result could have been even better.

This was particularly frustrating as the Tories not listening message was clearly getting through. In West Norfolk a huge local campaign against an incinerator had been completely ignored and we reminded the Catton voters of this, with a number of developments in the area about to be decided.

The Tories only seemed to put out one glossy A4 but Labour put in a lot of effort, wheeling in two MPs, to do less well than they did in May. The result, for consistency, is compared with the county elections in 2009. However by comparing it against the district result in May it shows a drop in the Labour vote of 2% and our vote up 12%.

An encouraging night.

Read All About it! 15/07/2011

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

You've probably noticed there has been some news recently about News International ..... The story is changing by the hour, but here are some specific Lib Dem angles:

In The Guardan's Comment is Free, Julian Astle writes: Phone-hacking scandal shows why Britain needs the Liberal Democrats

Here's Nick Clegg's speech on the future of the media in full (from Lib Dem Voice) and here's the full text of a letter sent by Simon Hughes, Tim Farron and Don Foster to Rupert Murdoch.

Elsewhere in the news:

Chris Huhne: We must invest in energy to keep lights on (BBC Video)

Cheques Saved as banks fail to come up with suitable alternative (Daily Mail)

In local Government (all from the MJ):

Welsh councils told to review school plans

Council asks residents to carry out waste collections (Rossendale)

Birmingham on course to slash carbon emissions

And elsewhere:

James Morris MP: We mustn't sub-contract "niceness" to the Lib Dems (Conservative Home)

And Friend's of the Earth's report on how we can halve the amount amount of waste we produce: Talking half as much rubbish

Next Generation 6: Call for Participants

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0100

We're currently recruiting for the 2011-2012 "Liberal Democrat Next Generation" programme. This is an excellent opportunity for younger and ambitious Lib Dem councillors to develop your leadership and political skills.

Next Generation is now in its sixth successful year. Uniquely, it is developed within party tradition, by party political experts, creating a political development opportunity for participants. Next Generation provides the support and continuous personal development that ensures councillors have the right skills to transform into the sort of leaders required to reinvigorate the local political scene.

'Next Gen' is designed for those who have already shown a proven commitment to the ideals of local government and have demonstrated flair or potential for leadership at a local level and have the capacity to develop politically. It offers privileged access to senior party members and the best of policymakers, an open door to model authorities and the most experienced of mentors and an understanding of communications skills presented by the best the party has to offer.

As well as offering the practical skills of leadership, this programme is also designed to raise individuals' profiles within the local and National Party.

This year long programme is delivered in partnership between the Local Government Liberal Democrat Group, the Leadership and Localism team and the ALDC.

Previous Lib Dem cohorts have visited authorities across the country as well as attending a dedicated training weekend at Warwick Business School, and 2 days in Westminster. Many have gone on to either lead their council, contribute high-quality policy ideas to the Party, or continue cementing an important network of politically motivated Lib Dems in local government.

The 2011-2012 programme will consist of:

- two '3 day' events (ie 2 nights away), including a study visit of Lib Dem-run councils, and a residential study weekend

- two '2 day' events (ie 1 night away), including a day in Westminster and a day at the Lib Dem Local Government Conference.

The programme is free to participants, and all travel, accommodation and food costs are paid.

How to apply:

We are limited to the number of people we can have on the course. For more information and to apply online please fill in the link here (and click on the Lib Dem button!)

The Localism website is suffering an intermittent fault - in which case please go straight to the online form below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/libdemng2011

The deadline for the Lib Dem applications is Friday 19 August 2011 (with some flexibility for late applications). If you would like to chat informally about the course please contact Tim Pickstone at ALDC on 01422 843 785.

Picture above is the Next Gen 5 group meeting with Chris Huhne last November.

LGA Group Elections - Nominations close

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:03:00 +0100

The Nomination for the LGA Lib Dem Group Elections 2011 have now closed

The remaining election timetable is as follows:

22 July    Ballot papers despatched
15 Aug    Ballot closes
19 Aug    Results announced
1 Sept     Posts take effect.

Nominations
Group Executive
Group Leader                        Vernon-Jackson, Gerald    Portsmouth
Deputy Leader (Policy)          White, Chris                       Hertfordshire
Deputy Leader (Political)        Ali, Zulfiqar                        Rochdale
                                               Kidd, Heather                    Shropshire
                                               Thornhill, Dorothy Watford
Group Chair                            Shortland, Jill                    Somerset
Group Whip                             Sykes, Howard                 Oldham

Commission Leads

Fire                                          Aspden, Keith                  York
                                                Hilton, Jeremy                  Gloucestershire
                                                Price, Roger                    Hampshire
                                                Shannon, Paul                 Manchester

Rural                                       Collins, Stan                    Cumbria
                                                Cordwell, John                 Gloucestershire
                                                Dobinson, Adrian            Mendip
                                                Kidd, Heather                  Shropshire
                                                Scott, Gary                      Tendring

Urban Bell, Abigail Hull

Panels
Audit & Scrutiny Neighbour, David Hart
Scott, Gary Tendring

Resources                             Crabb, Sam                       Somerset
                                              Keith, Whitmore                 Manchester
                                              Maines, Chris                     Lewisham
Programme Boards
Children & Young People      Bellotti, David                     BaNES
                                              Candler, Martin                  Stockport
                                              Cawood, Gloria                  Somerset
                                              Downes, Peter                   Cambridgeshire
                                              Golton, Stewart                  Leeds
                                              Green, Liz                          Kingston
                                              Hubbard, Jon                     Wiltshire
                                              Maines, Chris                     Lewisham
                                              Morgan, Penelope              Worcestershire
                                              Pinnock, Kath Kirklees
                                              Simon, Tom                        Camden
                                              Whittle, Paul                       Fareham
                                              Wright, James                    Norwich

Community Wellbeing            Bryant, John                      Camden
                                              Huddart, Doreen                Newcastle
                                              Martins, Rabi                      Watford
                                              Patrick, Zoe                        Oxfordshire
                                              Rogers, David                    East Sussex
                                              Scott, Gary                         Tendring

Culture, Tourism & Sport      Crossley, Paul                    BaNES
                                             Eades, Philip                       Poole
                                             Golton, Stewart                   Leeds
                                             Jameson, Brendan              South Lakeland
                                             Rea, Flick                           Camden
                                             White, Chris                        Hertfordshire

Economy & Transport           Ali, Zulfiqar                          Rochdale
                                             Ball, Jon                              Ealing
                                             Bill, David                            Leicestershire
                                             Connett, Alan                      Teignbridge
                                             Cordwell, John                     Gloucestershire
                                             Kidd, Heather                      Shropshire
                                             Knowles, Richard                Oldham
                                             Rosentiel, Colin                  Cambridge
                                             Stewart, Ian                         Cumbria
                                             Symonds, Roger                  BaNES

Environment & Housing        Dobinson, Adrian                Mendip
                                             Galton, Simon                     Leicestershire
                                             House, Keith                        Eastleigh
                                             Lawrence, Angela               Vale of White Horse
                                             Roodhouse, Jerry                Warwickshire
                                             Scott, Gary                          Tendring
                                             Stacy, Terry                        Islington
                                             Trent, Tony                         Poole

European & International Ali, Zulfiqar Rochdale
Kemp, Richard Liverpool

Improvement                         Higgins, Theresa                Essex
                                             Neighbour, David                Hart
                                             Shortland, Jill                      Somerset
                                             Williams, David                   Richmond

Safer Communities               Brett, Lisa                           BaNES
                                             Brooks, Duwayne               Lewisham
                                             Lower, Anita                       Newcastle
                                             Porgess, Paul                     Stockport
                                             Thomas, Claire                   Hull

Workforce                            Comer, Steve                       Bristol
                                            Hay, Colin                            Cheltenham
                                            Knight, Stephen                   Richmond
                                            Shaw, Simon                        Sefton

Down in Dorset, Soaring in Sawley

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Although the latest by-election results saw the sad loss of a Liberal Democrat seat in Purbeck District Council in Dorset, the results in two other wards were quite encouraging.

The by-election in Lytchett Matravers was in Annette Brooke’s Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency, and was gained from the Conservatives for the first time last year. The by-election was caused by the sudden resignation of that same councillor for health reasons, and this (along with the national situation) conspired to help us lose the seat. However, a hard fought campaign with a good candidate and much regional support kept the swing down to just 5%. Sadly, this now means that the Conservatives move to be the largest party on a council where we have minority control.

In Derbyshire, we had an impressive 11% increase in our vote in a vacancy caused by the death of a local Independent. Sawley is a large village on the Nottinghamshire border and was once good territory for the party. This is the first time the local party has managed to run a campaign on this scale which included regular Focuses, surveys, postal vote letters and plenty of canvassing. As in Dorset, it was achieved thanks to lots of help from the surrounding area (a tip for other by-elections contests is to make sure people from outside of your area come and help). Although we didn’t win, the local party are pleased that their hardwork paid off and they got a result well beyond their highest expectations.

Finally, in Peckham in Southwark we ran another intensive campaign capitalising on the compelling life story of our candidate. Peckham born and bred, Jennifer Blake is a former gang member who has now turned her life around and runs a charity helping local young people get out of lives dominated by guns and gangs. Whilst this was a great campaigning opportunity and her personal story was a major part of the campaign, (much more so than the party she represented), our choice of candidate showed that our campaign was genuinely about the community and trying to improve the area. We were rewarded with the highest increase in the Lib Dem vote in a Labour held ward since July last year (the last being in Darlington).

It’s difficult these days to say “where you work you win,” as many councillors found out in May that working hard certainly doesn’t guarantee you victory anymore. However one thing that’s clear from this week’s by-elections is that running an intensive campaign that genuinely engages voters with issues they care about, (and with a candidate who they can relate to), certainly helps get you nearer to winning.

Read All About It! 8/7/2011

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:39:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

This week saw two big bits of news from the government (if you ignore the drama of The News of the World).

The first was the publication of the Dilnot Report on adult social care which you can read about on the BBC, which Paul Burstow MP wrote about on Liberal Democrat Voice.

The other was hidden news but one that many Liberal Democrats will be very pleased with, which is the government surpassing the target to cut carbon emissions by 10%. A good sign that this government may well meet its aim to be the greenest ever.

In the local government world:

The voluntary sector is urging the government to press ahead with plans to allow local communities and the third sector to take over the running of local services.

In Edinburgh, the Liberal Democrat led administration is pressing ahead with plans to complete the first phase of their new tram system.

The government is planning to make more information available on schools, hospitals, GPs and the courts as part of a drive for more transparency.

With police commissioner elections looking likely for next May, it's worth considering Theresa May's claim that reforming the police could save £2.2 billion.

Funds of over £1 million are to be spent to help support the development of the new council Health and Wellbeing Boards.

A government commissioned report is also calling on more early intervention to help improve the lives of children from deprived areas.

News from the rest of the world of politics includes a plan by Scottish Labour to make sure that all their council candidates undertake a minimum amount of canvassing or face deselection. The original story was in The Times (£), but you can read more on ConservativeHome. This is also linked to a plan to rebrand Scottish Labour as the 'Irn-Bru of modern politics'.

Finally, welcome news to the many Liberal Democrat councillors faced with the same issue is news from ConservativeHome that Eric Pickles is to look in to the demand by the Information Commissioner that councillors should have to register as a data controller.

LGA Lib Dem 2011 Group Elections

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:50:00 +0100

Nominations for the 2011 LGA Lib Dem group elections are now open, nomination form is attached. If you are interested in representing your colleagues at a national level or just want to know a bit more, read the short summary below and then go to the following web address for a full guide to the elections: http://www.libdemgroup.lga.gov.uk/lga/aio/18947767

If you would like to stand for a post, please complete the form (download a form here) and then either print out, sign and post/fax back (details on form) or else email it back to libdem@local.gov.uk and ask your proposer and seconder to email their consent separately – Nominations close on 12 July.

Why should I stand in these elections?
Because you would get the opportunity to:
• Represent Lib Dem councillors at a national level
• Be involved in high level ministerial and parliamentary meetings
• Voice directly your council or council group’s concerns in Westminster
• Influence the strategy and policy of the LG Group
• Access senior party figures and help develop party policy
• Receive research & support from LG Group officers and the Lib Dem office

What will be required of me?
• Commitment to Lib Dems and to local government
• Ability to attend regular meetings in London for a period of two years (you must check with your authority whether they will cover your travel expenses it is an approved duty of LGA membership) which are usually held during office hours
• Listen to and represent Lib Dem local government views at meetings and feed back to councillors
• Lead specialist conferences, prepare briefing materials and press statements as appropriate
• To set out a work programme each year, to be agreed by the Lib Dem Group.

How do I apply?

1. Choose the position(s) for which you would like to apply. You can apply for more than one role but you can only accept a position on one board, panel or commission (the group executive is not included in this).
2. We advise that you then check with your authority that they consent to cover your expenses whilst you are attending meetings on their behalf. It is an approved duty of LG Group membership that they should do so.
3. Send in your completed nomination form or ask your proposer and seconder to email libdem.info@local.gov.uk between 28 June and 12 July 2011. Proposer and seconder must be from different LG Group member authorities.
4. Send your electoral address to libdem.info@local.gov.uk by 12 July. This must be one side of A5 and in pdf format. Endorsements are not permitted.
5. Get campaigning. Talk to as many Lib Dem councillors as you can but you cannot incur personal expense for things like phone-banking or commercial emailing. The ballot will open on 22 July and close on 15 August.

Holding our own

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:49:00 +0100

There were two principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 30th June. The Tories held both seats.
There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

Wandsworth is not the strongest borough in London for active liberalism, so it was not surprising that the by-election in the Thamesfield ward was fallow ground for us - residents saw their first active Lib Dem campaign for 30 years. We went in with our eyes open and with achievable objectives. We held our vote despite a massive squeeze in this Labour /Tory marginal and built our organisation.
It always helps to have a good issue and the Tory administration introducing charging for use of a kids playground in the borough was a godsend.
Just to put the icing on the cake an ex Tory councillor defected to us in the middle of the campaign citing her concern about the charging decision.

One of the advantages of virgin territory is that techniques that have become a feature of Lib Dems campaigns across the UK, such as “blue letters” are a novelty to local focus and their impact is more marked. In Thamesmead we did a second blue from the ex Tory councillor about the parks charging issue. The Tories hated it and even announced a review of the charging policy in an eve of poll leaflet in a last minute attempt to defuse the issue.

One of our achievable objectives was to harvest data and recruit new members and deliverers. We started with nothing, no historic data at all. We now have contact information from above 20% of the electorate, which should provide the basis for future recruitment and team building. We even recruited some during the campaign. Organisationally we have developed the delivery walks and maps. We knocked and dropped surveys across the whole ward - with follow up letters, and delivered an item of literature every week for seven weeks. This gives us a strong sense of the key local issues to continue our campaigning.

The important thing, having received help from all over London, is not to let the hard work go to waste. Wandsworth Lib Dems now need to develop and build campaigning in the ward towards the 2014 London Borough all out elections.

Where we don’t win, this is the sort of campaign we should aim for.

Other principal results:

Broxbourne BC, Cheshunt Central

Read All About It! 29/6/2011

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:51:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

There’s been a range of good bits of news for Liberal Democrats in both national and local government.

Firstly, the government has proposed that local councils should be able to keep the business rates generated from their area whilst also promising that no councils will lose out financially. A good bit of localising taxation that we support:

The Independent has also covered ‘community budgets’ as another part of our pledge to help local areas operate services more successfully:

The Government has also announced that all new burdens on local government (PDF) must be properly assessed to ensure they are fully funded by the relevant government department. More details from the Department of Communities and Local Government:

Finally, there is the announcement that the coalition government has created more apprenticeships in its first year than expected:

In other news, the Boundary Commission for England has produced its booklet explaining how it will conduct the review of parliamentary constituency boundaries (PDF).

Plus, Alex Feakes explains on Lib Dem Voice why LEA governors are under threat.

In other local government news:

The BBC reports how many Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors oppose the cuts in housing benefits.

Could council libraries do better at providing internet access?

Controversially, Wyre Council in Lancashire has scrapped Local Area Forums due to poor attendance and focused instead on existing community organisations.

In Scotland, a bursary scheme has been created for the children of armed forces personnel killed in action.

And in Wales, £6million has been shared between various organisations to help them run more efficiently whilst providing good public services:

In other news, the Evening Standard has news on a report that shows how few younger people understand how university tuition funding works but on a more positive note it’s worth reading this from MoneySavingExpert that explains the merits of the new system and how it works.

Cock a hoop in Cockington

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:30:00 +0100

There were eleven principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 23rd June 2011. The Lib Dems gained one seat from the Tories but lost one seat to the SNP and one to an Independent. Independents gained two seats from the Tories, but lost one back the Tories and another to Plaid. The Tories held two seats and lost one to Labour . An independent took a seat off Plaid.
There were four parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC. Conservatives held one seat and gained one each from the Lib Dems and from an Independent. The Lib Dems gained one seat from Labour.

In Torbay in June the Tories won the Mayoral election and held control of the council. The Tory candidate decided to hedge his bets and stand in a relatively safe Tory ward as well, unlike the Lib Dem mayoral candidate. The Monday after he was elected to both, the vacancy for his council seat , Cockington-with-Chelston was declared and by Wednesday we’d called the by-election.
We were gifted two issues that played well in an area the Tories will have thought of as safe territory.
First the by-election and its cost was unnecessary, due only to the Tories lack of bottle. Second after winning the election in May the Tories gave Special Responsibility Allowances to 20 out of their 22 councillors!!
There were lots of good things to say about our campaign. We started quickly with a prepared leaflet that was only waiting for the photo and name of the selected candidate printed the day after the selection. Focuses, postal vote letters, blue letters, a fulsome endorsement from Adrian Sanders the popular local MP and a full colour A4 followed it. The second leaflet in particular was very, very local verging on a street letter and had a 10 version split in a 5,000 delivery point ward.
The Tories were complacent. Their only delivery was a full colour canvassing “out”. They woke up to the threat in the final week but it was already too late. Labour delivered two leaflets and a calling card, and as in May attempted to imply that we had a local coalition with the Tories. We were forthright in rebutting this lie, which had damaged us in May.

That’s better. Not good but better.

Other principal results:

South Kesteven DC, Deeping St James

Isle of Wight UA, Binstead and Fishbourne

Newcastle Under Lyme BC, Seabridge

Aberdeen UA, Airyhall / Broomhill / Garthdee

Derbyshire Dales DC, Stanton

Wychavon DC, Elmley Castle and Somerville

Great Yarmouth BC, St Andrews

Carmarthenshire UA, Llanegwad

Read All About It! 23/6/2011

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:39:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

This week there have been a few stories in the local government world that Lib Dems should know about. Firstly, there's the good news that the proposal for ‘shadow mayors’ for the 12 biggest cities in England has been scrapped, although plans for referendums next year will still go ahead. The Local Government Chronicle has produced a report that looks at how social enterprises will change the way public services are provided in the future. Michael Gove has set out new targets for GCSE results and pledged that under-performing primary schools should become academies. On Lib Dem Voice an anonymous local government officer writes about the changes the government is making to the planning system. In Wales, discussion continues on whether the country should go down from 22 councils to just seven.

In Liberal Democrat news, Cllr Iain Roberts writes about the party’s new data management system in ‘Thank you EARS, but the VAN is coming’. There is also more in the latest edition of ALDC’s Campaigner magazine. In Cornwall there was good news as a senior Conservative councillor joined the Liberal Democrats, whilst in Christchurch in Dorset, one of our councillors went in the other direction.

In a quick run down of news from Liberal Democrats around the country. The BBC looks at how Lib Dem run Burnley has improved since the riots of ten years ago, including a visit from Vince Cable! Lib Dems in Hampshire have hit out at plans by the Conservative county council to cut Sure Start centres whilst employing a 'broadband tsar' on an £85,000 salary. In Malvern Hills, the Lib Dems have condemned the Conservative council's decision to not involve councillors in their new development framework before it is published.

Finally, we will have more news and photos from last weekend's Local Government Conference on our website soon. But to whet your appetite, over at Freedom Central you can read the speech given by the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams AM, at the Local Government Dinner on the Friday night.

You couldn’t make it up

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:14:00 +0100

There were eleven principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 16th June 2011. The Lib Dems lost two seats to Labour and one to Plaid. The Tories held two seats and lost one to Labour and one to the Greens. Labour held four seats. An independent took a seat off Plaid. There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

As we approached the Crewe and Nantwich parliamentary by-election in 2008 we focussed our not insubstantial attention on making sure we made some gains in the constituency. Two out of three seats in Crewe South was the result. Since then the new Unitary borough has had some radical boundary changes, prior to the May 2011 elections leading to one of our two sitting councillors choosing to fight Crewe West as some of the “best bits” of Crewe South had ended up in Crewe West. Our remaining incumbent sadly died after nominations closed thereby triggering this re-run.
To add to our woes both the Tory and Labour parties locally have been re-invigorated. Labour have been encouraged by the surrounding elections in May. The Tories won the parliamentary by-election and held the seat at the General Election last year. They now have a far stronger and better party machine than they did in 2008 and would have been difficult to squeeze as we did in 2008,had we tried. In fact we didn’t. A campaign that costs £114 is rarely one geared to wining or holding a seat. It probably did not help that despite a decent record to defend as councillors our record of action counted for little. We had failed to communicate it to the electorate over several years. The A4 front page of the March 2009 Focus, for instance, consisted of a wordsearch competition for the names of 10 previous Mayors of Crewe and Nantwich. You couldn’t make it up. In the boundary changes Crewe South Ward went from a three member ward to a two member ward so it’s debatable whether we lost one or two seats but, we definitely have two fewer councillors. Crewe South result.

In Newcastle we had two wards where deaths of candidates led to campaign re-runs. In Byker, where the Tory candidate had died during the May Campaign, Labour held on with ease.
In 2008 we won Westerhope with 53% of the vote. In 2009 two of our councillors resigned the party whip. In 2010, on the day of the General Election Labour took the third council seat off us with a majority of 185. The leader of “Newcastle First” was then the Tory candidate. In May 2011 our remaining ex-councillor Neil Hamilton, who had lost in 2010, was to stand again but died in his home on polling day. This left a new Lib Dem candidate to face a sitting independent elected as a Lib Dem. The Labour vote fell from 2010 but our vote was fatally split.

Other byelections on 16th June 2011

Staffordshire CC, Burton Town

Dumfries and Galloway UA, Abbey

Gwynedd UA, Arllechwedd

Conwy UA, Uwchaled

Rochford BC, Hullbridge

Rushcliffe BC, Manvers

Derbyshire CC, Eckington

Read All About It! 16/6/2011

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:27:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

The big political news this week has been the changes to the NHS reforms. A full briefing and campaign artwork is available on the ALDC website and Huddle, but for two different sides of the story there’s the praise for Nick Clegg’s role in amending the reforms and Alan Milburn’s attack on the lack of reforms. For further political balance, it’s worth reading a report done by the London School of Economics on the impact of Labour’s policies on the NHS.

This week’s changes to the NHS reforms have led to a few articles assessing the Liberal Democrat performance in the coalition, and that of Nick Clegg in particular. Inevitably, the left-wing press sees the Lib Dems as having sold out and the right-wing press sees the Lib Dems as having too much power. From a positive perspective though, some of the best articles include one from the Huddersfield Examiner saying Nick Clegg needs to be given credit for tempering the Tories and Solution Focused Politics brings together praise for the Lib Dems in the coalition and praise for Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister.

In local government, there are two big stories this week:

Firstly, the news that local government workers are likely to go on strike on 30^th June over changes to pension schemes.

Also, Eric Pickles confirmed that councils won’t need to reinstate weekly bin collections where these have already been scrapped:

The arrest of a blogger for filming a meeting of Carmarthenshire County Council has provoked a debate on freedom of speech and openness of local democracy, as well as an amusing spoof news story about the incident.

Finally, this week saw the 40^th anniversary of Bob Russell’s time in politics from being elected as a Colchester Borough Councillor in 1971 to his time as the local MP since 1997. The BBC reports here on the celebrations.

Postal Vote Priority

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:06:00 +0100

There were four principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 9th June 2011. The Tories held two seats and gained one from the Lib Dems. There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

The Chelmsford Central Division by-election for Essex County Council was caused by the death of the Lib Dem councillor. In May the two borough wards that form the county division had elections. In Moulsham Lodge - a historically safe Lib Dem ward we won. In Moulsham and Central the Conservatives won. The aggregate vote put the Tories around 480 ahead just a few weeks ago. We did a very full campaign, but so did both the newly invigorated Tories and Labour. Labour in particular did far more than usual; very negative and national, no local issues.

As usual in local by-elections the postal vote was critical. 63% of postal voters voted! Yet the overall turnout was only 29%. Our efforts were hampered by a slow start on our canvassing, and particularly phone canvassing of postal voters in the weeks immediately following the local elections. Our response on the doorstep was notably better than for the May borough elections and we edged closer to the Tories but we still failed to squeeze the resilient Labour vote. Labour was 10% higher than 2009 but slightly lower than the 20.2% they got in May.

In Scotland the Tain and Easter Ross ward of Highland council reflected the national swings to the SNP. In 2007 the Independents (a strong force on Highland council) topped the poll to win a seat over quota and the Scottish Lib Dems picked up the second, the SNP who had been third on first preferences got pipped at the post by another Independent for the third. In the by-election the SNP surged but an Independent hung on to win at the fourth stage.

The two wards that were held by the Tories in Kensington and Chelsea, Brompton and Queens Gate were both well established, and the results surprised nobody.

Read All About It! 10/6/2011

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:27:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

Within the Liberal Democrats there's been a few big stories this week:

There's a thought-provoking post on Lib Dem Voice from London activist Rob Blackie about his attempts at building a liberal movement along the lines of the movement for change that Barack Obama built in the United States. He uses a very real example from a current council by-election - Jennifer Blake - and there are other examples of these 'liberal heroes' on his blog.

Figures unveiled by the Financial Times shows that the Liberal Democrats are now outperforming the Labour party in donations from private individuals.

In the local government world:

The Communities and Local Government Committee has criticised the government's proposals for localism and accused them of being incoherent.

A survey by YouGov has found that 40% of councils do not have plans to deal with the squeeze on local councils' finances. Something which won't surprise those Liberal Democrats who have seen the way the other parties have axed frontline services as the 'easy' option to dealing with their budget.

In general political news:

Education Minister Lib Dem Sarah Teather MP is asking for the opinions of party members on the Bailey Report that is looking at the commercialisation and sexualisation of children.

David Cameron has outlined some of the changes to the proposed NHS reforms (with more due in the coming week) and there is a fuller briefing on the NHS reforms in a briefing on the ALDC website.

In Scotland, Willie Rennie MSP calls for radical action on alcohol misuse that goes further than minimum pricing.

An article from the Chief Executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) calls for the lifting of red tape to help the Big Society become a reality.

On another area for saving money - procurement - the government is looking at centralising procurement across the whole of Whitehall to help save £3 billion.

Read All About It! 3/6/2011

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:34:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

There's been some discussion recently about how the party moves on from the recent local election results.

Rob Hayward has given his analysis on the Liberal Democrat performance in the council elections on Conservative Home, which gives you an idea of the take of someone in another party.

However, as part of the internal discussion, Bill Le Breton has written about how he thinks community politics can reform the coalition’s prospects. ALDC members can download a PDF of the original “The Theory and Practice of Community Politics” and you can browse some of the the other early ALDC and ALC publications in the file library on our website.

In the last week, the Liberal Democrats also appointed their three senior campaign posts as part of the restructuring announced previously.

For the elections anoraks out there, we bring the exciting news that the House of Commons Library has produced their annual report on the local elections, including a host of interesting statistics. Similar briefings are available to download for the elections in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the Alternative Vote referendum.

In local government news:

The controversial restructuring and outsourcing of services at Suffolk County Council has run in to trouble.

Local Government Chronicle writes about the number of councils interested in issuing bonds to raise money for local investment and pay off debts.

Suggestions that the government might offer financial incentives for councils to re-introduce weekly bin collections (or to stop the move to fortnightly) have met with mixed reviews.

Finally, we finish this weeks’ Read All About It! with the sad news of the sudden death of Deputy Director of Campaigns for Scotland Andrew Reeves. It seems timely to include a link to this ‘Meet the Bloggers’ post about him from Lib Dem Voice from just a month ago.

Patsy Calton Award

Fri, 27 May 2011 12:00:00 +0100

The Women Liberal Democrats are looking for nominations for the Patsy Calton Award 2011. Do you know of a woman/ women in your group, local branch or local party that should be celebrated?

The Patsy Calton Award aims to celebrate female activism at all levels within the Liberal Democrats. From MEP's, MP's, PPC's, AM's. MSP's to councillors and activists, we are looking for someone who is an inspiration to others and their achievements deserve to be rewarded. We hope that this will encorage other women to become involved in politics in some way.

Here is a form that explains exactly what the Patsy Calton Award is and how you can nominate someone.

We look forward to your nominations and learning about the fantastic achievements that women around the country have made. Deadline for nominations is 1st August 2011.

Read All About It! 27/5/11

Fri, 27 May 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

National issues:

The biggest political news of the week from a Lib Dem point of view is Nick Clegg’s speech on the NHS. Widely praised in the media, although less popular with Conservatives, the speech is worth a read.

The Daily Telegraph environment correspondent enthuses about Chris Huhne’s work on climate change.

Academies and free schools are to be allowed to reserve places for pupils from less well-off backgrounds.

Within the party, we had three bits of news:

The party announced that it’s new headquarters from August will be at Great George Street just off Parliament Square.

The party has also announced the appointment of a new Director of Marketing – Collette Dunkley.

Plus, in Scotland Willie Rennie has been elected as our new leader.

In Local Government:

The post-election shake-up has seen us take the leadership in Bath & North East Somerset and North Devon, continued to lead a coalition with Labour in Calderdale and agreed a new one with the Conservatives in Derby and Chorley.

The Municipal Journal reports on a favoured topic for Lib Dem campaigners – the state of potholes.

The government has announced plans to reduce red tape in planning decisions with planning officers giving their opinion on how they should be able to take more local needs in to account when making decisions.

Plus, rural areas will receive extra funding to improve broadband services.

Bristol 2011 - Local Government Conference

Fri, 20 May 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference 2011

Saturday 18 June 2011, Clifton, Bristol

Satellite events, and dinner on Friday 17 June 2011.

ALDC and the LG Liberal Democrat Group invite you to the main Liberal Democrat event of the summer, our Local Government Conference at the the Engineers' House, Clifton, Bristol.

Now that the elections are over, it is time for Liberal Democrats involved in local government to take stock and move forward.

A huge thank you to everyone who has already registered, for everyone else you've got FOUR DAYS left to register at the cheap early rate!

We have now published a draft programme. Highlights include:

Speakers:
These include the Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg MP, and Local Government Minister Andrew Stunell MP.

Campaigner Training:
ALDC's campaign training includes sessions on: Talking to the Voters, Learning from Opposition Tactics, Campaigning on Local Issues and a 2012 Strategy Workshop. We have some special sessions to learn about what worked where we won in 2011 and the Party's Director of Elections and Skills Hilary Stephenson willl discuss tactics over the coming months.

Councillor Training:
Once again we're joined by the expert team from Midas Training, who will be running a full day of skills sessions for Lib Dem Councillors. ALDC training for councillors includes: Working in a Split Ward, Effective Opposition and Ward Leadership.

Policy Sessions:
from the LG Liberal Democrat group these sessions will look at Education, Health and Social Care, Finance and Police Commissioners.

Friday Programme:

On Friday 17 June 2011 there are a number of 'satellite events'. We expect this to include:

Group Leaders' Day (see below)
Council Group Researcher's Away Day (contact Rob Banks - rob.banks@local.gov.uk)
Next Generation 5 Seminar Day (invite only)

In the evening we have the annual Lib Dem Local Government Dinner, also in the the Engineers' House, Clifton, Bristol. Speaker to be confirmed, but an excellent opportunity to catch up with colleagues old and new in a relaxed setting. (£30 per head).

Accommodation is available nearby at the Avon Gorge Hotel and the Rodney Hotel. Special rates are available to conference attendees. More details on our booking form.

Group Leader Programme:

A special day for Group Leaders (and Deputy Group Leaders) takes place on Friday from Lunchtime (12.00 noon arrival and lunch).

The session will have two aims:

to share experiences of the 2011 Local Elections, and discuss together how we plan for success in future years
training/learning sessions which will include: Opposition Strategies, Leadership and Motivation and Building the Team for the Future.

Group Leaders will also be preparing for a special session with Nick Clegg which will take place, together with some one-to-ones on Saturday.

Practical information:

Advance registration is £45 - with a massive £10 discount if you're a member of ALDC - so just £35 if you register before the end of May 2011.

If you are in Group Membership of ALDC, its "3 for 2" - buy two places and get the third for free. Council Group Researchers can register at the cheaper rate as previously.

Register online, via credit or debit card here. ALDC members need to LOG IN FIRST and your discount will be automatically applied.

Unfortunately our online system can't cope with the Group Members 3 for 2 offer, so you need to phone us on 01422 843 785!

Read All About it! 18/05/2011

Thu, 19 May 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

National issues:

Willie Rennie confirmed as new leader of Scots Lib Dems (Scotsman)

Julian Huppert MP writes on Trident: We don’t need to keep fighting the Cold War (Lib Dem Voice)

Clegg unveils plans for elected House of Lords (BBC)

Deputy PM faces widespread hostility from Tories and Labour in pushing through elected second chamber (Guardian)

Chris Huhne briefs MPs on long-term carbon target (BBC)

Carbon budget welcomed (Friends of the Earth)

Local Government:

Birmingham City Council care funding cuts unlawful (BBC)

Labour urges councillors to form coalitions with Lib Dems (Independent)

Unions threaten 750,000-strong June walkout (MJ)

Campaigning

Three reasons to respect the Liberal Democrats (Conservative Home)

(Labour's Post Election) Scorecard (LabourList)

Local Elections 2011 - Tell us what you think!

Fri, 13 May 2011 15:10:00 +0100

Please help us learn and improve from the 2011 local election results by taking our short online survey. We know how much everyone hates long surveys, so its deliberately short, but if you want to write more then there is space to do so.

The survey has TWO aims:

to assess how the support and help provided by ALDC and the rest of the Party was helpful to candidates and campaigners, and to see how this can be improved.
to ask you what you think worked or did not work in the election campaign

We will use the aggregated information to inform the work of ALDC and the rest of the party, but otherwise your comments are anonymous and will not be attributed.

TAKE THE SURVEY NOW

Thank you for your help.

Read All About it! 11/05/2011

Fri, 13 May 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Due to a week off for the elections, this is recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigns from the last 14 days:

Election Results and their Aftermath - a selection

Coalition: Mr Clegg must reassert his core values (Observer comment)

Labour’s Council Gains: Where is as important as How Many (All That's Left Blog)

David Hennigan (Manchester) opinion: Surveying the Wreckage

Caron Lindsay (Livingston) on Tavish Scott resigns as Leader

Welsh Labour to go it alone (BBC Wales)

Dave Hodgson returned as Mayor of Bedford (Bedford Today)

James King (Camden) opinion: 5 reasons the AV Referendum lost (Lib Dem Voice)

Liberal Democrats

Nick Clegg on the Coalition One Year On.

Mark Pack on Lib Dem voice reports on A major restructuring of the Party's Campaigns Department

Local Government

Job redundancies could cost public sector £9 billion (MJ)

Government push for community allotment involvement (MJ)

Campaigner Awards 2011

Wed, 11 May 2011 15:44:00 +0100

Win money for your local party with the 2011 ALDC Campaigner Awards.

These awards celebrate Liberal Democrat campaigning – it’s the third year the awards have been sponsored again by Midshires and RISO, this enables us to award cash prizes to local Liberal Democrat parties.

You can enter anything that you think was an effective piece of campaigning since 1st October 2010. It does not necessarily have to be from a winning campaign, just something you think was done well and that you're proud of.

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 election campaign material

- Best online / e-campaigning award

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 5th September 2011.

Membership - Don't Miss Out!

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:05:00 +0100

From 6th May 2011 we have two great discount in ALDC membership.

New Councillors' Discount
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 1.

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

The new offer is only available until the end of July 2011 - 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.

Join online, with no paperwork today!

Group Membership Benefits
Most successful Liberal Democrat Groups are already 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".

Discounts can be used together - so if you have newly elected Councillors in your group then they get both discounts added together!

Local Election Results 2011 Summary

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Results on the night in the wards with elections

Please contact us if there are any errors in these figures NB the totals only relate to those councils with elections in 2011, NOT all councils.

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Change in Councillors

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Composition of councils with elections after the Result

- only those councils with elections in 2011, NOT all councils.

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Read All About it! 27/04/2011

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days.

(Please note no column next week, due to the elections!)

In the last week the 'debate' over Fairer Votes has intensified:
'This is our chance to hurt Cameron' says Peter Mandleson in the Independent
David Cameron accused of making incendiary remarks about Lib Dems over AV, reports the Telegraph
Political Betting (.com) asks: Are Labour voters going to stay 50:50 on AV?
and read in full Nick Clegg's speech in Norwich last week at the AV rally.

Confirmation that we're not in recession from the BBC in UK economy grows by 0.5% in first quarter of 2011

In the NHS the Municipal Journal reports: NHS savings at risk from restructure

In local government:
(Scottish) Social care reforms are a distraction warns COSLA

and a couple of stories on how much local councils spend paying Trades Union figures....
The Sun (always a friend of the the Union movement....) says: Cuts-councils pay £10m union wages whilst (with a slightly different list) Conservative Home says: Alok Sharma MP: How Council Tax payers have funded £35 million of Trade Union salaries over the past three years

You may wish to have a look at the: MJ Awards shortlist features 81 finalists

finally, from the General Election in Scoltland, here's the second Election Broadcast from the Scottish Liberal Democrats on YouTube.

Local elections Results 2011 - Detail

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:37:00 +0100

Detailed Results on the night from those wards with Local Elections in 2011

Please contact us if there are any errors in these figures NB the totals only relate to those councils with elections in 2011, NOT all councils.

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Change in Councillors

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Composition of Councils

- only those councils with elections in 2011, NOT all councils. Initially this table will show the pre-election figures. As results come in we will update these figures. A council that whose composition has been updated will have its council name on a non-white background

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Local Elections 5 May 2011

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:46:00 +0100

Only a few days left now to the important local elections in England; and General Elections in Scotland and Wales. Across the country, including those areas of Engand without local elections we have the important referendum on Fairer Votes, and many colleagues will be lending their support to neighbours who DO have local elections!

Good luck with your campaigning!

Useful Resources

ALDC members can download a whole host of useful templates, forms and other materials that will be of use to you in the last few days of the campaign.

See these articles for more information:

Election Campaigns Esssentials
Planning for Polling Day
The Count

Advice

ALDC is open during office hours to deal with advice on election law and campaign techniques. This on 01422 843 785, or click on the "Get Advice" link on the website.

We are open on polling day for URGENT queries, though the vast majority of staff will be out winning elections!

We are open on Friday 6 May 2011 as normal. Arrangements will be put in place to provide advice to all council groups who find themselves in a "changed circumstance", or in a No Overall Control situation. Remember always talk to other Liberal Democrats first!

Results

For the English Local Elections Cowley Street will be collecting results overnight on Thursday night and on Friday 6th May. We will be in touch separately with details of how you can get in touch with your results and any useful news.

Separate arrangements will be made in Scotland and Wales for your General Elections.

ALDC will be publishing our analysis of the results on our website from the morning of Friday 6th May and as results come in during that day.

Read All About it! 20 April 2011

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigning from the last week:

No to alternative vote' camp gains record poll lead (Guardian) and in the Independent: Paddy Ashdown hits out at PM AV campaign

Tim Farron writes… Fairer Votes: so close we can almost touch it

The BBC reports from the European Parliament: European Parliament to consider plan to increase size (particularly interesting is a proposal to change the times of European elections to MAY).

Here's the Sheffield Star's take on Clegg donates profit from sale of house

On the campaign trail Lib Dem Voice reports on Nick Clegg’s speech in Sheffield on the difference that Liberal Democrat councils are making

In Wales the Guardian reports: Wales election: different language but the same issues – coalitions and cuts

In Local Government

LGA’s legal threat over academy funding cuts reports the MJ

Plans to extend council tax in Scotland questioned (also MJ)

Read all About it! 14/04/2011

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

Nick Clegg and Vince Cable to demand major banking reform (Independent)
Mr Clegg and Mr Cable, the Business Secretary, will press David Cameron to implement in full proposals to restructure the banks to be published on Monday.

Vote referendum: Clegg dubs AV 'a very British reform' (BBC)
Nick Clegg spoke at the Lib Dems' London Regional conference on Saturday. He said that changing the electoral system to the Alternative Vote will make MPs work harder and end the scandal of safe seats for life. [Read the full speech]

Two views from the campaign trail:

Lib Dem Voice - LibLink: Chris Davies – Be angry, be proud – and campaign hard

Lib Dem Voice - Andrew Stunell writes… We will have a greener, freer and fairer country than when we started

In Local Government:

"A survey of 117 town halls revealed that 59 per cent have switched to fortnightly collections. They are acting in clear defiance of Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, who said it was ‘a basic right’ for the public to have their rubbish collected every week." - Daily Mail

In a leader the Mail accuses Mr Pickles of falsely raising local people's hopes: "If Mr Pickles was unwilling to force councils to reinstate weekly collections — and he is not, on the basis that he believes in local decision-making, or ‘localism’ — he should not have falsely raised people’s hopes."

Survey counters Pickles' bins guidance

From Lib Dem Voice Rob Blackie looks at how councils are making savings without cutting front line services
Opinion: How are councils making savings?

Regional Growth Fund funding goes north

Lib Dem Voice reported on how we are doing well in Hull:

Clegg can’t walk on water (Olly Grender blogs at the New Statesman)
"The Lib Dem leader could perform miracles and still not get a fair hearing from the press. He should ignore them"

Read all About it! 06/04/2011

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

The Telegraph reports that: Vince Cable warns universities planning £9,000 tuition fees

We found this story interesting from the Guardian: Nick Clegg blossoms amid the jacarandas in Mexico City

Conservative Home said: Downing Street mustn't present the Liberal Democrats as the caring face of the Coalition

Steve Webb writes (on Lib Dem Voice): working for pensioners, now and in the future

BBC reports on our campaign launches in Scotland and Wales

In local Government:

Political Betting (.com) asks: How many 100s of candidates have won without contests? (we are sad to report....)

Parliament passes publicity code for councils and Pickles adds support to streetlight dimming (both MJ)

Finally, this website is good fun: http://www.whatthehellhavethelibdemsdone.com/ - good to promote to people who might not be aware of what we have achieved in Government.....

Read all About it! 30/03/2011

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:02:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and campaigners from the last week:

Conservative home have this interesting article on how: The Liberal Democrats tug hard at the Concession-O-Meter

Simon Hughes writes… Educational Maintenance Allowance: a grown-up replacement (Lib Dem Voice)

Miliband joins Lib Dems on AV drive (Press Association)

Anti-cuts march draws hundreds of thousands as police battle rioters (Guardian)

In local government (both from the MJ):

Local transport projects approved after savings found

Business rate devolution supported by nearly all councils

Campaigners will hopefully have seen the news from the Federal Party that we're moving to a new database for fighting elections - Mark Pack reports of LDV here.

Lessons from London

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:19:00 +0100

There were two principal council elections held on 24th March. Labour held one seat and took a seat off Independents. There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

In the Bellingham ward of the London Borough of Lewisham we stood a good local candidate. Last time it was fought, in 2010, turnout was boosted to 54.8% on the same day as the general election but in the last un-combined election in 2006 the turnout was reputed to be the lowest in London at 22.6%. In this by-election the turnout returned to 22%.
We consciously went into this election focussed on doorstep contact over literature. We canvassed the ward once and had a positive feedback producing a reasonable, if not a winning, shuttleworth to work with on polling day. We ran a full polling day operation but failed to get our vote out. As has been commented on before in this column, this year above others, we need to
a)    work on the postal vote as it has a far greater propensity to vote - see advice below.
b)    maximise our final week and “getting out the vote” plans as differential turnout will again be crucial.
c)    Squeeze hard.

In the Pontypool ward of Torfaen County Borough Council in the valleys of South Wales we failed to stand a candidate. In January and February we had a 100% record of standing candidates. But in March this now the third in eleven that has not been fought. Whilst Torfaen is hardly an area of strength - we stood 2 candidates for 44 vacancies in 2008! - we need as state and regional parties to develop “black hole” strategies, that should include using by-elections to gain a foothold for the future. In this seat Labours vote stayed steady whilst the independent vote splintered between five candidates.

Read All About It! 23/3/2011

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:20:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners over the last seven days:

Firstly, for some good news from Three Rivers as popular Labour councillor and current chairman of the council Ron Spellen defects to the Liberal Democrats.

But now for the big news of the week - the budget.

Prior to the budget Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander MP explained on Lib Dem Voice the government's priorities and the BBC have a useful guide to the main points in the budget. The big news for Lib Dems is a further increase in the personal tax allowance - a Lib Dem manifesto commitment (ALDC members can find a useful guide to how this benefits each part of the country here).

An interesting report this week that was covered by a number of newspapers shows that the public still largely blames the previous Labour government for previous budget cuts.

Another bit of good news from the last week is on the commission looking at the European Convention on Human Rights which The Spectator describes as a "powerful victory over the Conservatives" by Nick Clegg.

In another bit of news that didn't receive a lot of press attention in the last week was a poll by Ipsos-Mori showing that Nick Clegg is more popular than Ed Miliband. Now admittedly, the poll was far from universal good news, but it's a nice headline to see given Miliband's opposition to Nick taking a high profile role in the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign. On which subject, you can also read Tim Farron's excellent speech from the launch of the Lib Dem Yes to Fairer Votes campaign.

An interesting blog post from the last week is by former PPC Nick Radford about his reasons for his 'retirement' from politics at the age of just 27. His reasons for retirement are ones that many Lib Dem activists can probably empathise with, no matter how enthusiastic they are about politics. In response, Cllr Mark Cole responds by talking up the positives of being a councillor on his own blog.

In the local government world:

DCLG has announced the removal of the ring-fencing of some more pots of cash given to local councils, with the aim of giving councils more flexibility in how they provide local services.

Plus, to bring the local government world and the budget together, George Osborne has announced a further £100 million to repair potholes, on top of the money agreed last month.

Finally, Mark Pack gives his tips on how to get on in online politics through the 'little and often' technique.

Delighted of Tunbridge Wells

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:51:00 +0100

There were two principal council elections held on 17th March. Labour took a seat off the SNP and we took a seat off the Tories. There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

In the Pembury ward of Tunbridge Wells council we last won a seat in a 2005 by-election. Since then it had been solidly Tory. The Tories put up a candidate from outside the village, who was planning to move even further away and had lost two local elections in the previous 12 months in other wards. We stood Claire Brown who is a local mother of three young children who runs her own business. Labour were expected to run but didn’t and the local UKIP PPC ran a surprisingly strong campaign. We did nothing spectacular and won. Whilst the victory owes much to UKIP’s intervention it continues a trend of by-election success against Tories in recent months, which can be replicated in May.

In the Paisley south ward of Renfrewshire Council in Scotland, Labour took a seat off the SNP . Whilst dropping from 3rd to 5th looks poor, our performance in Scottish local by-elections recently, if replicated in the May Holyrood elections, would give us a better result than in 2007.

We have reported the by-election from the Corporation of London for information. We do not, however, include them in our statistics.

As you receive this copy of Lib Dem news nominations for the local elections in England will have opened. Make sure that you don’t leave it to the last minute to get your nomination papers in – the deadline is noon on Monday 4th April. 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.

Sheffield Highlights

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC had a busy weekend at in Sheffield at the Federal Party Conference. Although a lot of members will have spent time campainging in their wards in advance of May's local (and Scottish and Welsh) elections, others took the opportunity to attend training, debate and catch up with colleagues.

ALDC's stand focused on our election templates, our training programme included sessions on: getting out the vote, Focus writing, winning against Conservatives, localism and the recent myCouncillor website changes.

On Friday of conference we were pleased to welcome the Deputy Prime Minister to to a special brefing for Group Leaders from metropolitan borough and core cities in England. Nick was also able to call in at a lunchtime event we had to "meet the Next Generation" (of councillors) organised with our partners at LG Leadership. (See photo montage video from the Next Generation event below!)

Other fringe events included a Health event with minister Paul Burstow MP, and a "thank you" afternoon event for ALDC's partners and volunteers.

Nick Clegg visiting ALDC's stand in the exhibition hall.

Tim Farron MP with ALDC officers Cllr Sarah Boad (secretary), Cllr Veronica German AM (President) and Cllr Kath Pinnock (Chair)

Next Generation Lunchtime Fringe Photo Montage Video

Council Group of the Year Awards 2011

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:00:00 +0100

The Liberal Democrat "Council Group of the Year" awards were awarded at a special reception at Spring Conference in Sheffield.

The Awards are organised by the LGA Liberal Democrat Group.

Council Group of the Year: Sheffield (Highly Commended – Northampton)

Efficiency & Service Transformation: Oldham (Highly Commended – Wirral)

The Vice President’s Award: RB Kingston Green

Council of the Year: Joint winners Cambridge City and Newcastle City (Highly Commended – Hull)

Services to Children & Young People: Joint winners Oldham and RB Kingston

Strengthening Communities: Warrington

Teamwork: Burnley

Leader’s award: Peter Moore, Sheffield

Opposition Group of the Year: Joint winners LB Islington and Northamptonshire CC

Read All About it! 16/03/2011

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners over the last seven days:

Much of the media regarding Liberal Democrats in the last week has been around our Federal Spring Conference in Sheffield:

On the eve of our Conference the Independent ran an interview with Nick Clegg: Nick Clegg: I told Cameron he was talking complete bilge

Writing in the New Statesman, Olly Grender says: Clegg needs to inspire his party’s members

Liberal Democrat conference delegates enjoy a day of living quite dangerously, reports the Guardian,

and the next day: NHS reforms face overhaul after Liberal Democrats' rebellion

You can watch Nick Clegg's speech here (Jonathan Wallace's YouTube channel)

Other national and party news:

BBC reports: Liberal Democrats 'to quit Cowley Street headquarters'

And the Independent reports on one tiny aspect of the tragic events affecting Japan this week: Huhne orders checks on nuclear power station safety systems

If any of us ever needed explaining what First-Past-The-Post electoral systems are a BAD idea, then this clever little video explains it nicely! Well worth bringing to the attention of friends and colleagues.

In local government (both MJ):

Council fears over pensions timetable

Warning of £1bn funding gap in social care by 2014

And finally bad news for anyone thinking of asking permission to print a picture of a bank note in a leaflet..... (Bank of England guidance).

A poor night

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:00:00 +0100

There were two principal local council by-elections that took place on Thursday 11th March 2011. Labour held one seat and took one off the Lib Dems. There were no parish or town council results reported to ALDC.

In the Rosegrove with Lowerhouse Ward of Burnley council, we lost a seat to Labour. This is a ward within Gordon Birtwistle’s parliamentary seat (which is co-terminous with the Borough) and was already a split ward. We had two councillors to Labour's one. Labour's existing councillor won in 2007 on the drawing of lots after a dead heat between him and the BNP candidate. Though the post mortem has yet to take place we perhaps suffered from having a series of councillors who did not complete a full term of office in the ward. Three had stood down in recent years.

In the Brunswick Park ward in the London borough of Southwark, Kate Heywood flew the flag for the Lib Dems. The campaign was hard fought and unusually for a local by-election included a public hustings meeting. As has been the case in several recent by-elections Labour upped their game significantly in the last ten days running on national issues. We got our vote out on polling day but Labour managed to increase the usual level of turnout for by-elections in similar wards in Southwark by around 10% to hold off our challenge.

Read All About it! 09/03/2011

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigning from the last seven days:

Chris Huhne launched the Green Jobs initiative, as reported by the BBC: Huhne hails 'green jobs' boost for 1,000 apprentices. And the Telegraph reports on the launch of the Carbon Plan in: Thousands of charging points to be installed across UK over next two years, Government to say

Reporting on the referendum to vote more powers to the Welsh Assembly the Guardian reports: Cardiff votes 'yes' in Welsh referendum

The BBC has videos of some of the speeches at Scottish Party Conference. Here's Nick Clegg and here's a webcast with Tavish Scott.

The Independent looks at Nick Clegg's speech on multiculturalism (reported last week) in: Clegg Makes More Sense Than Cameron Shock

In local Government:

Lib Dem Voice reports:
Review of London elections calls for changes in law ahead of 2012

Municipal Journal reports:
Shapps warns developers over ‘Legoland’ homes
Ministers boost capitalization funding to £300M

Conservative Home's Local Government Blog reports:
Labour councils worst for Council Tax collection rates

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Sheffield summit

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC has a busy programme for councillors and local campaigners at Federal Spring Conference 11-13 March 2011 in Sheffield. All our training and fringe events are FREE to all party members, so even if you can only come to Sheffield for the day it's a great chance to catch up on skills and learn new ideas.

Our stand is open for advice, inspiration and information from Friday lunchtime - until Sunday lunchtime. Come and meet the team, and if you're not a member already - join up!

All our training and fringe takes place on Saturday 12 March 2011. Here's our training flyer.

Inspired training:

A new style of training from ALDC - come and be inspired!
- Winning against the Conservativies with Keith House (Eastleigh) and Martin Tod (Winchester)
- "Going Green" with Carl Minns (Hull) and Jon Rogers (Bristol)

Campaign Essentials training:

Essential training for Lib Dem volunteer activists and campaigners:
- Getting out the Vote (GOTV)
- Focus Leaflets and communicating with the voters

Councillor Training:

Training for Lib Dem councillors from ALDC and LG Improvement and Development
- Localism Bill
- Life without Whitehall interference

MyCouncillor Update:

Training session on how to make the most of the new features in the MyCouncillor website system.

Next Generation Fringe:

Meet the Next Generation (Saturday lunchtime, with lunch) we invite you to meet councillors on the Next Generation programme for councillor development, over a bit to eat for the launch of our latest analysis from Spring and Autumn conference political workshops in 2010.

Health Fringe:

Health Matters (Saturday 8.00pm) - Health and social care are always near the top of the political agenda, and increasingly for local councils. Hear about the current issues from speakers including Minister of State Paul Burstow MP.

Also don't miss the Lib Dem Council Group of the Year awards on Friday night, organised by the LGA Liberal Democrats, which kick off at 8.00pm.

Photo credit: TGIGreeny

Read All About it! 02/03/2011

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

The Independent reports on the No to AV campaign in: Campaign for voting reform turns nasty

Anthony Green, writing on the Australian ABC Election Blog gives some serious comment on why AV would be good for us in: Does the Alternative Vote Bring Tyranny to Australia? Meanwhile from the BBC: Green leader Lucas says vote system change 'liberating'

We can see STV in action in the Irish General Election in this RTE report.

In Wales, Ceredigion Councillor Mark Cole reports on Lib Dem Voice: Continuing the Welsh Yes Campaign

in local government (mostly England only):

Good news for all Focus leaflets as reported in the MJ: Emergency pothole fund unveiled.

The Guardian covered the story from Government on the potential of Free councils to keep bulk of cash raised through business rates

Here's the Local Government Association release as it says that: All parts of the public sector must be as transparent as councils

All of us have been involved in setting our budgets recently, just as one example of the impact we can have from opposition, here's the Ham and High reporting on Camden Lib Dem's opposition budget: Lib Dems: Our cuts would save centres for the vulnerable

And in Scottish local government: Agreement on Scottish jobs struck

Finally advice for Lib Dem Councillors who Tweet from Mark Pack on Lib Dem Voice: The secret to getting 1,000 ward residents to follow you on Twitter and What not to tweet, part 94

Have you tried our new Templates?

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Have you tried the new templates ALDC has produced in the last couple of months? We've commissioned a series of FOCUS and campaign material templates, these are exclusively available to members of ALDC.

Packs 1 and 2 have included:
A3, A4, and A3 booklet style FOCUS
Direct Mail
Squeeze Materials
Posters
Letterheads
Flying Start leaflets
Councillor's Annual Reports

Pack 3, which is out this week, includes everything you need for your election campaign:
- election time FOCUS
- squeeze materials
- blue letters
- eve of poll & good mornings
- knock up leaflets
- "thank you" FOCUS

All the materials are produced as appropriate in three versions: black and white, two colour (for RISO) and in full colour (for external printers). All our resources are produced in PagePlus11 (these will still open in later versions of PagePlus). We've also included PDFs of all the documents for you take a look at each template.

The templates use a standard set of fonts, which you need to install on your computer first - or the templates won't work correctly!

ALDC members can download PDF and PagePlus files of all the Pack 1 templates from our website here and here for pack 2 Remember you need to 'log in' first as a member.

If you're not a member of ALDC please join us! Our current Membership rates are just £1.50 a week, and we have a great special offer of HALF PRICE for all Lib Dem 2011 Local Election candidates (only available by direct debit). Join today, without any paperwork here.

ALDC and ASLDC at Scottish Party Conference

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:00:00 +0100

This weekend is Scottish Party Conference in Perth which will see some events organised by ALDC and ASLDC all of which take place in the Norrie Miller studio on Saturday 5th March:

10.00am: Finding and Recruiting Council Candidates - a must in preparation for 2012! Steve Hitchins, former Leader of Islington London Borough, has been leading the Liberal Democrat programme for the Leadership Centre for Local Government in England.

11.00am: Campaigning in Coalition – how our successes in UK Government can help your Council campaign Steve Hitchins, former leader of Islington London Borough

3.30 pm: Building a successful Council campaign – lessons from 2007 and subsequent by-elections by ASLDC Dr Derek Barrie, ASLDC

MyCouncillor gets an Upgrade

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:00:00 +0100

MyCouncillor, the websitge platform for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners provided by ALDC has been getting an upgrade in the last few weeks. Since launching the system in 2006 MyCouncillor has grown to become the biggest network of Lib Dem sites in the country.

Highlights from the changes include:

New Themes for your websites:

New features include:

"Get Involved" buttons, (shown here) which make it easier for people to contact you and interact with the Party or electoral system

an automatic Twitter feed to display your "tweets" on your site

link up to Google Analytics to monitor who looks at your site

an up to date Content Management System (using up to date Wordpress 3) which makes it easier to upload stories, pictures and files.

a weekly ALDC 'news feed' of national Lib Dem stories, to help your site keep up to date (even if you never post to it!)

giving you the power to choose which content appears on your website using RSS feeds.

If you'd like a site just register online here - we'll set your site up in the next few days. (Take a look at some of the many sites currently in operation - see the most recently updated sites in the left hand column).

Briefing from the minister - Health and Social Care Bill

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:49:00 +0100

Paul Burstow MP, the Liberal Democrat Minister of State for Care Services, is offering to brief members who are attending the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Sheffield on the Health and Social Care Bill.

The time and venue will depend on the number of people interested, and so if you are interested please contact Hilary Morbey in his office at morbeyh@parliament.uk with details of when you will be available at conference.

Paul will also be speaking at an ALDC fringe meeting at conference.

Read All about it! 23/02/2011

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners over the last seven days:

Following the decision that we do get to vote on Fairer Votes on 5th Mays, The Telegraph reports the Deputy Prime Minister: AV referendum: it's a 'once in a generation' opportunity, says Nick Clegg

18% - opinion poll good news for Lib Dems buried on page 5 of the Guardian: (LD 18, Lab 38, Con 35), and also very close on Fairer Votes: Alternative vote campaigns running neck and neck

Newspaper editorials support Fairer Votes: Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer says: The cynical enemies of electoral reform think we're stupid, and the Scotsman / Scotland on Sunday says: Yes to AV

The Observer reports on anti-Barclays demonstrations: UK Uncut protesters target Barclays over tax avoidance

The Independent reports on: Organisations campaign against bus cutbacks

In Local Government:

The Independent reports on the LGA Chair Baroness Eaton in: LGA chief urges pensions rethink

All in the MJ:
Welsh Assembly unveils social services review
Councils renewable opportunities 'worth billions'
No quick fix to Scotland's road maintenance backlog

Lib Dem Voice reports: Clegg shows Sheffield he’s up for the fight

Finally with the English local elections not much more than 10 weeks away, Conservative Home agrees with many ALDC members as it says: Let's admit it, many Tory councils aren't good enough

Tim PIckstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Keeping it in the Family

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:30:00 +0100

There were three principal local council by-elections that took place on Thursday 17th February 2011. The Tories held two seats but lost one to the Lib Dems. There were no parish or town council results reported to ALDC.

In Shrewsbury the Quarry and Coton Hill ward of Shropshire Unitary Council consists of Shrewsbury town centre plus the Coton Hill social housing estate. In the past we have represented parts of the current ward in different county divisions.
Following the Tory resignation we surveyed the ward, leafleted and canvassed hard. We knew we had to build a winning Shuttleworth so we called back three times to houses where we could not get a response to maximise our canvass contact rate.
We fought the campaign on a purely local basis. Labour did not, using national attack literature in the final week to target our vote. Our only response to this was a Labour squeeze leaflet on the social housing estate and some target mail, most of which went out before the Labour literature hit. This seems to be a pattern in many by-elections and teams need to be aware of it and have national rebuttal literature in their campaign plans, ideally pre-prepared.

Another key to our success was the postal vote. Rarely our strong point in the past in Shrewsbury we “double peaked” our campaign and got more of the postal vote than usual as a result. The Tories did little and the Greens did not even stand.
Our well liked candidate Andrew Bannerman who is, before you ask, a relation of Sir Henry Cambell-Bannerman probably appealed to some previously Tory voters as a well liked local figure. All in all a well deserved gain from the Tories to add to the twenty gains off the Tories we achieved last year.

In the Kenton Ward of the London Borough of Brent there was no change and in the Bourn Ward of South Cambridgeshire we held our second place.

2011 Election Campaign Essentials

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:00:00 +0100

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 clipart
Liberal Democrat colours

Buy PagePlus 11 software

Buy PagePlus x4 software

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

Campaign template artwork

ALDC has commissioned this set of FOCUS templates for use by Liberal Democrat campaigners. These are exclusively available to members of ALDC.

Artwork Pack 1 - includes all-year round Focus artwork in various sizes, letterhead templates and calling card

Artwork Pack 2 - includes election 'flying start' leaflet, direct mail and direct mail inserts for fights against both Conservatives and Labour, new voter letters, postal vote recruitment mailings, canvass leaflets, report back leaflet and window poster templates

Artwork Pack 3 - additional Focus templates to be used during the election campaign, area squeeze leaflets and direct mail, eve of poll leaflets, example of a blue-ink letter and a post-election thank you Focus.

Artwork Pack 4 - get out the vote materials including flying start leaflet and polling day knock-up leaflets

Essential paperwork

Nomination papers (MS Word) - ward specific nomination papers will be available from your council
Delegated Nominating Officer (DNO) form (PDF)

Election expense forms and instructions - principal council elections (PDF)
Candidate's declaration (PDF)
Election agent's declaration (PDF)

N.B. The election expense forms for elections to principal councils have changed from previous years and are now consistent with those used at the 2010 General Election. Unfortunately however they have decided to not produce them as an Excel file.

Election expense forms and instructions - parish and town council elections (PDF)

Postal vote application form (PDF)
Postal vote application form (PagePlus)

Forms for Scottish Parliamentary Elections
Forms for Welsh Assembly Elections

Official guidance

Postal vote code of conduct (PDF)
Draft guidance to police on interaction with political parties during campaigns (zip file)

2011 Local Election Timetable

Liberal Democrat Guidance

ALDC 2011 Council Candidate’s Handbook (PDF)

Guidance on election imprints
Election expense limits

Read All About it! 16/02/2011

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

National stories in the last week have included:

The Government's focus on the banking sector: Vince Cable wrote in the Guardian's "comment is free": Merlin: our bonus for British business

The Observer considers the other big announcement of the week in: Why we should believe Nick Clegg when he promises to restore liberties stolen by Labour

And as some unelected Labour Peers mess with our democracy, the Independent reports that: Pro-AV campaign surges to 10-point lead

Liberal Democrat councillors were in the news towards the end of last week with a letter from 91 Group Leaders to the Times on the local government's financial settlement:

For what it's worth the Times editorial on the day of the letter is published below (we can't link to the Times, as you have to be a subscriber to read its online content).

This was the Telegraph's take: Nick Clegg publicly criticised by dozens of Lib Dem council leaders over cuts. Cllr Chris White reflects on the aftermath on Lib Dem Voice.

Lib Dem Leader of Sheffield Council: Paul Scriven writes: we cannot let Labour off the hook on Council cuts

The Mail on Sunday says: For 88 years the Libdems have yearned for power, now they've got it why are they so miserable? (mentioning ALDC a couple of times, for some unknown reason...)

Elsewhere in local Government:

The Municipal Journal reports as: Row heats up over politically motivated budget cuts and Lib Dem Voice reflects that: Labour councils cut more jobs than Tory or Lib Dem areas

MJ also reports:
Councils empowered to tackle Blue Badge abuse
Scots councils face up to £450M of cuts

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Times Editorial, 10 February 2011

February 10 2011 12:01AM The saying that all politics is local was a favourite of Tip O’Neill Jr, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives. That certainly applied to the Liberal Democrats until they joined the coalition Government. Condemned to distant third-party status in national elections, their base was in running local authorities.

Now, the custodians of local Lib Dem power — the 90 council and group leaders who have written to The Times — are revolting against the central Government of which their party is a member. Their ire is reserved specifically for Eric Pickles, the combative Local Government and Communities Secretary. But it’s not good news for Nick Clegg either. The howl of agony at the scale of the cuts that local authorities have been asked to administer is not their main point.

There is no doubt that Mr Pickles’ department came bottom of the Whitehall beauty parade in the spending round. The local government part of the department will have its spending cut by 27 per cent by 2015. Perhaps a different distribution of pain might have made that number slightly smaller. But the cuts would have been large, all the same.

The local power brokers in the Liberal Democrats know this very well. That is why their main point is an attempt to detach themselves from responsibility. Perhaps, they hope, this will salvage a few seats in local elections. Perhaps the Conservatives will take the rap. There is no chance that this strategy can work. Lib Dems are in the coalition; its work is their work. Their best hope is to get on with reducing the deficit and, if there is any credit to be had when that job is done, to claim some of it.

Read All About it! 09/02/2011

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days. (Please note this column is produced on a Wednesday, so is before yesterday's letter in The Times.)

Some of the better news stories of the week included that reported in the Independent as George Osborne in £800m tax raid on banks and in The Telegraph as Vince Cable promises 100,000 more apprenticeships

Less good news from those unelected Labour peers as reported by The Independent: Labour peers accused of sabotaging voting reform

Lib Dem Voice reports on the piece by David Laws in The Times (regrettably subscription-only online, which is why we never feature Times articles in this column) calling for Tax cuts for the rich can wait. Tax reform can’t

It also gives us Nick Clegg's speech in full on economic growth and the Green Investment Bank

For a bit of video, you may wish to watch our very own Health Minister Paul Burstow MP launch the new Mental Health Strategy.

In local Government the Municpal Journal reports on:

Cambridgeshire leaders reveal secret merger talks
South west LEP proposal gets go-ahead
Hammond gives go-ahead to nine local transport schemes

Finally readers may be interested in this offer, by the Co-Editor of Lib Dem Voice Mark Pack to send out a weekly email on news about the Lib Dems.

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Standing firm in Stroud

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:13:00 +0100

There were three principal local council by-elections that took place on Thursday 3rd February 2011. The Tories held a seat, Labour took one off the Tories and an Independent took one off the SNP. In the only parish or town council results reported to ALDC Labour held two seats.

In Gloucestershire we fought the vacancies at district and county level caused by the death of a Tory councillor in October. The Tories held the Stroud district seat of Amberley and Woodchester, the more Tory area of the Rodborough county division. Labour fought on national issues to gain the county seat from the Tories coming from fourth halving the Green vote. Our candidate was Christine Headley (pictured).

In the Carnoustie and District ward of Angus council, the SNP were ahead on first preferences. With two of the three councillors in the ward from 2007 the SNP would have been confident of holding the seat but the Independent was elected at the 5th stage.

ALDC's new 2011 FOCUS Templates

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC has commissioned a series of FOCUS and campaign material templates for use by Liberal Democrat campaigners. These are exclusively available to members of ALDC.

Pack 1 was released in December:
The templates include: A3, A4, and A3 booklet style FOCUS - all of which have been produced in black and white, two colour (for RISOs) and in full colour (Colour RISO or commercial printer). All the FOCUS leaflets have variations to allow for single and for two and three member wards and election campaigns, and different bar charts for fighting the Tories and Labour.

These are accompanied by some other resources useful all year round - two letterhead template and year-round doorstep calling leaflets - also in various versions.

Pack 2 has been released at the start of February:

This contains materials to cover the period up to the early part of the election campaign 'proper' and includes:

Ideas for direct mail - new voter letters and insert, postal voter recruitment letters and form, and a 'campaign launch' direct mail with different versions for conservative and labour facing areas, together with an A4 direct mail insert.

Also enclosed for the start of your election campaign is an A3 "Flying Start" Focus leaflet and a "Councillors Annual Report" and some election poster templates.

The templates use a standard set of fonts, which you need to install on your computer first - or the templates won't work correctly!

Remember you need to "log-in" as an ALDC member to download these files - your log-in details are the bottom of your weekly Campaigner email.

ALDC members can download PDF and PagePlus files of all the Pack 1 templats from our website here and here for pack 2

Council Group of the Year Awards 2011

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:00:00 +0100

This year’s awards are much simpler to enter. No forms; no word limit; no format. If you can send me a convincing reason why you should be given an award by Friday 25 February, you’re in.

In fact, if you think there isn’t a category suitable then you can even ask me to create one.

Yes, we’re cutting out the bureaucracy, localising the decision-making and building the system around the convenience of … you.

Our judging panel this year will be chaired by Cllr Richard Kemp, Leader LGA Lib Dem Group and will comprise:

Tim Farron MP, our in-coming Party President
Andrew Stunell MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
Simon Hughes MP, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Co-Chair of the CLG Parliamentary Committee
Cllr Kath Pinnock, Chair, ALDC
Lord Shipley, LGA Vice President
Cllr Jill Shortland, Chair, LGA Lib Dems

Our categories this year are:

« Council Group of the Year

« The Localism Award

« The Efficiency and Service Transformation Award

« Green Council of the Year

« The Children & Young People Award

« The Strengthening Communities Award

« The Opposition Group of the Year Award

You may be pleased to know that there will be no centrally produced ‘Guidance’ – you’re free to use your own judgement on what might come under these categories. Relax, there should be a category for any area of excellence and if on receiving your submission we feel it may go into another category we reserve the right to move it across (sorry, little bit of central control there).

I’m so busy though, why should I enter?

Because:

we could all do with some good news – including your own group (and council staff)
you have earned a pat on the back after all your hard work
other Lib Dem councils are crying out for more effective ways of spending what money they have and want to learn from you
it’s nice to get a bit of recognition
the LGA Lib Dem Office will pass on your achievements so they can be picked up and shared more widely
you get to have your picture taken at Spring Conference with one of our judging panel, which can use it in your Focuses and website even if the nationals don’t pick it up!

Keen recyclers and fans of efficiency, as submissions, we’re happy to take previous award entry forms, committee reports, even press releases with weblinks. Whatever is easiest for you. We require only a convincing submission before the deadline.

We are aiming to collate some of the entries at least for a publication to be available on the night of the awards ceremony – the first evening of Spring Conference in Sheffield, Friday 11 March.

We shall look forward to hearing from you.

Alanna Coombes
Head of Office (Liberal Democrat Group), Local Government Association
Alanna.Coombes@local.gov.uk

Read All About it! 02/02/2011

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem Councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

National issues this week:
The Guardian interviews Lib Dem Health Minister, Paul Burstow on: An equal footing for mental health

Writing in the Independent Andrew Grice asks if: Tories fear 'betrayal' by Cameron over electoral reform

When they say they have no Plan B, you really should believe them? Asks Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer.

The Municipal Journal claims an exclusive reporting that: Pickles set to avoid root-and-branch finance review

MJ reports that: Councils could be given power to relieve pressure on 'sat-nav rat-runs'

For those of you who follow licensing issues: Legal ruling could hamper licence appeals (from the pub 'trade press').

Finally, it would be wrong not to give space to ALC's former Organising Secretary and now Lord Tony Greaves:Tony Greaves writes: Coalition, Government and the Lords

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Oliver's Army

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:07:00 +0100

There was one principal local council by-election that took place on Thursday 27th January 2011. The Lib Dems held the seat. There were no parish or town council results reported to ALDC.

Oliver’s Battery and Badgers Farm is perhaps the best named ward of any I know in the UK. It's in Winchester and it's still held by the Lib Dems. This was an excellent campaign led by an excellent team. We were defending on three levels: inevitably the coalition, the Lib Dem led council and the exemplary district and County councillors for the area.

Our councillors' failing health gave us the early warning that a by-election might be necessary. Wisely we did some succession planning and identified a possible replacement should the need occur. When the by-election was eventually called we could truthfully say that Brian Laming was David Spender’s chosen successor - and we did.

The weather played a part in this election as it has in many others this winter and we did not canvass as much as we would like but we built on the good work put in October and November surveying and leafleting. As a held ward with a reasonable shuttleworth base, on top of a good literature campaign it was crucial that we got out the vote (GOTV). Part of this was our postal vote campaign. The other half was a full “knobs on” GOTV operation.

The Tuesday before polling day saw Blue letters. The Wednesday, a stop press leaflet. The Tories, unusually put a last minute leaflet out condemning our group for being in disarray as we have suffered two defections from the group in recent months. Thursday saw mail-merged, targeted A3 “Goodmornings”, followed by two knock ups and a phone knock up. We covered all the polling stations and knocked up until ten.
In May even in erstwhile safe wards we need to run intensive GOTV operations and this is resource intensive. It may be time to look at either expanding your capacity or tightening your targeting strategy. In either case its time to pull in some favours and ask any relatives to keep May 5th free now! If you don’t live in a local authority with elections this May, think about where you can help the local elections in 2011 and start helping now!

Read All About it! 26/01/2011

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:27:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

The Telegraph reports on: Alan Johnson resignation: Ed Balls gets his way Writing in the Independent: Mary Ann Sieghart: Ed Balls will be a disaster for Labour

The Guardian reports on: Control orders: home secretary tables watered-down regime
Meanwhile The Telegraph reports on how: Nick Clegg: Lib Dems will not strike deal with Conservatives

In local Government:

Municipal Journal reports on: Funding gap of £165m estimated for pothole repair
The Telegraph tells how: Half a million more homes lose weekly bin collections

Lib Dem LGA Adult Care spokesperson Cllr David Rogers writes in Lib Dem Voice: Opinion: Health & Social Care Bill – a local government perspective

Mark Pack writes about: Using council websites to help local residents generate social capital

Finally, those of us who are over 40 might take a second to reflect that this Tuesday was the 30th anniversary of the Limehouse Declaration. Doesn't time fly....

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Marl-vellous

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:36:00 +0100

There were four principal local council by-elections that took place on Thursday 20th January 2011. The Lib Dems held one seat and gained one from the Conservatives. The Tories and Labour held one each. There were no parish or town council results reported to ALDC.

In the Marl ward of Conwy Council in North Wales we gained a seat from the Tories. In 2008 we only stood one candidate in the two-member ward. Our candidate Mike Priestely, won handsomely. The Tory elected on the same day resigned to cause the byelection. We had seen it coming as far back as October introducing a new focus editor and delivering two focuses before the resignation finally occurred. We then called the election immediately catching the Tories on the hop. The postal vote was issued on January 2nd. We made sure that despite the weather they all received personal bi-lingual letters from Mike and the candidate. There was a postal vote turnout of 75%, which justified our work. We followed this with further focuses and street letters, and a final targeted letter from Lord Roger Roberts.

The high profile Tory candidate Julie Fallon-Smith appeared in their national general election U-tube campaign "I've never voted Tory before but...". As such she was endorsed in literature from the great and the good of the Tory party from David Cameron down. We responded emphasising the “hard working team” to tie our new candidate in with Mike’s good record. .

In the Olton ward of Solihull Council we were defending a seat where we usually win. Our candidate, whose qualification was working in the borough, had a Walsall address on the ballot paper. The other parties inevitably exploited this. The Tories expected to win and had Eric Pickles waiting in the wings to do the press on Friday but we still managed to hold the seat.

The day on which postal ballots papers are issued and delivered is vital for the timing of literature. Many postal voters will vote within 48 hours of receiving the ballot paper. Do not take the councils word for when the issue will take place. They will be have “out sourced” the printing and dispatch of postal votes and agreed a deadline with them. If you ask the council they will usually tell you the final date in the contract. Be careful as the contractor could, and probably will beat the deadline. Ballots will not normally be issued before the final day for applications for postal votes and amendments to existing postal votes on the eleventh day before the poll. In many areas this will means that the Postal Vote will be sent out in two batches: Batch 1 existing postal voters. Batch 2 late amendments and additions.
The second complicating factor is the work loads in postal delivery offices. Many postmen can and do a “chunk” each day to spread the heavy load making “doormat” arrival unpredictable.

Read All About it! 19/01/2011

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners in the last week:

Obviously the big news at the end of last week was Labour holding on to its Oldham East and Saddleworth parliamentary seat. Chris Riddell in the Observer asks if this was: A pleasant surprise for Nick Clegg? Lib Dem News' Stephen Tall asks: After Oldham: what does the result mean for the party’s targeting strategy?

As some unelected peers attempt to derail making voting fairer, the Independent reports: Night of the long-winded: peers waffle to sabotage voting reform legislation

Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove urges Tory voters to vote Lib Dem to thwart Labour as reported on the BBC: Michael Gove recommends voting Lib Dem to thwart Labour Meanwhile Mary Riddell in the Telegraph suggests that it is A dangerous liaison for Cameron – an emerging Lib Lab pact

In local government:

Lib Dem Voice reports on how local government boundaries in Wales will remain the same until after 2012.

The Guardian reports one side of a story in: Eric Pickles blames councils for UK's budget deficit

It's been a big week for announcing job cuts: MJ reports on three county councils: Three councils announce plans for over 2,000 job cuts, meanwhile here's the Manchester Evening News reporting on Manchester Council's 'timely' announcement (a parliamentary by-election was happening in next door Oldham the same day)... 2,000 jobs to go at Manchester council in one year after government slashes funding

Conservative Home reports on: L abour's Lord Beecham calls for councillors allowances hike

And finally, you might not have seen this - Lembit Opik in a 1980s Lib Dem recruiting video......

Cllr' Achievement Awards Shortlist

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:08:00 +0100

LGiU and CCLA are pleased to announce the shortlists for the 2011 C'llr Achievement Awards. The winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony on 8 February.

See how many Lib Dems you can spot!

CCLA Award for Outstanding Contribution to Financial Performance

Cllr David Finch, Essex County Council
Cllr Roland Spencer, Gedling Borough Council
Cllr Robin Harris, Luton Borough Council
Cllr Paul Watson, Sunderland City Council
Cllr Maurice Heaster, London Borough of Wandsworth

Community Champion

Cllr Joanne Beavis, Braintree District Council
Cllr Gill Farrington, South Derbyshire District Council
Cllr Chris Best, London Borough of Lewisham
Cllr Luthfur Rahman, Manchester City Council
Cllr Shirley Potts, South Gloucestershire Council

Leader of the Year

Cllr Tricia Turner, Central Bedfordshire
Cllr Simon Henig, Durham County Council
Cllr Sean Brennan, London Borough of Sutton
Cllr Rod Bluh, Swindon Borough Council
Cllr Graham Baxter, North East Derbyshire District Council

New Councillor of the Year

Cllr Bally Singh, Coventry City Council
Cllr Jennie Dallimore, Gloucester City Council
Cllr Van Coulter, Oxford City Council
Cllr Rob White, Reading Borough Council
Cllr Sheila D’Souza, Westminster City Council

Online Councillor of the Year

Cllr Tim Cheetham, Barnsley Council
Cllr James Barber, London Borough of Southwark
Cllr Matthew Ellis, Staffordshire County Council
Cllr Catherine Lewis, Torfaen County Borough Council
Cllr Paul Cotterill, West Lancashire Borough Council

Partnership Achievement of the Year

Cllr Noel Spencer, Bolton Council
Cllr Lynn Riley, Cheshire West and Chester
Cllr Ray Franklin, East Devon District Council
Cllr Steve Morphew, Norwich City Council
Cllr Philip Atkins, Staffordshire County Council

Scrutineer of the Year

Cllr Imogen Walker, London Borough of Lambeth
Cllr Robert Parker, Lincolnshire County Council
Cllr Robert Chapman, London Borough of Hackney
Cllr Alan White, Staffordshire County Council
Cllr Elizabeth Rhodes, Wakefield Council

Sustainability Champion of the Year

Cllr Neil Harrison, Bristol City Council
Cllr Bob Young, Durham County Council
Cllr Susan Wise, London Borough of Lewisham
Cllr Colin Hall, London borough of Sutton
Cllr Anthony Blagg, Worcestershire County Council

Young Councillor of the Year

Cllr James Alexander, City of York Council
Cllr Becky Brunskill, Durham County Council
Cllr Kyle Robinson, Newcastle Borough Council
Cllr Ivan Jennings, Staffordshire County Council
Cllr Henri Murison, Newcastle City Council

Principal Councillor Representatives

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:01:00 +0100

Elections have taken place to elect the principal councillor representative on two Federal Party Committees for 2011-2012:

On the Federal Executive Committee the following have been elected:

Cllr Stan Collins (South Lakeland DC and Cumbria CC)
Cllr Keith House (Eastleigh BC and Hampshire CC)

On the Federal Policy Committee the following have been elected:

Cllr Louise Bloom (Eastleigh BC)
Cllr Stan Collins (South Lakeland DC and Cumbria CC)
Cllr Chris White (St Albans CC and Hertfordshire CC)

Full details of the election results are here courtesy of Cllr Colin Rosenstiel.

Diary Dates

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:59:00 +0100

Two early diary dates for you:

Friday 17 and Saturday 18 June 2011: Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference, Bristol (Group Leaders event on the Friday, Conference dinner on the Friday evening, main one day conference on the Saturday.)

Friday 25 - Sunday 27 November 2011: Kickstart 2012, Birmingham

Local Elections 2011 - election countdown

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0100

It is now just 30 days and counting to the vital set of elections on 5 May 2011.

In Scotland and Wales voters are electing their Parliament and Assembly respectively, all over the UK we'll be deciding whether to change to a fairer system of electing our MPs.

In England, half of all all Liberal Democrat councillors are up for election in district, unitary and metropolitan councils across most of England. It's the first big national electoral test that the party will have faced as a party of Government at a UK level. Here's a list of all the seats up in 2011.

It is up to all of us, on the ground, to make 5th May 2011 a success.

We want to HELP YOU WIN!

Candidate Support Programme - From now until the close of election expenses next June, ALDC will be supporting Lib Dem candidates in the local elections. Candidates we already know about will receive our free "Candidates' Handbook" packed full of useful tips, rules and ideas (copies arrive this weekend).

But we can't help if we don't know who the candidates are! Please help us to help you by letting us know who your target candidates are. We're only collecting details for "target" and "moving forward" candidates, so as not to spread the net too thinly with paper candidates.

Let us know online here. If it's easier just email them in - as long as we know the name, address, ward and email - to david.ball@aldc.org

Advice and Support

Don't forget to make the most of your membership with the templates, advice, information and resources available online - or by calling our office for Advice.

(call 01422 843 785 Monday - Friday 9.30-5.00 - or click on "Request advice" on the website). See your Member's Handbook for more information.

If you're NOT an ALDC member then you should be! Last time these seats were up Councillors who were ALDC members were a staggering THREE AND A HALF TIMES more likely to be re-elected than non-ALDC members!

Campaigning Resources

Why not take advantage of our new set of FOCUS templates for use by Liberal Democrat campaigners. These are exclusively available to members of ALDC.

The templates include: A3, A4, and A3 booklet style FOCUS - all of which have been produced in black and white, two colour (for RISOs) and in full colour (Colour RISO or commercial printer). All the FOCUS leaflets have variations to allow for single and for two and three member wards and election campaigns, and different bar charts for fighting the Tories and Labour.

There are two more packs of materials on their way over the coming weeks!

To make it easier we have a special deal for 2011 candidates of HALF PRICE membership up to May making ALDC membership as little as 75p a week...... This is only available by direct debit, but you can do it online here or phone us and we can take your bank details over the phone 01422 843 785.

Work on your historic support

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0100

In the two principal authority by-elections that took place on Thursday 13th January 2011 the Tories held one seat and Labour gained one from the Tories. There were no town or parish council election results reported to ALDC.

In Camborne North ward Labour were fifth in the first elections for a unitary Cornish County Council in 2009 with only 100 votes, we were second with 182. Labour held the parliamentary seat from 1997 to 2005. We held the parliamentary seat till 2010 when we lost it to the Tories. The Tory councillor for Camborne North resigned whilst facing a legal battle over assault charges.

Labour came from fifth to take the seat in the by-election taking our campaign by surprise. We had a good candidate who was a town councillor in the ward and ran a campaign that would usually have delivered a better result. The full post mortem has yet to take place but what is clear is that:
a)   Our campaign team were taken by surprise - we fought the Tories and did not pick up on the Labour threat.
b)   We should have stood a candidate in a December town council by-election (always stand a candidate!) as our voters voted Labour in that election and gave Labour a better bar graph to counter our squeeze.
c)   A Christmas campaign and bad weather on the day depressed the turnout.
d)   We did not do enough to consolidate and reaffirm our historic support.
e)   Now that we are in government the level of campaigning required in previous years needs to be stepped up. This means better resourced campaigns and therefore tighter targeting.

We did not lose this seat, the Tories did, but there were some powerful messages to all campaigners particularly in areas where Labour has traditionally been squeezed. Some of our historic supporters may be tempted to “punish” the coalition. We need to make sure that we work with our historic D’s and P’s, that they are re-canvassed before May and firmed up. Why not start canvassing them on phone and foot now.

On Norfolk County Council the Tories held the Humbleyard ward.

Sheffield Conference

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0100

2011's Federal Spring Conference takes place 11-13 March 2011 in the Liberal Democrat-led City of Sheffield.

The Conference is the last opportunity campaigners and councillors from across the country will have to come together before the important local, Scottish, Welsh and AV votes on 5 May 2011.

ALDC has a busy programme planned for the conference. All our training and fringe events are FREE to all party members, so even if you can only come to Sheffield for the day it's a great chance to catch up on skills and learn new ideas.

All Training takes place on Saturday 12 March 2011:

2 "INSPIRED" events - learning from Lib Dems in other parts of the country - one on Winning againt the Tories in local elections, and "Going Green" on delivering on green issues in local government.

2 "CAMPAIGN ESSENTIALS" events, essential for the last two months of campaigning: "Getting out the Vote" and "Focus Leaflets"

2 Councillor Training events, jointly organised between ALDC and LG Leadership and Development: "Life without Whitehall Interference" and "Opportunities of the Localism Bill"

And a session for users of the MyCouncillor system on changes which are to take place at the start of February 2011.

ALDC has two Fringe events planned - again both on Saturday 12 March 2011:

1.00pm - Meet the Next Generation - we invite you to meet councillors on the Next Generation programme for councillor development, over a bit to eat for the launch of our latest analysis from Spring and Autumn conference political workshops in 2010.

8.00pm - Health Matters - Health and social care are always near the top of the political agenda, and increasingly for local councils. Hear about the current issues from speakers including Minister of State Paul Burstow MP.

Also don't miss the Lib Dem Council Group of the Year awards on Friday night, organised by the LGA Liberal Democrats, which kick off at 8.00pm.

Photo credit: TGIGreeny

Read All About it! 12/01/2011

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:22:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem Councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days (nb published before the Oldham East by-election):

Nick Clegg made a major speech on civil liberties towards the end of last week. You can read the speech here. Nick Clegg: “A liberal approach to freedom, a British approach to freedom” Here's the write up from The Independent: Control orders will be reformed, says Nick Clegg

Lib Dem Voice have been asking what Party members think about a number of issues, most recently: Tuition fees: what Lib Dem members think now

Lib Dem Voice have been running the results of a series of polls of party members. Apparently we're split 51/49 on whether we support the Government on Tuition Fees - more details: Tuition fees: what Lib Dem members think now.

We liked this book review, (Mark Pack on Lib Dem Voice) on the book considering the options and policies for the future of the Conservative / Lib Dem coalition: Which Way’s Up? The long-term future of the coalition

and for a bit of balance, from Comment is Free in the Guardian:
Face it, Ed: Labour and the Lib Dems need each other

And in Local Government: (both MJ)

Shapps calls for fast tracking evicton of problem tenants

Incentives offered to bring empty homes back into use

and from Inside Housing

Thousands could be hit by legal aid cuts, says Unite

Finally, we're guessing that at least a few Lib Dems have iPhones and a few like election maps?

Well your dreams have come true with this Election Map app :)

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

No walk in the Park

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:52:00 +0100

The first week of January was another very quiet week for council by-elections, with only one principal election in the Windsor & Maidenhead unitary authority.

Park Ward is in Windsor itself, with the park after which it is named being Windsor Great Park. The ward’s other notable landmark being Legoland. This was a disappointing result in a largely suburban residential ward that we held until four years ago. This ward had been consistently Lib Dem for many years before but our vote is down nearly 40% in the eight years since we last won there.

Since the coalition was formed we have been performing consistently well in by-elections where we are fighting the Conservatives, even though the last few weeks haven’t been as promising. However if there is one common theme running through the good results it has been the willingness by the local Lib Dems to take on the Conservatives and keep squeezing Labour. Just because we’re in coalition with the Conservatives nationally, it doesn’t mean we are locally and so don’t pull any punches. Make sure you highlight in your leaflets what we would do differently locally and that the only option in who runs the council is the Lib Dems or the Conservatives.

Read All About it! 05/01/2011

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners in the last week and over the Christmas break:

The biggest news in the last couple of days has been the VAT increase. The BBC considers: Is the VAT increase regressive? Lib Dem voice reports: The VAT rise: a refresher course for Labour

In local Government:
The Guardian reports on criticisms of local government causing "bed blocking" (delayed discharge) from hospitals: Bed blocking on the rise as care cuts leave elderly stuck in hospital

The MJ reports on Eric Pickles' attempt to simplfy how we understand local government funding: CLG map aims to unravel complex council funding Local government secretary
and on Zero carbon homes achieved by going 'beyond bricks and mortar'

Mark Pack, writing in Lib Dem voice looks at : Calls to end alphabetic ordering of candidates on Scottish local election ballot paper

And in politics:
The Telegraph reports: Simon Hughes: there will be no deal between Lib Dems and Tories at next election

Very well worth reading, is the list of the Lib Dem's achievements (so far!) in Government, published just before Christmas: here.

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

HTML Email Designer Wanted

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:39:00 +0100

We're currently looking for someone who has some skills and experience in designing HTML email templates.

We are looking to develop some templates for use on Mailchimp, and need to work with someone on a freelance basis to do this.

Please get in touch with Tim Pickstone - tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Happiness isn't an election in Hamlets...

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:30:00 +0100

If liberal democracy in Great Britain has anything akin to a birthday, it would be December 16th. On that day, 321 years ago, the assembly that would become known as the ‘Convention Parliament’ passed the English Bill of Rights. The 1689 Bill set down in law the right of the English people to hold elections to choose their leaders, ended the practices of arbitrary royal intervention in matters of justice and taxation, and established the English Parliament as a sovereign body. As if that glorious heritage was not enough, it was 84 years later to the day that the Boston Tea Party kick-started a liberal revolution in another part of the world. Fast forward to December 16 2010, and liberal democracy in Britain is still alive, kicking, and not looking half bad for a 300-year-old, with a handsome tally of six principal council by-elections being decided on the day and two contested elections out in the towns.

Unfortunately, it’s been a week of slim pickings for Liberal Democrats in yesterday’s contests; we stood candidates in five of the six main events but, other than a pretty distant second in Tunbridge Wells, didn’t come away with a great deal to crow about. The trend for incumbent holds continues with only two seats changing hands. Thursday’s shock result was Labour losing the Spitalfields and Banglatown ward of Tower Hamlets to Respect, who staged a dramatic 22% surge at the expense of both the Lib Dem focus team and the Green Party. Labour clawed themselves back to net gain/loss of zero for the week by plucking Dover Town on Kent County Council from the Tories. Again, the local Lib Dems had a bit of a torrid time, although a UKIP debutant taking nearly 12% looks like the straw that broke the Conservative camel’s back. Elsewhere, the Tories fought and held each of the remaining four seats. In Bromsgrove’s Marlbrook it was by the fingernails as a precipitous 27% decline left them with a majority slashed to forty eight. Lydden and Temple Newell ward in Dover was a little more comfortable, with a drop of 5% leaving a Conservative vote in the low sixties. In Tunbridge Wells’ Sherwood, a barely perceptible percentage decrease resulted in a painless Tory hold, and Worcestershire County Council’s Alvechurch division bucked the trend and returned a Conservative County Councillor with an increase of 11%.

Out in the towns, the Dover Alliance wrested the Castle ward on Dover Town Council from the Tories whilst Labour held in the Low Spennymoor and Trudhoe Grange ward of Spennymoor TC.

Just when you thought your festive season was complete, there will be another two principal council by-elections taking place next week. On Tuesday, the good people of Wiltshire will be replacing a resigned Conservative in Bromham, Rowde, and Potterne, while on Thursday it’s the turn of East Herts to welcome a new public servant to the fold. Finally, for those of you who may not have heard, there will be a parliamentary by-election in Oldham East & Saddleworth on January 13th and it is full steam ahead for what could be a famous Lib Dem victory over a thoroughly discredited Labour Party and their thoroughly despicable 2010 election campaign. If you can make it to Oldham before then, the HQ is open all the way to Christmas Eve, Tuesday 28th through to New Year’s Eve, and from Tuesday 4th January to the big day itself.

In addition to the traditional best of luck to all our candidates and campaigners, ALDC would like to wish all Liberal Democrats, fellow travellers, and recreational readers, a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Craig Whittall

craig.whittall@aldc.org

Happy Christmas from ALDC

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:06:00 +0100

Please note that the ALDC offices will be closed from 3.00pm on Friday 24 December 2010, and re-open on Tuesday 4 January 2011 at 9.30am. Any messages left on our answerphone will not be checked until the new year.

If you require any urgent help, please get in touch via our website (here) and we can get back to you if required.

If there are any problems with our website, or with the MyCouncillor system please let us know in this way so that we know straight away and can resolve the problems.

Can we take the opportunity to wish all our members and friends a very Happy Christmas, and very best for 2011.

Read All About It! 15/12/2010

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem Councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days. Been a big week for local government: Local Government Settlement, Localism Bill and the Pupil Premium - so here are just a few highlights:

On the Local Government Settlement:
Pickles finds £85m to ease pain of front-loaded cuts (Municipal Journal)
Local councils 'face average 4.4% cut' (Independent)
Cuts in council services to be deeper in wealthy areas as Coaltion diverts millions into poorer towns and cities (Telegraph)

On the Localism Bill:
Pickles hails ‘ground-breaking’ shift of power in Localism Bill (Municipal Journal)
This localism bill shows Eric Pickles is Hazel Blears in super-sized wolf's clothing (Simon Jenkins, The Guardian)
Localism Bill: councillors who fail to declare personal interest fail criminal charges (Telegraph)

And on both:
Andrew Stunell writes… Localism Bill and finance settlement are defining moment for local government

On the Pupil Premium:
Dan Rogerson MP writes: the Pupil Premium is launched
The Telegraph considers the previous Government's efforts to tackle educational inequality and standards - Labour's pre-school reforms 'failing to raise standards

In other Local Government news:
Councils get electric car cash
Grant Shapps: Councillors being given more powers than ever to become local champions
The Party in London has announced our candidates for the Greater London Assembly

Finally - LGA LIb Dem Group Leader tell's Richard Grayson what we all think of him! - Opinion: Planet Earth to Grayson

All the fun of the Fareham

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:33:00 +0100

It’s probably fair to say that the news from the national political scene was not exactly the most helpful for those fighting by-election campaigns on 9^th December. But despite this we still managed to pull off an amazing victory in Fareham in Hampshire – a council dominated by Conservatives and with just 9 Lib Dem councillors.

The secret of their success is very simple - lots of hard work by a team campaigning on local issues. This meant that when voters went to the polls, electing a hardworking councillor who was addressing local political concerns was far more important than what was going on in Westminster. The campaign consisted of regular very local Focus leaflets and lots of work on the ground and goes to show that it’s possible to get impressive results regardless of the national situation. The result in Fareham adds to a string of brilliant by-election results in Hampshire since the General Election. In fact this result was even more amazing if you compare with the last ‘normal’ election (i.e. not combined with the General Election) in this seat since when there has been a 34% swing to the Lib Dems.

Unfortunately it wasn’t all good news with a defeat to Labour in Warrington. This by-election was caused by the resignation of our councillor who had moved out of the area. Something, that became an issue during the campaign. However, it should also be borne in mind that this was already a marginal seat between us and Labour, and we failed to gain the third seat in this ward in May.

Finally, although we don’t often cover parish council results, it’s worth giving a mention to a great result from Truro City Council. The election saw the Lib Dems gain a seat from Labour with 51% of the vote in a constituency that we narrowly failed to defend in May. A good sign of our electoral resilience in Cornwall.

The New Year is getting off to a Flying Start with a one-day training event in Taunton on 8^th January. Flying Start is being organised jointly with the regional parties and the Campaigns Department and it is open to Lib Dems from across the South West. It will provide basic campaigns skills training and support to local campaign teams. More details are available on the ALDC website under MyALDC News and bookings should be made to Judith Cole at judithcole@cix.co.uk

Cllr Anders Hanson

ALDC Senior Political Officer

What do you think about Campaigner magazine?

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:13:00 +0100

Like all good Liberal Democrat campaigners, we want to know what you think!

Campaigner magazine is nearly four years old in its current format and so it's time for a revamp. For that reason we're asking all ALDC members to let us know what they think about the magazine - what is interesting, what's not interesting, how we can improve it and make it even more useful as a resource to Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners.

You can take the survey via this link. Please tell us your views. We will be revamping Campaigner early in the New Year and so now is the time to have your say.

Read All About It! 8/12/2010

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days.

In a fairly key interview over the weekend in The Independent, Nick Clegg tells us: No apologies. No regrets. No shame

It is always interesting to see what other people think of us. Here's the BBC's take on The different tribes of Liberal Democrats

For a fairly impartial view of what the impact of the proposed new system of funding higher education is on individual people, we found this from the Money Saving Expert.com: The argument over student loans could kill the next generation’s education

In other important news: Ed Miliband joins campaign for Voting Reform. If you're interested here's a list of all the Labour politicians who are supporting AV

In local Government, all from the MJ:
Planning Reforms Unveilled by Ministers
Front Loading Cuts Row shifts to Reserves
Council Tax Revaluation in Wales Abandoned

And finally, for something completely different, and only partially relevant, discussion from Sweden about how the junior parties in the centre-right coalition can maintain their own identity.

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstoen@aldc.org

Poole Position...

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:54:00 +0100

There were four principal council by-elections in the week leading up to December 2nd, one of which was a rare Tuesday election out in Wales. The trend toward good news for incumbents continued unabated with three out of four contests resulting in holds, none of which were particularly close.

Tuesday’s match-up in the Ciliau Aeron ward of Ceredigion Council was the second Tuesday by-election of the year, after the famous Lib Dem defence of Whyteleafe in Tandridge on February 2nd (not that you needed to ask, of course). Out in the valleys, it was Plaid who held on despite a surge of almost 20% to Liberal Democrat candidate Sonia Williams, an encouraging result that we look forward to seeing surpassed by the Ceredigion team next time around. Of Thursdays two holds, we came out with silver on both occasions. In the Haydock ward of St Helens, Labour put on 11% to hit mid-60’s in vote-share whilst we slipped 10 points to 27%. Slightly closer was the 150 vote margin in Rugby’s Dunchurch & Knightlow, where Robert Turner Aird’s 40% of the vote kept the Rugby Lib Dems within touching distance of our Conservative opponents on a day where no party’s vote altered dramatically. All of Thursday’s excitement was Poole-side, to coin a phrase, where the ‘Poole People – Putting Poole First’ party took both the Poole Town ward from the Tories and the Teacher’s Prize for achievement in alliteration! Joking aside, the Poole People’s 33% of the vote on a first go is a very interesting development; though it seems mainly at the expense of UKIP and a previous (non-standing) Independent, with Peter David England’s tally for the Poole Lib Dems essentially unaffected.

There will be another three by-elections to report on next week, with the major parties defending one apiece. Lib Dems will be fighting to keep hold of Bewsey & Whitecross in Warrington, whilst Labour and the Tories will be circling the wagons Truro and Fareham respectively. The very best of luck to our candidates, councillors, and campaigners across the country.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

Please Help in Oldham East and Saddleworth

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 17:08:00 +0100

Polling Day will be 13th January.

Please go and help if you can. Elwyn’s team has had many visits already from MPs, MEPs, Lords and Baronesses, councillors and hundreds of activists.

But there’s so much more still to do – in particular canvassing, which is really sealing the deal on the doorstep. The response on the doorstep to Elwyn Watkins' campaign has been very positive.

The campaign HQ is open from 9am till at least 8pm (but most nights a lot later – just ring if you’re coming), every day until Christmas Eve, then again from Monday 27th through to New Year’s Eve and will reopen on Sunday the 2nd January.

Please visit the HQ as often as you can up to Christmas Eve and between Christmas and New Year.

The campaign HQ is in Greenfield (an easy walk from Greenfield train station). Details are on Elwyn's website here. Please go and help make Elwyn our 58th MP.

Flying Start

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:12:00 +0100

ALDC is offering further training for next year's local elections with a Flying Start day in Taunton. This event is are organised jointly with the regional parties and the Campaigns Department and offer basic campaign skills for new activists as well as useful refreshers for experienced campaigners.

The programme includes basic campaign skills as well as more advanced skills, including Focus writing, winning organisation, canvassing and how to get out your vote. There will also be some mentoring of groups from different council areas to help you improve your campaign plans.

Saturday 8th January at Richard Huish College, South Road, Taunton, TA1 3DZ from 9.30 for 10am to 4pm. The cost is £10 for the day including lunch, and there is a 3 for 2 offer for groups. You can download a PDF containing further details of the programme and a booking form here. To find out more, contact Judith Cole at judithcole@cix.co.uk

Unfortunately the previously advertised event in Bedford has been cancelled. However, Winning Teams events will be taking place in the region soon in the New Year.

Winning Teams

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Winning Teams is a programme of events throughout 2011 organised jointly by the Liberal Democrat Campaigns Department and the English regional parties, with support from ALDC.

It is designed to help any local party that wishes to take party build the sort of campaign team with the right skills that will help you win consistently in elections at all levels. It is based on the sort of work that was done in the parliamentary seats that had the most spectacular results in the May 2010 General Election, such as Redcar, Eastbourne and Ashfield. You don't have to be a massive local party or one that has traditionally had good election results, you just need to have the will to move forwards and upwards.

A number of Winning Teams events are being organised over the next year. Details of those that are confirmed so far are below and this list will be updated as we receive further information on these and those being held in other parts of the country:

Devon & Cornwall (contact Richard Pinnock r.pinnock@libdems.org.uk)

Devon (all venues TBC):

Weds 9th February 7pm-9pm

Sat 5th March 10am-4pm

Sat 21st May 10am-4pm

Tues 6th September 7pm-9pm

Sat 22nd October 10am-4pm

Tues 29th November 7pm-9pm

Cornwall (all venues TBC):

Weds 16th February 7pm-9pm

Sat 19th March 10am-4pm

Sat 28th May 10am-4pm

Weds 7th September 7pm-9pm

Sat 29th October 10am-4pm

Weds 30th November 7pm-9pm

Eastern (contact Lorna Spenceley lorna@spenceley.eu)

Norfolk and Suffolk: Sat 5th February at Thetford United Reformed Church, Earls Street, Thetford, IP24 2AD

Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire: Sat 5th February at Upper Rooms, Eaton Community Centre, The Maltings, Eaton Socon, St Neots, PE19 8ES

Essex and Hertfordshire: Sat 19th February at Griffin Suite, Latton Bush Centre, Southern Way, Harlow, CM18 7BL

Western Counties (contact Richard Pinnock r.pinnock@libdems.org.uk)

(all venues TBC)

Weds 9th February 7pm-pm

Weds 16th February 7pm-9pm

Sat 5th March 10am-4pm

Sat 19th March 10am-4pm

Sat 21st March 10am-4pm

Sat 21st May 10am-4pm

Sat 28th May 10am-4pm

Tues 6th September 7pm-9pm

Weds 7th September 7pm-9pm

Saturday 22nd October 10am-4pm

Sat 29th October 10am-4pm

Tues 29th November 7pm-9pm

Weds 30th November 7pm-9pm

Yorkshire and the Humber (contact Adam Williams adam.williams@libdems.org.uk)

West Yorkshire: Sat 8th January 10am-4pm at 1 Whitehall, Leeds, LS1 4AW

South Yorkshire: Sat 22nd January 9.30am-4pm at a venue TBC (probably Doncaster)

York, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire: Sun 23rd January 9.30am-4pm at Fulford Social Hall, School Lane, Fulford, York, YO10 4LS

Read All About It! 1/12/2010

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local activists from the last seven days:

National news seems to have been dominated by the tuition fees issue:
Nick Clegg writes to Aaron Porter on ‘Right to Recall’ and tuition fees and here's what
100 Lib Dem PPCs had to say to Nick

Paul Burstow writes on Lib Dem Voice: Healthly lives.... Healthly people
Telegraph Nats get new powers despite taxing times for Salmond
Also in the Telegraph: An early return for David Laws?

Following the announcement that Margaret Beckett and John Prescott are to be leading 'lights' in the NO to fairer votes campaign the Observer asks: Two-tribe politics is over. But the likes of John Prescott can't see it

In local government:
From the MJ: CLG Publishes Standards Guide (and here's the actual guidance for post-Standards Board) and, the LGA Announces 140,000 job losses - and here's what Conservative Home had to say about these figures.

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Hit me Blaby one more time...

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Last week saw the second by-election in Blaby District Council in Leicestershire in as many months. Once again, they managed a strong defence, which bodes well for both the party in Blaby and in other places around the country where we are fighting the Conservatives. The by-election was caused by the retirement of a long-standing and well known local councillor, which was always going to be a challenge. However, with a key issue in the area being the proposed development of land in the area by the Conservative county council, our candidate Antony Moseley was finally victorious.

The Plaistow ward of Chichester District Council saw its second by-election of the year, and the third in two years, following yet another Conservative resignation. Once again we recorded an impressive swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat of nearly 20%, but unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough for victory.

Finally, we couldn’t let this week’s column go by without mentioning the incredibly impressive Aberystwyth Town Council by-election result. Our candidate Ceredig Davies, who is also the local county councillor and group leader, achieved a stunning 90.5% of the vote in a straight fight with the Conservatives.

ALDC recently held another successful Kickstart weekend in Derby when around 150 Lib Dem campaigners came from around the country to be trained and mentored. Our next campaign training will be held on 8^th January in Bedford and Taunton. These Flying Start events will be one-day of intensive training and support for those fighting local elections in 2011. More details and booking are available from the relevant regional parties.

Don’t forget to let ALDC know about your target ward candidates as they are selected, so we can send you all the information you need for a successful election. A form is available on our website.

Read All About It! - 24/11/2010

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

Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:

In issues around local government and elections we noticed:
The Daily Mail reports on part of Nick Clegg's political reform programme in: Voters asked to provide signatures to prevent electoral fraud.

The Telegraph reports on Eric Pickles thoughts on the pay of the LGA Chief Executive in: Ministers tell chief executive of Local Government Association to cut his £302,000 total pay package (nb since then the LGA has announced that Ransford will take a £200,000 paycut)

From Lib Dem Voice: Andrew Stunell writes: Your Chance to Influence Coalition Housing Policy.

The MJ reports that Councils are Key to the Green Deal

Also some interesting more general articles about strategy and political parties:

Something really worth reading is the Political Betting website's really interesting article on opinion polls around our Party Leader in: Has Nick Clegg Hatred become a Substitue for Political Renewal

The New Statesman looks at relations inside the Labour Party in Fear and Loathing in the Labour Party.

The (London) Evening News suggest that: To be a Serious Force the Lib Dems must stay Ruthless

Finally if you missed it, news of Fifteen new Lib Dem Peers - special congratulations to ALDC's outgoing President Councillor (and now Lord) Mike Storey

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

A Crox to Bear...

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:18:00 +0100

November 18th saw a pair of Independence Days, the good people of Latvia and Morocco both celebrating the throwing off of their respective historical yokes, and six principal council by-elections taking place across the UK. The late-autumn gloom continues with very little to report on, only two of six seats changed hands and both of those went in Labour’s favour.

A double election in the Croxteth ward of Liverpool City Council was never an appetising prospect given Labour’s post-CSR bounce around Northern England. In the event, Labour held one and gained one leaving the council composition at fifty Labour, thirty five Lib Dem, three Liberals, and a pair of Greens. While the headline result looks bad, the local Lib Dem Focus team acquitted themselves well with a share of the vote well above the current trend-line for Metropolitan seats in the North. The second seat to change hands on the 18th was also a Labour gain, this time from the Tories, in the Wednesbury ward of Sandwell MBC. Labour put an extra 23% on their vote-share since the ward was last contested in May 2010; Lib Dems fell back by just over 8% to fourth place, sadly outpaced by the National Front and holding the Green Party off by just three votes. The remaining holds were for the Conservatives in the Baxenden ward of Hyndburn, where the absence of a Green Party candidate wasn’t sufficient to push Labour over the winning line; Plaid held in Eglwysbach on Conway County Borough Council with a disappointing slide to 72% of the vote; and an Independent in Anglesey showing us all how it should be done, keeping hold of Rhosneigr ward with just shy of 85%! On a serious note, our ‘standing candidates’ average is taking a bit of a beating, with the Bird of Liberty appearing on only three of a possible six ballots this week. The ALDC refrain remains the same ‘always stand a candidate’, and that means you!

With four principal council by-elections, including a defence in Blaby – site of a handsome defence of the Saxondale ward not so long ago – due up on the 25th, we look forward to a nice winter warmer of results next time around. Meanwhile, please continue to stock up on this year’s Christmas card and calendar templates from the ALDC website (here), and it’s all hands on deck in Oldham East and Saddleworth for anyone who fancies a fun day out! The best of luck to all our candidates and campaigners across the country.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

Read All About it! 17/11/2010

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

Recommended reading for Lib Dem Councillors and local campaigners over the last seven days:

Three major political stories continued to dominate the national media:

The violence at the NUS demonstration in London is reported by the Independent here as Student Riot Marks End of Coalition's Era of Consensus.

Meanwhile the Guardian wonders if the Phil Woolas Affair is about the Soul of the Labour Party.

The main Government announcment of the last week has been on Welfare Policy. Here are two Lib Dem views: Nick Clegg in the Guardian, Poverty plus a pound is not enough, and Steve Webb on Lib Dem Voice on Why Liberal Democrats should welcome the welfare reforms.

In the Municipal Journal (online as localgov.co.uk) two stories caught our eye, one good and one bad for local Government:

Councils' Role in Education Funding Under Threat
Councils to set planning fees

Congratulations to Tim Farron MP on his election as Party President! Here's the announcement on video! On the subject of internal elections, I don't normally recall the Guardian reporting on these, nowadays too good an opportunity for them to spin...

Finally, on the subject of the Guardian, unlike much of what they say about us nowadays, an interesting story about the AV referendum in Labour and Liberal Democrats Grassroots Alliance.

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Independents' Day...

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:47:00 +0100

November 11th is, of course, the day on which we all reflect on both the fragility and the price of the freedoms we are lucky enough to enjoy. It also adds an extra resonance to the act of voting in an election that can often be lost on the other 51 Thursdays of a year. There were five principal council by-elections that took place on the 11th and ALDC received reports of one election contested out in the towns. The current political cold snap continues, with very little to cherry pick for Liberal Democrats; of the five elections, we were defending none, we stood candidates in two, and neither of those changed hands.

It was a good day for Independents. An Independent held the one seat they were defending in the Hunsdon ward of East Hertfordshire District, and another took the Forres seat on Moray Council in Scotland from the Tories, who collapsed into third behind the SNP and the eventual Independent winner on first preferences. The remaining three seats were all holds for the Conservative Party; a marginal decline in vote-share in the Rushall-Shelfield ward in Walsall wasn’t enough for Labour, who remained 28 votes behind. The last time the Walsall seat was contested, the local Lib Dem team took a respectable 17.8%, but the absence of a candidate somewhat hampered efforts to build on that this time around. On the Isle of Wight, Labour’s first attempt to win the Chale, Niton, and Whitwell ward yielded a haul of 76 and our candidate Malcolm Groves kept the Lib Dem vote steady. Finally, in a three-way thriller in Bury St Edmunds Tower division of Suffolk County Council, the Tories held the second-place Independent off by 55 votes, and the Liberal Democrats placed fifth with a fraction less of the popular vote than in 2009. There’s a little bit of silver glinting around the November clouds, none of our candidates registered a dramatic decrease in their vote-share and we did pick up a seat in the Pill ward of Saltash Town Council.

As the nights draw in and the air gets brisker, ALDC have rustled up some very fetching Christmas card and calendar templates for those character-building Winter rounds! They can be accessed at the members-only section of the ALDC site here. It’s onwards and upwards next week with a further six principal council by-elections, there’s a double election in Croxteth in Liverpool and one of those seats is the week’s only Lib Dem defence. The very best of luck to all our candidates and campaigners across the country.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

Read All About it! 10/11/2010

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners over the last seven days.

Two big political stories in the last week. The first was around the disgraced and now former Labour MP Phil Woolas being found guilty of lying in election literature.

Here's the main initial Guardian report: Phil Woolas: A Lesson in irresponsibile behaviour, and if you've somehow missed a look at the disgraceful election literature that the good people of Oldham East and Saddleworth had to suffer earlier this year, here's a look: Phil Woolas Campaign Literature. Since then, there has also been the not very 'on message' reaction of Labour MPs.... Mutiny! Rebellious Labour MPs launch a fighting fund for Woolas

Also dominating the news has been the issue of tuition fees for higher education. Here's the telegraph's take Tuition Fees: A Good Compromise. I found Jo Swinson's article on Lib Dem Voice useful Jo Swinson MP writes on Tuition Fees.

On the day that George W Bush defended torture, Downing Street disagreed: Waterboarding is Torture: Downing Street Confirms

In local government, three stories cought our eye: Lansley: councils will have key role in helping to reduce health costs (on the public health role); Councils defy pickles and go fortnightly (on refuse collection) and Elected Police Chiefs set for 2012.

Finally, this comment in the Guardian is well worth a read. Ten Tips for the Lib Dems

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Lyth Spirit...

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:07:00 +0100

For many Egyptians, November 4th is better known as ‘Love Day’, a localised version of Valentine’s Day initially conceived, pun intended, in the 1970’s. If anyone needs a bit of love after last Thursday, it is our Liberal Democrat campaign teams across the country who’ve had a bit of a torrid time.

Of the seven principal authority by-elections that took place on the 4th, a total of four changed hands. Our worst result on the day was the loss of the Lyth Valley ward on South Lakeland District Council to the Tories by a wafer-thin 23 votes. A Conservative hold in Ponteland East on Northumberland County Council was cold comfort as they lost two of their defences to Labour. Plaid picked up a seat in the Cenarth ward of Carmarthenshire County Council with a healthy 80% of the vote. Labour were the main beneficiaries of the contests, holding a brace with successful defences in the Ladywell ward of Lewisham and Hulme in Manchester – where a turnout of only 10.9% makes it difficult to read much of a meaning into the result. Labour also picked up Coleridge ward on Cambridge City Council and Moredon in Swindon from the Tories. This leaves the net results for the main parties as; Labour up two, Tories down one, and Lib Dems down one.

It’s high tide for cheap headlines and easy answers in the press, and a post-CSR bounce for Labour isn’t exactly a surprise. Doing as we always do, keeping our focus on our communities, working our wards, listening to the people and letting them know what we’ve done for them in their area, is still the key to success. It is worth remembering that when the smoke clears and the hot air cools down, we will still be there out delivering on our promises, and Labour will still be stood empty handed on the sidelines. ALDC are here to make sure our members stay ahead of the game, with weekly updates on election news, best practice, and artwork templates. There is also the G8 programme of financial assistance for council groups for the upcoming local elections, annual Kickstart two-day residential training event, and regional ‘Flying Start’ day-long training sessions scheduled across the country. You can find details of all these and more at www.aldc.org. The best of luck to all of our councillors, candidates, and campaigners in the field.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

Read All About It! 03/11/2010

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Lib Dem Councillors and local campaginers in the last week (please note this column goes to press on Wednesday morning, so anything on Student Financial Support is for next week....)

Post CSR its been a busy week for Government announcements, including many from our Lib Dem team on the front benches.

Labour tried to make an issue in the last week of proposals from the Government to cap Housing Benefit at around £400 a week (Observer: Housing Benefit Cut would make London Unaffordable). Amusingly Lib Dem Voice looked back at their own 2010 General Election Manifesto in Labour’s manifesto pledge to cap Housing Benefit

On the Environment we have seen the welcome launch of the Green Deal. Our very own Chris Huhne writes in Lib Dem Voice in Myth-busting: what the Coalition’s plans for nuclear energy really mean

The Evening Standard wonders if Now Nick Clegg is leading the Tories by the nose

In Local Government the big news has been the announcement that Mayoral Referenda will take place in twelve English cities on 5th May 2011 (though we now understand this is probably not going to be the case...) - here's the Liverpool Daily Post report.

Late last week also saw the first wave of 24 LEPs (Local Economic Partnerships) have been announced by the CLG here.

We do try to cover a range of media sources in this column, but nothing yet from the "most read" paper by Lib Dem voters in the 2010 General Election........

Finally, not a good night for the US Democrats. The New York Times has the results here - great if you like electoral maps as much as we do....

Tim Pickstone tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Springbank into Action...

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:35:00 +0100

There were three principal council by-elections this week, and one reported contest out in the towns. Labour held both of the seats they were defending; putting 17% on their previous tally in the Kentish Town ward in Camden, and a marginal increase in East Kilbride West in South Lanarkshire. In both seats, the Liberal Democrat vote held up better than current polling would indicate and we continue to track around 5% above our national opinion poll average when it comes to real elections.

Our featured story this week is the successful defence of the Springbank ward on Cheltenham Borough Council, where nearly seven out of ten voters backed Cheltenham Lib Dems’ Chris Coleman. With a history of regular Focus and street letters, Chris’ previous experience as a borough councillor, and a large store of public goodwill based on the association of the party with the popular Springbank Community Resource Centre, Springbank had all the makings of a successful campaign. This was delivered, with help from across the town and as far afield as Gloucestershire and Bath, and phone canvassing from the Western Counties phone bank. The campaign saw three Focus leaflets, including an excellent colour A3 folded down to A4 with a ward-map detailing Lib Dem achievements as the centre page. This worked particularly well as a counter to the Labour charge that the party had done nothing for the ward, which, in a feat of strategic brilliance, they decided to put out after our Focus had already landed! An M.P.’s endorsement, cream letter, and hand-addressed postal vote knock-up rounded out the pre-polling day literature. The Focus team used local knowledge and previous canvass experience to stagger their election day knock-ups according to who they knew would be in at different times of the day. Combined with telephone knock-up and full telling cover, the polling day operation was well-run and bore fruit. When asked what lessons had been learned from the day, Councillor Chris Coleman commented ‘that traditional ALDC-style campaigning still works, and the other parties still don’t have an answer’. A sentiment with which this unbiased observer couldn’t agree more!

Out in the towns, Labour held on to their seat on Great Aycliffe Town Council. There will a total of seven principal by-election contests to report on next week, including on South Lakeland and Manchester MBC. The very best of luck to our candidates and campaigners across the country.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

Don't Forget ALDC this Christmas!

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:27:00 +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.

Half Price ALDC Membership for Candidates!

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:17:00 +0100

We don't need to tell you how important the elections in May 2011 are to the Party.

To help ensure that as many of the thousands of Lib Dem candidates next May WIN, we're offering HALF PRICE membership of ALDC to every Lib Dem candidate in the May 2011 local elections.

For as little as 75p week, all ALDC members will be able to benefit from:

exclusive access to campaign literature templates, artwork and advice
exclusive weekly "Campaigner" email, packed full of campaign issues, ideas, council motions and best practice
ALDC's bi-monthly members magazine "Campaigner"
a free "MyCouncillor" website
full access to our advice line and online advice - exclusively available to ALDC members.

It's not just councillors who join ALDC, we're also proud to have a large number of candidates, agents, local campaigners, Parliamentary and local party staff as members.

The 50% discount is only available for people who join us by direct debit. Join us "paperfree" online today by filling in your details here. Call us on 01422 843 785 for more information.

Group Members of ALDC? - why not add your candidates?

The most succesful local party in the 2010 elections was the London Borough of Sutton. What did they do in advance of the elections - sign up every single candidate as a member of ALDC through their group membership scheme. With the 50% discount this is even more affordable.

Read all about it! - 27/10/2010

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

Recommended reading for Lib Dem Councillors and local campaigners in the last week.

Obviously the main news of the last seven days was the Comprehensive Spending Review, and its impact and aftermath. For background this was our members' background briefing on the day after the CSR (ALDC members only).

The day after CSR, the Guardian featured this interview with the Deputy Prime Minister: Nick Clegg interview: "This is a thoughtful plan over four years". Also from the Guardian: George Osborne has bloodied hands, but the voters are on his side.

The Daily Mail has a different perspective on some of the more Lib Dem aspects of the CSR: Liberal Democrats back biggest spending cut in history... with a few bribes to sugar the pill.

On the local government side, these are from the Municipal Journal:
Local Government faces toughest settlement
Councils Consider Alternatives as PFI Waste Credits Pulled
Cost Shunting Fears rise with £6 Billion Black Hole (on NHS costs being shifted to local government)
National Infrastructure Plan Announced

On a different subject, an interesting piece for people interested in using short videos in their campaigns on Lib Dem Voice: Making short political videos: three top tips.

Finally, despite the CSR, a few times I've seen a non-Lib Dem in the last couple of days, it's something else they want to ask me about - is it true Nick Clegg smokes?..... Here's Nick's Desert Island Discs to listen again!

Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

G8 Grants for Local Elections 2011 - Round 2

Mon, 25 Oct 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.

We are now inviting expressions of interest for the second round. These grants will be to help your campaigning during January - March

grants will be in the region of £100 – £200 per target/held ward
council areas must make single applications, and must have a Campaign Plan (which we can help you with).
For a ward to be eligible for a grant in this round, the candidate(s) must be identified and appearing on literature and ALDC must be given their contact details.

If your council area has already been offered a grant in the first round you do not need to register again – we will be in touch with you soon about the second round.

To register your interest, please complete this expression of interest by 8^th November and we will send you an application pack which should be returned by 15^th November.

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

Mountains out of Mole Valleys...

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 16:59:00 +0100

It has been a bit of a marathon this week, with twelve principal council by-elections to report on. So, if you’re sitting comfortably…

Our featured story this week comes from Mole Valley Liberal Democrats, whose gain from the Tories in the Capel, Leigh, and Newdigate ward leaves them the largest party on Mole Valley District Council. The campaign capitalised on Iain Murdoch’s previous experience as councillor for the area, promoting Iain as the ‘listening’ candidate and recalling his former success in opposing the Conservative-run County Council’s unpopular nearby incinerator. The Focus team built on Iain’s reputation with three A3 spot-colour Focuses and a varied target mail campaign in which they emphasised the potential for becoming the biggest group on the council in letters to our members and supporters, whilst pushing the ‘listening candidate’ and ‘local candidate’ themes in letters out to soft Tories and Labour. With a lot of help coming in from neighbouring parties, particularly in the Surrey area, blue letters went out in double-quick time and 40% new canvass data was added, taking canvass coverage over the last four years to 75%. Whilst some residents became a little concerned by the fourth time they had been knocked up on election day, the quick delivery of Eve of Poll/Good Morning literature, alongside a ‘polling day’ leaflet mid-way through the day and a ‘time is running out’ card delivered near the end, ensured enough of our vote came out to see the Tories off by a handsome 60 votes. The Green Party and UKIP limped in as also-rans, although UKIP’s ‘It’s a Two Horse Race’ and ‘Lib Dems Can’t Win Here’ bar-charts proved good for a laugh – their shameless plagiarism of Liberal Democrat artwork techniques almost got their vote into triple figures this time!

Whilst Labour’s successful defences in the Harworth ward of Bassetlaw District and the Manor Castle ward of Sheffield were hardly surprising, their gains from the Liberal Democrats in the Barton and Sandhills ward of Oxford and a win over the Tories in Medway’s River made it a reasonable day at the office. The Conservatives held on in six of their seats; Great Missenden and the succinctly named Ashley Green, Latimer and Chenies ward on Chiltern DC; Abbey in East Staffordshire; the Hersham North seat on Elmbridge District Council; Andover South on Hampshire County Council; and the Ashwick Chilcompton and Stratton ward of Mendip District. More disappointing, the Conservative victory in Swansea boosted their representation in the city to five. Rounding out the results are the St George’s Hill Independents, who held the St George’s Hill ward on Elmbridge.

The net results for the week, therefore, are Labour up two, with the Tories and Lib Dems down one apiece. Latest in a series of close second places, we came within 25 votes in Great Missenden, 51 votes in Medip, and 72 in Hampshire. No prizes for coming second, but a strange thought that for just another 125 votes we could have been reporting another three gains! Congratulations to all, and the best of luck to our teams in the field.

Craig Whittall
ALDC By-Elections Team

Kickstart 2011

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:00:00 +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.

The "early bird" rate has now passed, but pricing starts at £130 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.

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.

Read All About It! 20/10/2010

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

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last week in the media. Please note this is all PRE-Comprehensive Spending Review material, no doubt next week's column will focus on the CSR and its impact.

Prior to the CSR, the Independent reports on discussions in the "Star Chamber" on the spending review in One room, nine politicians, Britain's future on the table

But aside from the CSR, stories around education and giving children a fair start in life dominated the political media.

Here Nick Clegg writes to Lib Dem MPs over tuition fees. Here are the results of the LibDemVoice survey of party members on tuition fees. Here's a view from one party member on the issue in "Broken pledge: but we knew how bad it was in March".

The Guardian reports on Nick Clegg's announcement on the Fairness Premium in Nick Clegg: pupil premium will help future generations escape shadow of the deficit

Three local government stories from the last week - all, not surprisingly, cuts related:

From the Municipal Journal: CLG set to streamline management
and Half of voters feel councils will not face cuts

And from the Communities and Local Government department: Councils' red tape cut as 4,700 Whitehall targets slashed

2011 C'llr Achievement Awards

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:32:00 +0100

LGiU and CCLA have launched this year's Cll'r Achievement Awards.

Do you know a councillor who works tirelessly for their community and deserves to be recognised? These awards recognise and reward the contributions of individual councillors across the country. Make your nominations now:

The categories:

Leader of the year
CCLA award for outstanding contribution to financial performance
Community champion of the year
Young councillor of the year
Scrutineer of the year
Online councillor of the year
Sustainability champion of the year
Partnership achievement of the year
New councillor of the year

The deadline for entries is 5pm, Friday 31 December 2010. These prestigious awards are being judged by leading councillors and experts in local government. Winners will be announced at the C'llr Conference in February 2011 where they will be presented with their award.

Watford and Winchester Winning

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:25:00 +0100

There were nine principal council elections held on the 14th October and they continued to be encouraging. The Tories held one seat, the Independents one seat, the Lib Dems two and Labour four. The only seat to change hands was a Labour gain from Plaid. In the two Parish council elections reported to ALDC the Independents held one seat and there was a gain by the Lib Dems from Independent.

With all the controversy swirling around and within the Liberal Democrats last Thursdays results continued to confound the pundits. We were defending two seats.

In the Watford Central Ward we had a very strong local candidate with a high profile going in to the campaign. This was particularly useful given that our sitting councillor was moving to the USA. Labour and the Tories made much of that running on “"Fred not Florida".

Labour used of heavy knocking copy on the coalition cuts. One last minute leaflet implied we were closing a community centre on the large council estate in the ward! We remained positive, running on a hard working local candidate who had helped set up a community action group and our year long record of action. Labour threw five leaflets at us, a full colour Florida post card- personally addressed to voters, A5 blue ink letters(unaddressed) ,a personal letter to supporters and a good morning.

We had a strong campaign that included street issue mail merge letters to those that had (from the marked register) voted and we squeezed the Tories even though they had won the parliamentary election in May.

At the start of the count Labour thought they had won it and the Tories looked a bit shell shocked, We worked our socks off and held the seat.

Our second hold was in the St Pauls Ward in Winchester where the Tories had no idea what hit them and started a vociferous post-mortem at the count.
Our canvassing was accurate and we won it on turnout with an eve of poll, targeted & personalised good mornings and five knock-ups.

A common concern from activists across the country is how to counter Labour anger at the coalition. Winchester chose to make clear the local difference between the Lib Dems and the Tories. They produced squeeze and general literature that made it clear. If we’d lost the by-election the Tories might have regained control of the council. We wanted to demonstrate what that would mean for local residents. When confronted with the choice they re-elected a Lib Dem.

Read All About It! 14/10/2010

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:19:00 +0100

This week's recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners.

This week's political news is of course dominated by the Browne report in to student funding. It's worth having a look at the report itself if you have the time as there is a lot more to it than the parts mentioned in the news headlines. Also worth reading is Vince Cable's statement to the House of Commons which outlines his reasons for proposing changes to higher education funding. One early reaction that we particularly liked (and it's worth noting that this is just the start and further announcements are to follow on what will actually happen) is a reasonable and well balanced article from Three Rivers councillor Sara Bedford.

Whilst we're linking to stories from Liberal Democrat Voice, there's one from a few weeks ago that we think is still worth reading. It's from Southwark Liberal Democrat Laurie Eggleston and tackles head on the complaint from people who voted for us to stop the Tories - Lent us your vote to keep the Tories out? Thanks it worked. This is worth telling your other activists about, especially those who are out knocking on doors, and was even highlighted in recent party training sessions.

In local government news, there's a few bits and pieces to highlight. Lib Dem Local Government Minister, Andrew Stunell MP, has unveiled a fair deal for travellers, whilst you can also find out what Secretary of State Eric Pickles thinks are "absolutely stonkers" about Local Economic Partnerships whilst also confirming that they will be responsible for handing out EU funding in future. We also bring you confirmation from Local Government Minister Bob Neill of a potentially controversial decision to allow city mayors to go ahead before any referendum is held on whether they should be created or not.

As an example of some other current thinking in local government we bring you an article from ConservativeHome about the TaxPayers' Alliance identifying £41million worth of "non-jobs" that could be scrapped to save money. It just goes to show perhaps how one person's important job is another person's waste of money and highlights some of the difficulties of making savings by cutting specific jobs.

Finally, today's announcement about the scrapping of the Local Area Agreements and the National Indicator Set, shows further commitment to letting councils get on and run themselves with a smaller degree of central control.

Blaby on Board...

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:43:00 +0100

It has been a good week for defences, with seven of nine principal council by-elections resulting in a hold for the incumbent party. The Tories held two of their four defences; a head-to-head with Labour for the Tithebarn ward on Wyre Borough Council where they sauntered in with 73% of the vote; and in the Maidenblower division of West Sussex County Council with a less impressive 64%. The only seats to change hands on the 7th both went from Tory to Labour. In the Irwell ward on Rossendale Borough Council the Conservatives dropped almost 14% of their previous vote, mainly to the Rossendale Lib Dems who took 24% on their first attempt, and Labour crept over the line with a marginal increase. The Tilgate ward of Crawley saw the absence of both the Liberal Democrats and BNP from last time around give Labour the 15% boost that carried them to victory. In addition to this gain, Labour successfully defended the Healey and Whitworth seat on Rossendale, where they put on 20%. Down by the seaside, the Morecambe Bay Independents held in the Harbour ward of Lancaster City Council, where Labour’s absence from the ballot generated a rising tide that lifted most other boats by a couple of points. Over the border in Wales, Llais Gwynedd was back in full voice after last week’s defeat, seeing off Plaid with a full majority in the battle for the Seiont ward on Gwynedd Unitary Authority.

In the first of our two defences this week, Ben Charpelard and the Tunbridge Wells Lib Dems saw off the Conservatives and the Green Party with a handsome 64% of the vote in St. James' ward. Congratulations to Ben and the team. Our featured election this week is the successful defence of the Saxondale ward on Blaby District Council, which saw a real commitment of time and resources from both of the other major parties. In a suburban ward on the outskirts of Leicester, candidate Christine Merrill’s campaign emphasised the importance of the local Lib Dem team and their all-year-round work for the people of Saxondale. The local Focus has a strong reputation, built over 25 years of consistent delivery, and played a key role in defusing a number of misleading claims put out by the increasingly desperate Conservatives, who crashed to their lowest percentage vote share in the ward’s history. Labour popped up, on what is historically unfamiliar territory, with a national focus and some telephone canvassing, and grabbed a handful of votes that had previously broken our way in their absence. The real lesson of the Saxondale result is that a consistent, and consistently delivered, Focus can quickly become a valuable part of the community, a trusted source of local news, and a vital tool in any Liberal Democrat armoury. In the words of the Saxondale team “Treasure Your Focus!”. Congratulations to all, and the best of luck to all our teams out in the field.

ALDC By-elections Team

Read all about it! - 06/10/2010

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:23:00 +0100

Some recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners from the last week.

This week it's been the Conservatives in the news, with their conference at the ICC in Birmingham.

Here's the Guardian on Cameron's speech in David Cameron Fairness People Deserve

Here's the BBC on the discussion at Conservative Party Conference on Why did the Tories not win?

Looking back at the Labour Party conference the week before:

The Observer's piece on How Labour's Family Saga has Changed the Party

In local government and related news:

Local Authorities to Retain Council House Rent (MJ)

Sandwell Seeks Legal Fight over BSF (MJ)

Birmingham Launches £100 Million Solar Scheme (Inside Housing)

Two interesting pieces on LibDemVoice we liked:

The Saturday Debate: Local government is to the Lib Dems what the unions are to Labour and big business is to the Tories (Stephen Tall)

Laurie Eggleston argues that we should be talking more about Europe: Opinion: Lets Talk about Europe

You might like to take a look at (the first in) a new feature on the ALDC site

"Tell us what you think" - this week about Eric Pickles' announcement on Council Newspapers?

Finally it's worth reading Mark Pack on Thinking of standing for Election or Re-Election next year the questions you should ask!

Tim Pickstone

tim.pickstone@aldc.org

What do you think? Council Newspapers

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 13:24:00 +0100

The Department for Communities and Local Government are consulting on new proposals to tighten up on rules for council newspapers. At the end of September, the Secretary of State Eric Pickles MP announced new proposals to "stop taxpayers’ money being squandered on town hall newspapers." These measures will include stopping the production of newspapers more than four times a year, and ensuring that papers will neither be in competition with the local press nor allowed to cover any issues other than promoting council services.

See the CLG announcement here

and the related Guardian report, here:

ALDC is asking our members what you think about these proposals.

Our colleagues in the Liberal Democrat Group at the Local Government Association have already condemned Mr Pickles’ announcement as being contradictory on localism and arguing that the vast majority of council papers "do not compete with the private sector. They provide a unique information service to keep residents informed." See the LGA Lib Dems' press release here.

For us, the issues are:

- councils do need to communicate with their local residents, local people need to be informed about the services that the council provides

- there have no doubt been instances where local councils have "abused" council newspapers to "keep in power" the political party that runs the council - this is always hard to prove but I'm sure we've all seen examples of it

- an independent local media is an important part of our democracy. In many areas the media has been in decline with local papers closing down. Withdrawal of Council advertising (into Council newspapers) has sometimes been the "nail in the coffin" for this decline.

- we also need to address that communications is moving on rapidly, and the importance of an independent media also applies to online content and social media as well as traditional printed newspapers.

So what do you think? Comment below or email us at tim.pickstone@aldc.org

Tim Pickstone

ALDC Chief Executive

No News (Ain't Good News)...

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:01:00 +0100

Whilst the good people of São Tomé and Princípe were busy celebrating their annual ‘Agricultural Reform Day’, an altogether less exciting spectacle was developing across the Atlantic. Of the six principal council by-elections that took place on the 30th, Liberal Democrats only ran in four, and came second in all of them!

Admittedly, grabbing second place wasn’t the greatest of challenges in the Alderley ward of Cheshire East, an election that featured only two candidates. Elsewhere, our strong showing in the South West continued with the Sedgemoor Lib Dems pushing the defending Labour party into third place, taking over 30% of the vote in Woolavington. The Battle Hill ward of North Tyneside council saw the Lib Dems hold at a comfortable 35% of the vote, dropping marginally on May’s result but not by much. The more distant finish was second place in Brandon ward of Durham County Council, where Labour’s 64% vote-share saw them through to an easy hold – the Durham Lib Dems still out-polled the third-place Tories by around four to one. Tameside remains a bit of a desert, with no Lib Dem candidate in the Longendale by-election, and the presence of three fringe party candidates failed to stop Labour and the Conservatives taking 90% of the vote between them – in the end, Labour held with a 5% swing and majority around 200. Finally, the defending Llais Gwynedd (‘Voice of Gwynedd’ for the Anglophones amongst us) were silenced by Plaid Cymru in Gwynedd’s Bowydd and Rhiw by-election, where Plaid appeared to be the main beneficiary of the absence of the Green Party from the ballot.

With no reported elections out in the towns, we have space to mention ALDC’s Kickstart residential training programme for the 2011 elections. The ‘Early Bird’ discount runs out on the 8th of October, but some concessions for participants willing to share accommodation and campaigners from ‘starting off’ areas around the country remain. More information and registration details, as ever, can be found on the ALDC website. There will be nine principal council by-elections, two of which are Lib Dem defences, next week. The very best of luck to our candidates and campaigners across the country.

ALDC By-elections Team

Read All About It! 29/09/2010

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners in the last week.

Political news this week has been dominated by the Labour Party conference, and in particular the election of their new Leader. The media made much of the fact that Ed Milliband didn't receive the support of either Labour Party members or MPs. Take a look here on how your local Labour Party voted (also interestingly tells you their membership figures!!!) and here for how Labour MPs voted.

Three interesting bits of media on Ed Miliband's election and his speech.

Guardian Columnists reaction on Ed Milliband's Leaders Speech and for a bit of balance, The Telegraph "Ed Milliband will say anything if it means getting into Downing Street" and for a Liberal Democrat perspective, here's Lib Dem Voice's Stephen Tall's first reactions:

Towards the end of last week was evaluation of our conference in the media, and you might like these items:

Decca Aitkenhead - Lib Dem Conference Welcome to the Party and Vince Cable is right: capitalism is neither good nor evil – just useful

In local government media we spotted:

Councils 'impose' credit card fees for service payments (certainly worth a question in council?) and could this be the end of the Council Newspaper?

Finally, for a tale of a case of a standards issue gone wrong, see our report on what happened to one of Anglesey's Lib Dem councillors.

Tim Pickstone

Devon Delight

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 17:05:00 +0100

There were six principal council elections held on the 23rd September. The Lib Dems made a gain from the Tories and the Tories made a gain from the Lib Dems. There were two holds each for both the Tories and Labour. In the one Town and Parish Council result reported to ALDC there was an Independent gain from Labour.

The Ipplepen by election on Teignbridge District Council was a great result for the Lib Dems. The campaign was intentionally very local and focussed on John’s record of campaigning. He ran a campaign on speeding in the village and reminded voters of the campaign he ran last year against the threatened closure of the local library. Two good issues that got the vote out.

To add to the strong positive campaign messages we targeted the postal vote. We ran a postal vote recruitment campaign and then worked vigorously to get them out to vote - around 25% of those who voted, voted by post. Our candidate led from the front knocking on every single door in the ward during the campaign. An example to every candidate. The Tories canvassed in gangs, we canvassed in small, less intimidating, pairs.

We lost a seat to the Tories in Gorsforth Valley, North East Derbyshire.

Labour held two seats in Gateshead, Lobley Hill and Bensham and Saltwell.

The Tories held the Wellington Ward in Rushmoor and Heathfield North and Central on Wealden District Council.

Campaigner Awards 2010

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:01:00 +0100

The Party President Ros Scott along with Daniel Bridgeman (from the sponsors Midshires and Riso) presented this year’s Campaigner Awards at a packed meeting at the Federal Conference in Liverpool.

This year's Campaigner Awards attracted an ever-improving quality of entries with the overall winner coming from Bath & North East Somerset Radstock Ward, who took the seat with 40.1% of the vote share after not having a candidate in May, and indeed Simon Allen is the first Liberal Democrat elected in the town. See the literature here. (ALDC members should log in first before seeing this link!)

The Best Membership Literature winner was Monmouthshire with the Highly Commended going to Watford, the improvement in this section is very noticeable and will we are sure increase the readership of the newsletters.

The Merton team won the best literature by a volunteer campaigner with the highly commended award going to Meon Valley for their Owslebury & Curdridge ward campaign literature.

Sutton won the best ward campaign for their campaigns in the local elections May that resulted in eleven gains, which was against the odds in London, the highly commended went to the Shepton West ward by-election campaign that won with a swing of 17.8% to take the seat from the Tories.

The team from the Aldbury & Wigginton ward of Dacorum council won the best direct mail category with a good collection of direct mail that made the case to vote for the Liberal Democrats resulting in a 28% swing from the Cons to us and reducing Labour down to only 18 votes. The highly commended award went to the Fylde team in their campaign in the Kilnhouse ward that resulted in the Tories losing another seat to us with a 21.9% swing against them.

The best focus winners, after a very hard selection, went the Burnage team in the Withington ward, this is part of John Leech MP’s area, the highly commended went to the Vassall ward of Lambeth for a hard hitting leaflet that showed that Labour had left Lambeth Derelict.

We will be featuring the other winners and highly commended literature over the next few weeks.

Overall winner

Radstock in Bath & North East Somerset - £500

Best Membership Literature

WINNER – Monmouthshire - £100

Highly Commended - Watford

Best Literature by a Volunteer Campaigner

WINNER- West Barnes in Merton - £100

Highly Commended - Owslebury & Curdridge in Meon Valley

Best Ward Campaign

WINNER – Sutton - £100

Highly Commended - Shepton West in Mendip

Best Direct Mail

WINNER - Aldbury & Wigginton in Dacorum- £100

Highly Commended - Kilnhouse in Fylde

Best Focus

WINNER - Burnage in Manchester Withington- £100

Highly Commended - Vassall in Lambeth

Photos of all the winners are on our Flickr site here.

ALDC at Liverpool Federal Conference

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:45:00 +0100

The team from ALDC are now back from the Party's Autumn Federal Conference in Liverpool. Conference was the largest Liberal Democrat (or Liberal) conference in living memory, one of the many impacts of the new circumstance of being a Party of Government in Westminster.

Here's a selection of photos from our Flickr Site.

And here are some of our highlights!

Annual General Meeting and Campaigner Awards 2010

A very well attended AGM (over 250 members) undertook the formal business of the Association (annual report, accounts, membership fees etc). This was followed by the popular ALDC Campaigner Awards where a number of succesful campaigners won money for their local party. The overall winners were Bath and North East Somerset Lib Dems for their Radstock by-election - see separate post for more information.

Members' Reception

We were happy to welcome both the two prominent MPs as speakers to our our packed out members' reception: Business Secretary Vince Cable and the Deputy Leader Simon Hughes. The event, which was hosted by ALDC's President, and former Mayor and Leader of Liverpool, Cllr Mike Storey, was on the theme of ethical banking and was kindly sponsored by The Co-operative.

Policy

ALDC had an amendment discussed and agreed by Conference, on the transactional transparency debate. Regrettably our emergency motion on Council Housing was not accepted this time. Two busy policy fringes organised by ALDC were one on Elected Police Commissioners (speakers included Brian Paddick, Mike Crockart MP) and on Community Transport in partnership with GMITA (speakers included Norman Baker MP).

Exhibition

ALDC's stand won the award for "Best Party Stand", with a busy five days meeting many members, councillors and camapigners. Many people joined ALDC over the week including whole council groups in group membership. Our new pamphlet "Campaigning in Coalition" was available to party members in return for a donation.

New ALDC Management Committee 2010-12

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:28:00 +0100

Statement from the ALDC Returning Officer 2010

At the deadline of 1.00pm on 24 September 2010, nominations had been received from the following members who have been declared elected to serve on the ALDC Management Committee 2010-2012.

President:

Cllr Veronica German AM (Torfaen)

Chair:

Cllr Kath Pinnock (Kirklees)

Vice-Chairs (2):

Cllr Claire Hudson (Mendip)

Cllr Mike Ross (Hull)

Secretary:

Cllr Sarah Boad (Warwickshire)

Treasurer:

Mike Ward (Mole Valley)

Ordinary Members (10):

Jon Burden (Hammersmith and Fulham)

Cllr Sarita Bush (Hull)

Cllr Stan Collins (Cumbria & South Lakeland)

Steve Hitchins (Islington)

Cllr Graham Knight (Mid Sussex)

Cllr Isobel McCall (Milton Keynes)

Richard Ormerod (Durham)

Cllr Jeanette Sunderland (Bradford)

Cllr Chris White (Hertfordshire)

Cllr Willie Wilson (Perth and Kinross)

Welsh Represenative:

Cllr Kevin O’Connor (Merthyr Tydfil)

Scottish Representative:

Vacant

English Representative:

Vacant

Bruce Hubbard

ALDC Returning Officer

brucelhubbard@hotmail.com

LGA Lib Dem Budget Conference

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:00:00 +0100

LGA Lib Dem Budget Conference
Friday 22nd October 2010
Local Government House, Smith Square, Westminster

Is your Council going to have a tough time with its budget?
Would you like help with your budget and how to get the politics right?
Would you like to know the effect of the Comprehensive Spending Review on Local Government?

All these questions can be answered in a one day session run by the Lib Dem Group at the LGA on Friday 22nd October 2010, two days after the Comprehensive Spending Review.

All Lib Dem Councillors and Researchers welcome.

Led by Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Leader of Portsmouth, Deputy Lib Dem Leader at the LGA and a National IDeA Peer, he will be joined by Stephen Jones, Director of Finance at the LGA to provide a programme of briefings and political advice for council groups preparing their budgets.

Programme

10.00 Registration

10.30 Comprehensive Spending Review and what this means for Local Government – Stephen Jones, Director of Finance, LGA
11.15 Principles of Budget setting and getting the politics right, so you don’t lose out. – Gerald Vernon-Jackson 12.00 Information – what to ask for and how to get it – Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Stuart Bray (Leader Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council) and Chris Ward (Chief Accountant – Portsmouth City Council).
12.30 Things you had never thought to ask your Council Officers – Chris Ward
13.00 LUNCH
13.30 Separate briefings for what to do if your Group is in power or in opposition – led by Gerald Vernon-Jackson and Stuart Bray
14.30 Feedback and Conclusions.
15.00 Finish

If you would like to come or you think anyone else from your Group would benefit please contact Jake Beavan at the Lib Dem LGA Office - jake.beavan@lga.gov.uk. The Registration fee is £25 per head.

Read All About it! 22/09/2010

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:07:00 +0100

Some recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners over the last week.

Obviously it's been our conference week, which has no doubt been the most interesting news coverage for most Lib Dems. Others will no doubt do a more comprehensive list of conference news coverage, but three we noticed were:

Nick's start of conference interview with the Observer.
A podcast of the Nick Clegg Q&A session (a recording to listen to).
Nick's speech (to read).
The Independent's write up of Nick's speech.
And finally The Guardian's Andrew Sparrow's list of 10 things that he has learnt at Lib Dem Conference
(the latter is part of a regularly updating blog entry, but it includes the rather useful quote "The Lib Dems are not turning into a right wing party").

Away from Conference in the Local Government press:

Andrew Stunell announces the end of the Standards Board (here, here!)
30% cuts rumoured for CLG department
Welcome news of new power for TIF borrowing

Not that it means its necessarily true! - but here's the Telegraph's list of the top 25 most influential Liberal Democrats.

I never thought I'd be quoting from my own local newspaper in this column, but this story, of a (Labour) Councillor being investigated for (reportedly) not disposing of confidential electoral waste correctly should be a warning to all campaigners.

Another sad loss this week, for colleagues in Wales and beyond. Here is the BBC's report on the late (Lord) Richard Livsey, former leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

Cllr Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org

As promised here's The Guardian's Andrew Sparrow's 10 points in full:

"2.43pm: After five days in Liverpool, what have we found out? Here's my "10 things I've learned from the Lib Dem conference".

1. The Lib Dems have made up their minds about the coalition – and they like it. Journalists came to Liverpool expecting to find evidence of a grassroots backlash against Nick Clegg's decision to go into coalition with the Tories. Well, forget it. There have been grumbles, but (this week) they have been inconsequential. In so far as you can say what the party as a whole thinks, it's broadly happy with the coalition, and expects it to last.

2. Nick Clegg doesn't need to worry about the Lib Dems' three ex-leaders. Lord Ashdown, Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell have at times been depicted as coalition-sceptics with the potential to move against Clegg at some point in the future if things turn sour. But the conference has shown that Kennedy is not really a frontline figure in Lib Dem politics at the moment, Campbell has kept a relatively low profile and Ashdown has come out as one of Clegg's biggest fans, describing him as someone who is "going to be a very great leader of our party."

3. The Lib Dems are not turning into a rightwing party. Sometimes Lib Dem ministers and Tory ministers can sound quite similar. At a fringe meeting last night, I heard the Tory Oliver Letwin say that he enjoyed working with Danny Alexander and that he had "yet to find any major difference between us". But you don't have to spend long listening to the debates here to realise that Lib Dem activists are quite unlike their Conservative counterparts. The Lib Dems are defnitely more "leftish" and at a Tory conference you are unlikely to hear a self-proclaimed atheist transexual speaking up for gay marriage in a long debate on equality.

4. The Lib Dems understand coalition politics better than the media. Westminster journalists like me are often asking the Lib Dems how they will fight an election against the Tories after five years of coalition. Lib Dems are genuinely bemused by this. They point out that this is not a problem in Scotland, Wales, local government or continental Europe – all places where three-party politics is more entrenched than Westminster. At a fringe meeting last night, Ashdown asked delegates to put their hands up if they had shared power with another party. Dozens of them responded. Then he asked if anyone in that group had had a problem fighting an election against their coalition partners. No one thought it was an issue.

5. The Lib Dems and the Conservatives are both committed to localism – but very different kinds of localism. The Lib Dems like councils. They even passed a motion saying that eventually councils should be allowed to raise 75% of their revenue locally. The Tories also like decentralisation, but they are more wary of empowering local authorities. At some point this might cause problems for the coaliton.

6. The Lib Dems are beginning to believe they could benefit electorally from being in coalition with the Conservatives. Conventional wisdom says smaller parties always get eaten up in a coalition. In May, many Lib Dems seemed to believe this. But they have noticed that voters seem to like parties cooperating and Chris Huhne told the conference this week that they should make a virtue of the fact that they're a collaborative bunch.

7. The alternative vote campaign seems to be in trouble. The polls show support for AV is falling and it is hard to find a Lib Dem confident that AV will get through. Clegg launched the Yes campaign at a rally on Saturday. But some Lib Dems think voters will use the referendum as an excuse to punish the coalition for the cuts and, if the Yes campaigners have got a strategy to deal with this, they haven't bothered to tell anyone what it is yet.

8. Lib Dem relations with the media are getting tetchy. There has been a surprising amount of sniping at the media from the platform this week. Maybe it's just because the Lib Dems are in government. But my cod-psychology theory is that the repressed anger generated by years of being patronised and ignored by the papers is finally erupting.

9. Lib Dem delegates don't necessarily decide policy any more. The Lib Dems are more democratic than the other parties. For years, conference really has decided policy. But this week delegates have been passing motions which, although technically party policy, will not decide what the government does. Whether or not a conference motion influences the coalition will depend on whether or not Clegg fights for it at the cabinet table.

10. Miriam González Durántez is going to be an interesting figure in our national life. Clegg's wife received plaudits during the election campaign for getting on with her job and refusing to play the conventional role played by the leader's spouse. This week she had a ding-dong with Channel 4's Jon Snow and gave short shrift to an interviewer from the Times. It won't be dull while she's around.

This is a subjective list. Please feel free to suggest your own ideas in the comments."

Capital Gains...

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:00:00 +0100

With last week’s victory in Fylde putting a spring in our step, by-election watchers have been waiting to see whether this week’s crop of nine principal by-elections could turn it into a full-blown Indian summer just two days shy of Federal Conference. The Conservatives held three seats, in Carlisle, Hackney, and the first of their two defences in Kensington and Chelsea. Labour held the Park ward in Knowsley, and also took two seats in Worksop from the Tories; the Worksop South ward on Bassetlaw District Council and the Worksop West division on Nottinghamshire County Council. Much better at fending off Labour’s attacks were this week’s Liberal Democrat teams, we saw off the reds at County level in the Cambridge East Chesterton division and, importantly, in the north of England with a win for John Potter in the Cadley ward of Preston City Council.

Our featured story today is a magnificent Liberal Democrat victory in the capital, where Linda Wade and the Kensington and Chelsea Lib Dem team increased their vote by a staggering 24% to take the Earl’s Court ward from a shell-shocked Tory party. Such was the level of presumption at the count, that the officers initially suggested tallying up only the non-Conservative votes and merely subtracting them from the total to work out the inevitable Tory majority! Unfortunately for them, a two-month election campaign and a candidate already widely respected for her role chairing a large local residents’ association proved potent enough to pop Kensington and Chelsea’s blue bubble. Leading from the front on problems with social housing, air quality, and the legacy of the soon-to-be-demolished Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre, Linda’s personal following was augmented by an innovative approach to ‘zone one’ campaigning, which involved reconstructing walk-maps by building-type rather than location, cream letter postal vote literature differentiated from their later bi-lingual blue letter campaign, and an Eve of Poll mailmerged to include polling numbers, so that voters without polling cards would still be able to fully exercise their vote. With Labour busy targeting the other K&C ward having an election, and with a Tory campaign that never recovered from its initial complacence, Linda’s 44.8% victory is a testament to Liberal Democrat community politics and a shot in the arm for the party as it prepares to head to Liverpool.

Two results from the towns today, Lib Dem Malcolm Douglas held the Pinewood ward on Whitehill TC with 70% of the vote, and Liberal Democrat Helen Pighills held the Northcourt ward on Abingdon Town Council. The Abingdon team’s victory in Northcourt keeps the complexion of the Town Council itself a very fetching 100% yellow!

Congratulations to all of our successful campaign teams, and the best of luck to all candidates and campaigners in the field.

ALDC By-Elections Team

Your handy guides to conference training

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:18:00 +0100

ALDC is running a host of training events to help improve campaign skills and to help people do a better job as a councillor or in leading their local council at the Federal Conference You can now download a handy list of all of the sessions that we are organising in Liverpool below.

Our Essential Campaign Skills are a series of eight sessions giving you all the key skills you need for a winning campaign. Download details here.

Our Lib Dem Councillor Training is eight sessions organised with LG Improvement & Development (formerly the IDeA). Download details here.

Read All About It! 15/09/2010

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Some recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners from the last week:

TUC Conference normally precedes us in the Conference season, with much talk over concern over the savings that need to be made as a result of the last Labour Government.... Here's the Guardian in Unions threaten mass strikes over spending cuts. For a view on what Tory voters might be reading, here's the Telegraph editorial on The TUC still has its head in the sand. For a bit of common sense here's the statement from our Vince.

Two other ideas on spending: the Municipal Journal covers the report (from an RSA think-tank) on the increasing costs of an ageing population. Friends of the Earth report on their report showing that 70,000 new jobs could be created if local authorities sent more waste to be re-cycled.

Internationally here's the Guardian's report on the EU Commission considering action on the "Roma Deportations France EU Disgrace".

Within the Party, we have seen the sad news that Ros Scott will not be re-standing as President of the Party - here's her statement on "The time has come to pass on the baton". Mark Pack comments on Lib Dem Voice on the Party's strategy consultation at Federal Conference in "One Cheer One Boo"

Finally, but of course not last in our thoughts, was the funeral this week of the great Liberal and Liberal Democrat champion Sir Cyril Smith. BBC Manchester had this report which includes a short video.

Tim Pickstone

Fylde of Dreams...

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:26:00 +0100

It seems only fitting that the 182nd birthday of Leo Tolstoy would be an electoral epic. When the new government decided to reverse Labour’s plans for Exeter and Norwich to become unitary councils with fresh elections next year, they also triggered deferred elections for the twenty-six seats that should have been contested in May. Added to this haul are five principal council by-elections and a pair of non-principal contests in the towns, for a grand total of thirty-three elections to report on this week.

The big story, of course, were the deferred elections in Exeter and Norwich, both of which went to the polls to fill a full thirteen council places. For the incurable electoral anoraks amongst you, it should be acknowledged that one of Exeter’s thirteen elections was a by-election proper – a casual vacancy caused by Conservative resignation, but for the sake of narrative coherence, we’ll treat them all together. A total of three seats changed hands in Exeter on Sept 9th, Labour picked up two from the Tories, who mitigated their losses by taking the Heavitree ward from the local Liberal Party. Labour’s two net gains may yet be enough for them to take control of the council (currently a Lib Dem minority administration), the issue of control will be decided at a meeting on 21st. Two seats changed hands in Norwich, Labour picking up one from the Tories, and the formerly Lib Dem Thorpe Hamlet ward swinging dramatically to the Greens. The minority Labour administration in Norwich looks set to continue on the strength of their single net gain, with the Greens as second largest party keeping pace at only two seats behind.

Of the remaining five principal council by-elections, the Tories held the Aspatria and Wharrels division of Cumbria County Council, Labour held their seat in Ward 16 of Edinburgh City Council, and Jo Clements and the local Lib Dem team successfully held the Newtown seat on Poole. Labour received their comeuppance in the Ayresome ward of Middlesbrough, where the electorate took the seat back to Independent after the previous Independent councillor defected to Labour before their resignation sparked the contest.

The final result of the day was a much-needed victory for the Liberal Democrats in Northern England, as Karen Henshaw and the local Focus Team took the Kilnhouse ward on Fylde Borough Council from the Conservatives. Known not only for her politics, but also as a committed member of Fylde’s civic society, choir member and friend of local parks, Karen’s knowledge of, and residence in, the Kilnhouse ward proved a solid base on which to build a campaign. The local Lib Dem team kept the focus local, always the best practice, and successfully used a petition against a local tip closure as a basis for targeted mailings at election time. Getting out on the doorstep paid dividends in terms of visibility and new canvass data, with further target letters to first-time voters and new residents building on Karen’s profile. A well financed Tory campaign failed to deliver, and the absence of the candidate from the doorsteps was a common observation. With a 21% upswing in support, the Fylde campaign demonstrates the old ALDC adage that ‘where we work we win’. Our congratulations to Karen and the entire team in Fylde.

A brief glance around the towns; we had two Town Council by-elections reported to ALDC, both for Spennymoor T.C. in Co Durham. Labour held one, and lost the other to Lib Dem Benjamin Ord. Well done to Benjamin and his team, and the best of luck to our candidates and campaigners fighting by-elections across the country.

ALDC By-Elections Team

One week to Liverpool

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:00:00 +0100

There's just one week to go to the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference in Liverpool, and so here's a reminder of some of the great events that are happening in the world of local government through the week.

You can download a PDF copy of the Local Government Directory from both ALDC and the LGA Liberal Democrats, however a paper copy will also be available in each delegate pack.

Throughout the week we have a range of training sessions including essential campaign skills as well as other training for councillors and campaigners from Local Government Leadership and London Councils.

The highlights include:

Saturday 18th September

9.15am-12.30pm: "All out in 2011" Election Planning Workshop - bring along your campaign plans and get help, tips for improvements and campaigning ideas from around the country.

8pm-9.15pm: ALDC AGM & Campaigner Awards 2010 with Party President Baroness Ros Scott, and supported by RISO and Midshires. Download a copy of the agenda and the 2009 accounts. Drinks.

We also have another six training sessions and fringe meetings throughout the day.

Sunday 19th September

9.15am-12.30pm: Winning in 2011, Preparing for 2012 - find out how to approach the challenges and opportunities of next year's council elections with Director of Campaigns Hilary Stephenson and Parliamentary Secretary in the DCLG Andrew Stunell MP.

1pm-2pm: ALDC Members' Reception with Deputy Leader Simon Hughes MP and Secretary for State Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable MP, and supported by The Co-operative. Members only, please collect your ticket from our stand in the exhibition area. Lunch and drinks.

10pm-11.30pm: Local Government Reception. Drinks.

We also have another seven training sessions and fringe meetings throughout the day.

Monday 20th September

1pm-2pm: Launch of Next Generation 2010-11. Come along and find out about some of the party's talented up and coming councillors with Tim Farron MP. Held at the Tate Liverpool in Albert Dock, with lunch and drinks.

8pm-9.15pm: Elected Police Commissioners - Help or Hindrance with former Met Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner and London Mayoral Candidate Brian Paddick, former police officer Mike Crockart MP, former Deputy Chief Constable of North Wales and Lib Dem PPC Bill Brereton and Lewisham Councillor and LGA Lib Dem Lead on Safer Communities Duwayne Brookes. Drinks.

We also have another six training sessions and fringe meetings throughout the day.

Tuesday 21st September

8pm-9.15pm: Making Transport Localism a Reality with Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Norman Baker MP, Chair of the Community Transport Association Dai Powell, Shropshire Councillor Heather Kidd and the Vice-Chair of the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority Councillor Keith Whitmore. Food and drinks.

8pm-9.15pm: Delivering Community Politics with Liverpool Councillors Richard Kemp and Eric Kemp, Bury Councillor Tim Pickstone and Reading Councillor Daisy Benson.

We also have another seven training sessions and fringe meetings throughout the day.

Read All About It! 08/09/2010

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:00:00 +0100

This week's recommended reading for Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners covers a range of different subjects and ideas:

Firstly, two contrasting stories on the Standards Board. One is from the Standards Board itself explaining what it will be doing in what will (hopefully) be its final year of existence. The other is the story of a Green Brighton & Hove City Councillor who has found himself reported for using internet footage of a council meeting - a story that exemplifies why so many councillors feel frustrated with the current standards regime.

From the specialist press we have news of the Home Builders Federation calling for a judicial review following the abolition of regional spatial strategies and some important changes for councils that currently deal with the challenge of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

One thing we've discovered this week is a useful website from the organisation Streets Alive. The website provides useful tips for residents looking to bring the local community together by organising a street party as well as tips on how to organise them. Particularly relevant to councillors, it also provides information on how councils can make it easier and cheaper for local residents to set them up.

One of the hot topics for councillors at the moment is Local Economic Partnerships and the Local Government Chronicle has a full rundown of the 56 bids across the country.

Finally, some good news from The Guardian who in yesterday's editorial argued the case for the Alternative Vote, including the wonderful line "Mr Clegg spoke for progress; Mr Straw for reaction". Something Nick was able to repeat at this week's Prime Minister's Questions.

Cllr Anders Hanson

Come and join the Social Market Foundation Pub Quiz

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:06:00 +0100

Come and join the Social Market Foundation for a traditional Pub Quiz at Liberal Democrat Federal Conference.

Monday 20th September 2010 20:00-22:00

Baby Blue Bar, Albert Dock, Liverpool

Quizmaster: Bob Russell MP

with contributions from Brigid Simmonds OBE

RSVP to events@smf.org.uk

If you would like to get together a team of up to six people, then please email your team name and attendees to rbaker@smf.co.uk. Otherwise, come along anyway and you will be put into a team on the night.

Northumbrian Nights...

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:52:00 +0100

Despite falling on the 344th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, this week’s crop of by-elections didn’t set the world on fire; we had no candidates in either of the two principal by-elections, and three of the four elections out in the towns were unremarkable Tory holds. Both principals took place in West Lancashire, Labour held in Upholland on a 30% turnout and in Skelmersdale on 17%. The Conservative holds at Town Council level were in the West Ward of Camborne T.C. in Cornwall, the Castle ward on Oswestry T.C. in Shropshire, and the Town ward of Sevenoaks T.C . in Kent.

Bucking the trend were the Lib Dem campaign team in the Castle ward of Alnwick Town Council in Berwick-upon-Tweed, represented in parliament by the venerable Sir Alan Beith. The Castle ward itself is now represented by Lib Dem Sarah Walton, herself an activist recruit during the 2010 General Election. In Castle’s first competitive election, after a long history of uncontested co-options, the Lib Dem campaign team outmanoeuvred the complacent Conservative defence by keeping the focus firmly on local issues. Sarah’s campaign to restore a recently-closed community play area was a key vote-winner and an excellent example of the traditional Lib Dem concern with community politics. Congratulations to the entire Alnwick team.

Finally, a quick reminder that ALDC will be laying on a full training and fringe complement at Conference, details can be found at here. Also, the ALDC website has two features under development; a ‘Big Picture’ of all council compositions across the country and our ‘Who’s Up in 2011’ page. We would like readers to help us build these pages into a valuable resource for all of our campaigners by having a quick look and making sure our details for your area are fully up to date. The best of luck to all of our campaign teams out in the field.

ALDC By-Elections Team

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

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

Councillors up in 2011 - In Detail

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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

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.

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

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 2011local 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.

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 76p a week for candidates standing in May.

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 2011
Local council Election expense limits
Eligibility to be a council candidate
Approving council candidates
Local election nomination forms

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

Updated 4/3/11

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

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 11 download

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

NOTE: Although this offer is still available, this software is gradually being replaced with PagePlus X4. You can now purchase PagePlus X4 using a special Lib Dem Offer.

Although all files in PagePlus 11 can be opened in PagePlus X4, the same is not true the other way round. All ALDC templates will continue to be produced in PagePlus 11 until the 2011 Local Elections, after which when we then expect to change to X4 along with the wider party.

PagePlus 11 - 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
(note that this link automatically includes both PagePlus 11 and PagePlus X4 in your shopping basket, please be careful not to purchase both)

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.

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.

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.

Unlucky for some

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:32:00 +0100

There were nine principal council by-elections held on the 22nd October. The Tories held seven seats and gained one from an independent unopposed and the Liberal Democrats held one seat. There were no Parish and Town council election results reported to ALDC.

In the Vale Of White Horse DC, Abingdon Dunmore Ward we held the seat seemingly comfortably. The relatively small shift between the Tories and us doesn't really tell the whole story as this ward is half of one of the County seats we lost in June, Abingdon North, with this result:

LD                   1177                37.9%
Con                  1402                45.2%
Grn                    334                10.8%
Lab                    189                  6.1%

The campaign was fought very hard by both us and the Tories. The by-election was caused by our councillor, Tim Smith, moving to Australia because of work. We were lucky to find a young and enthusiastic candidate, Julia Bricknell, who was born and brought up in the ward.

During the eight weeks up to polling day we delivered six Focuses and four sets of target letters, eve of poll and good morning. We did a very thorough canvass - 61% contact during the by-election and an overall total of 88% on Latest.

We also knocked on about half the doors in the ward with a petition on a big local issue - the need for an improved junction at north Abingdon with the A34 - an issue which put the Tories on the back foot. This issue dominated the campaign right up to polling day when Dr Evan Harris MP asked a question in parliament about it.

We concentrated hard on the postal vote, both signing up supporters and then targeting them up to when the postal votes were delivered. We did three target letters and also did targeted door-knocking in the days running up to them being delivered. The turnout of postal voters was 82% (!) and they contributed a good proportion of our majority.

In the Nevile Ward of Rushcliffe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire we lost out by just 13 votes. The huge swing was down to a lot of hard work by our team. The 84 year old Tory councillor had been on the council since 1960! Six un-wasted weeks after his death the Tories had still not called the election, so we did. The ward had been part of a targeted county division and so received some Focuses but being very rural it had not previously been seen as “good territory”. Our first leaflet was a clear guide to a new bus service establishing us as actually useful to the electorate. Our second was a survey. Our candidate lived in the ward but did not quite believe the canvass returns. It’s frustrating to lose by a small amount, after recounts but the Thank You Focus is alreadyat the printers and we are now targeting 2011!

Elsewhere in Eriswell & the Rows Ward of Forest Heath District council in Suffolk we stood a candidate and nearly pulled off another great result with a 39.6% increase in our vote.

The Tories one gain came unopposed in the Sibsey Ward of East Lindsey District Council in Lincolnshire. Technically it was a gain from East Lindsey Independent not only did we not stand in the by-election, the deceased East Lindsey Independent had been elected unopposed in May 2007. Always stand a candidate

John Bridges

RESULT!

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:55:00 +0100

In the one directly elected mayoral by-election held on 15th October we took the post from an Independent. There were twelve principal council by-elections, the Tories held eight seats, Labour one seat and the Liberal Democrats one seat. The Lib Dems took one seat off Labour but this was reversed with Labour taking one seat from the Lib Dems. There were two Parish and Town council election results reported to ALDC an Independent hold and a Lib Dem gain from Independent.

The mayoral campaign was gripping everyone in the ALDC as news seeped out of the count all Friday. We fancied our chances from the start. One of our best results in the country on June 4th was in Bedford where, on new boundaries, we became the largest party in the new unitary authority. Then the Tories decided to hold an open selection for their candidate alienating many of their core voters and activists in the process. We ran a good campaign with big guns like Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes visiting. On the Tory side Eric Pickles and David Cameron were wheeled out. They must have been aghast to see our window posters, stakeboards and super boards dominating across urban Bedford. With Watford, East of England region now has two directly elected Lib Dem, t Mayors lets hope Henry Vann can take the parliamentary seat next May!

The Cannock Chase Heath Hayes East and Wimblebury Ward in Staffordshire has been held by all three parties over the last 20 years. Having held it before we won it back in 2004, but lost it in 2008 coming third. As soon as this election was over we got wind that the Lab councillor was moving to Sardinia and so we started working it. In the end it took him 18 months to go and even then it was just three days before he would be disqualified. We also used the county council elections as a trial run for the by-election, just working that part of the division.
Since June we delivered seven leaflets, covered the whole ward in street letters on specific local issues, direct mail and phone canvassed. In the postal vote we were neck and neck but we won on the day with a phone knock up.

In the Crawley Borough Council Northgate Ward By-election the Tories started their campaign with a leaflet implying that the reason for our councillors resignation was dubious. Coupled with a family bereavement for the candidate this put us on the back foot and we never really recovered dropping from first to third. The local agent suggests that we simply did not knock on enough doors.

Dave Hodgson wins Bedford mayoralty

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:22:00 +0100

Congratulations to Dave Hodgson, who has just been elected as the new Liberal Democrat directly-elected mayor of Bedford.

Dave won through after second preferences were taken in to account, beating the Conservative candidate Parvez Akhtar by 2,012 votes. Labour were eliminated in the first round where they came fifth, despite having the current MP for the town. The full results are available here. The by-election was caused by the sad death of the former Independent mayor Frank Branston.

Dave is well known to party activists as the former Membership Development Officer for the English Liberal Democrats. He stood down from the job at the start of the year to concentrate on making sure that the Liberal Democrats became the biggest party in the unitary elections in June. This we did, and now it has been topped off with him being elected as mayor.

Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to achieve the result, in particular to Christine McHugh who was the previous candidate and this time's election agent, (as well as being Dave's wife).

One up, One Down

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:28:00 +0100

There were five principal council by-elections held on 8th October. The Tories held three seats. The Lib Dems took one seat off Independents but lost one to an Independent Liberal. There was one Parish and Town council election reported to ALDC which was won by the Tories.

According to the agent in the Penrith West Ward by-election for Eden District Council in Cumbria we ran a “classic ALDC campaign”, “by the book”. I could write a whole column - in fact a book - about that but what was clear was that it was considerably better than the campaigns run by the other parties. Blue letters and “Good mornings” were a novelty without competition. With only 1500 doors a full foot canvass was accomplished. The town has an incomplete supermarket, where the developer has gone bust. The council is run by Independents and Tories (often elected in uncontested elections) and has been taking decisions about the sites future behind closed doors. An easy campaigning target.

In the Pickering East Ward of Ryedale Council, North Yorkshire we’ve had a chequered recent history. The two-member ward elected an Independent and a Liberal Democrat in 2003. In 2007 it elected a Lib Dem and (after a by-election) an Independent Liberal. The one Liberal Democrat councillor moved away from the area causing the by-election. The independent Liberal candidate won giving them both seats in the ward. There was obvious confusion between the Liberal and Liberal Democrat Candidates, particularly as the Liberal was above us on the ballot paper. This might have been a case for using the party description “Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats”.

In the Grange Hill ward of Epping Forest we nearly regained a seat lost to the Tories in 2004. Gavin Chambers has been building for success, starting with his impressive election to the Buckhurst Hill Parish council at the end of August with 62% of the vote. To come within 42 votes of winning with a 31% increase in our vote is frustrating but we need to stick with it, and we’ll win in the end.

John Bridges
John.bridges@aldc.org

Three More Gains

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:09:00 +0100

There were eleven principal council by-elections held on 1st October. Labour held four seats, the Tories two and the Lib Dems one. The Lib Dems took one seat off the Tories and two off independents. Labour gained one seat off an Independent in Scotland. There were no Parish and Town council elections reported to ALDC.

The Independent today quoted the press association “The post-conference "Brown bounce" failed to show in the latest council by-elections, although the Tories were hit by a huge surge to the Liberal Democrats.” This may be true looking at their narrow analysis of 5 three-way by-elections. I think perhaps a more important figure, however, is that we have made 15 net gains in by-elections in the year to date whilst the Tories have lost 18.

Broadlands is one of those councils that only anoraks and East Anglians could probably place. It’s on the outskirts of Norwich and includes much of the Norfolk Broads. In the Wroxham ward by-election we stood a 19 year old local boy, Ben McGilvray, a 2nd year History student at York University who increased our vote by a stunning 58%. His victory makes him the youngest Liberal Democrat Councillor on a principal council that ALDC is aware of (tell us if we’re wrong!). A lacklustre Tory campaign could not cope with a vibrant campaign focusing on the big local issues; the proposed EcoTown and the Norfolk Hub.

In Walsingham Ward, of pilgrimage fame, we did not have issues as strong as those in Wroxham but it does fall within Norman Lamb’s parliamentary constituency. In May we won the County seat and our campaign built on this to produce a 32% increase in the vote.

Our third gain of the day was in Droitwich South West Ward of Wychavon District council in Wocestershire. Here we started with a survey and identified the issue of the future of the Brine Bath, a key part of Droitwich’s heritage and identity threatened by the Tories with closure.

Our candidate took the issue to heart and got coverage on the issue in the local media as well as our own literature. Our campaign team could hardly believe their luck when the Tory decision to finally close the Bath was published on the front page of the local free paper on the day before the election. We, of course, included it in our eve of poll and good morning leaflets. A good day for Liberal Democrats.

Strong Leaders in Local Government

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:36:00 +0100

One of the most significant changes in the operation of local government will take affect following next year's local government elections (and already has in the county councils that were elected this June). Yet, this change has gone largely unnoticed by many people in the wider world. Perhaps because, like the original change to the cabinet system, non-politicians are more interested in the outcomes of local government, than the organisation of it.

The big change though is the introduction of what is known as the "strong leader" model of local government. This change has come about through the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. This piece of legislation scraps the right for smaller local authorities to retain their committee systems and also removes the option of a directly-elected mayor and council manager option, which was thoroughly discredited in the only council that adopted it - Stoke-on-Trent. This means that all councils will have to be run either by a directly-elected mayor or through a leader and cabinet.

Much has been written before about a the virtues or otherwise of directly-elected mayors. As the majority of places that have had a referendum on having a directly-elected mayor have rejected the idea it seems odd that Labour (and now the Conservatives too) are still pushing the idea. This means that most places, following a consultation, will end up going with the "strong leader" model. This option includes a number of key changes that will worry many Liberal Democrats:

Once elected by full council, the leader will continue in office for four years - until the year they are due for re-election.
The leader will be able to choose their own cabinet which must include at least two other councillors.
The budget can only be defeated if at least two-thirds vote it down.

The result of this is to hand huge powers to the leader, which could be especially problematic in councils where there is no overall majority or where a leader turns out to be a controversial figure. Whilst it can be argued that councils will be more able to "get on with it", it reduces the power of backbenchers even further and would mean that new councillors have no say in who the leader is for many years once they have already been appointed. It also means that whilst in opposition council groups can elect their leader annually and have a say in the cabinet, once in power they can only elect their leader once every four years and have no say in the cabinet.

To try and retain democracy, ALDC is suggesting that Liberal Democrat council groups continue to hold annual elections for leader and cabinet/shadow cabinet. This would however rely on the goodwill and sense of decency of the leader to respect their democratically expressed wishes, as there would be no way of stopping them appointing different people once elected in to power.

We are also working on suitable clauses to include in the Model Standing Orders (some clauses have already been included, but we would like to improve on them) to ensure that any leader who ignores their group's wishes can be dealt with. We would also like to hear more from Liberal Democrats around the country on what they are doing to implement the new law whilst adhering as much as possible to Liberal Democrat principles. If you have any "good practice" from your area, do let us know by emailing anders.hanson@aldc.org

Sheffield make the 50th Group Member for ALDC

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0100

Sheffield City Council Liberal Democrat Group became the 50th Lib Dem Council Group to become Group Members of ALDC at Federal Conference in Bournemouth.

Sheffield joined the ranks of major cities run by the Lib Dems with a sensational victory in May 2008 and is now one of the largest Lib Dem groups in the country with 44 Councillors.

ALDC Group Membership is when a whole council group joins ALDC together, and in return receives a 12% discount on all membership subscriptions. Existing group members range from major Lib Dem groups in control like Richmond, Bristol and Stockport to our smallest group members North Ayrshire and Burgess Hill Town Council. Many Groups have also chosen to add their group researcher, constituency organiser and target candidates as members.

Get more details on Group Membership for your group from Emma Hall, Membership Services Officer 01422 843 785.

Photo: Party President Ros Scott with Sheffield Group Leader Cllr Paul Scriven.

Conference Training Survey

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:51:00 +0100

We're doing a survey of ALDC's Training at Federal Conference. We're always trying to improve our training output, so if you've got a few seconds please help us by completing this short online survey.

Even if you didn't make it to ALDC training this year, we'd still like to hear your views.

Don't worry its only three screens long - so it really is sixty seconds!

Complete the survey here.

Help elect another Lib Dem Mayor

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:42:00 +0100

There are just TWO weeks to go until polling day in the Bedford Mayoral by-election. We have a real chance of winning thanks to our excellent candidate Dave Hodgson. Dave will be well known to many Liberal Democrat members thanks to his former role as the party's Membership Development Officer. He is now the Liberal Democrat Group Leader on Bedford Council, where we overtook the Conservatives to become the largest group on the council in June. The campaign has also been helped by disarray in the Conservative camp - more details here.

The campaign has just taken delivery of 50,000 tabloid newspapers and they have a letter to postal voters that MUST get out ASAP. There’s more stuff happening after that of course! The campaign could really do with your help with delivering. If you can’t come and deliver please email admin@DaveForMayor.org.uk to ask for some phone canvassing.

If you’d like to donate, please send cheques payable to “North Bedfordshire Liberal Democrats” to the local party treasurer at 71 Ruffs Furze, Oakley, Bedford, MK43 7RT.

Please help. 15th October will either see a PR coup for Cameron ahead of the General Election or the second Lib Dem Elected Mayor – please help us make sure it’s the latter!

To find out more about Dave, watch his message here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRXvwCUbBaM

www.DaveForMayor.org.uk

Celebration and Thanksgiving for the life of Councillor Maggie Clay CBE

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0100

We have been asked by colleagues and friends in Leeds to circulate this information about a Celebration and thanksgiving for the life of Councillor Maggie Clay CBE.

Maggie was a much loved and missed former Political Secretary for the Association of Liberal Councillors, and a Councillor in both Leeds and Stockport who passed away earlier in the year.

Celebration and thanksgiving for the life of Councillor Maggie Clay CBE.

Saturday 10 October 2009

3.00p.m. at St. Agnes Church, Stoney Rock Lane, Burmantofts, Leeds 9

Afterwards in St. Agnes’ Church Hall for tea and cakes.

For those who can stay longer, an opportunity for reminiscing accompanied by Maggie’s election hotpot (original 1973 recipe!)

Whether or not you went to the official Memorial Service in Stockport, you are warmly invited to come to Burmantofts, the birthplace of Maggie’s espousal of Liberal community politics and where her legacy carries on. Come and sing ‘The Land’

Bed and breakfast can be provided for those coming the night before or wanting to stay on Saturday night. Contact Christine Brett on 0113 266 8536 or christinebrett@btinternet.com for more details.

To help with catering please let Christine Brett know if you plan to attend.

Reclaiming the Green Agenda

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Reclaiming the Green Agenda" was ALDC's most popular fringe at last week's Bournemouth Federal Conference.

Speakers included:
- Simon Hughes MP
- Tony Bosworth (Friends of the Earth)
- Cllr Louise Bloom (Eastleigh BC)
- Cllr Alexis Rowell (LB Camden)
with Cllr Andrew Dakers (LB Hounslow) in the Chair.

We've recorded the fringe as a "podcast". A few different options for listening. There are a variety of ways of listening or downloading the episode at our "podbean" page - click here.

Let us know about any technical issues, as we've not tried this before!.

Challenging the Tories in Tendring

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:38:00 +0100

For a second week in a row, no council seats changed hands in the by-elections being contested.

The best result for the party this week was in the Burrsville Ward of Tendring in Essex. This ward makes up the northern suburbs of Clacton-on-Sea and saw a 16% increase in the Liberal Democrat vote. This campaign was fought hard as Conservative overall control of the council rested on the result. In the end, despite a good increase in our vote we didn't quite succeed in removing the Conservative's slim majority on the council.

Results in the other wards up for election showed no obvious trend, other than that all were in wards that have tended to be very weak for the Liberal Democrats and in some cases they were the first time we had contested the ward for some time.

The other by-elections this week were:
North Tyneside MBC, Preston
Hartlepool UA, Elwick
Broxtowe BC, Toton and Chilwell Meadows
Three Rivers DC, Hayling

If this week's by-elections aren't very exciting, then maybe next year's council elections will be. ALDC's Kickstart is the leading training course for people aiming to do well in next year's local elections. But places are going fast. The benefits of Kickstart as opposed to other training courses include: an experienced mentor for your campaign team, training tailored for your own individual circumstances, a change of scenery from your own area to help you focus on what you need to do to win and a chance to swap ideas with Liberal Democrats from around the country. There is a discounted early-bird rate, but this ends on 1st October, so make sure you book now. More details from our Kickstart page.

ALDC Management Committee 2009-2010

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Nominations for the ALDC Management Committee for 2009-2010 have now closed and the following report of the Returning Officer has been issued:

Report of Returning Officer

Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors 2009-2010

At the close of nominations on 23 September 2009 the following nominations had been received. As the number of nominations does not exceed the number of vacancies there will be no need for a postal ballot of the members on this occasion:

President: Cllr Mike Storey, Liverpool

Chair: Cllr Kath Pinnock, Kirklees

Vice-Chair (2 vacancies): Cllr Mike Ross, Hull; Cllr Claire Hudson*, Mendip

Secretary: Cllr Sarah Boad, Warwickshire

Treasurer: Mike Ward, Mole Valley

Ordinary Members (10 vacancies)

Jon Burden, Hammersmith and Fulham

Cllr Sarita Bush, Hull

Cllr Stan Collins, Cumbria/South Lakeland

Steve Hitchins, Islington

Cllr Graham Knight, Mid Sussex

Cllr Isobel McCall, Milton Keynes

Richard Ormerod, North Yorkshire

Cllr Adi Smith, Hinckley and Bosworth

Cllr Jeanette Sunderland, Bradford

Cllr Chris White, Hertfordshire

Scottish Rep: Cllr Willie Wilson*, Perth and Kinross

Welsh Rep: Cllr Veronica German, Torfaen

English Rep: no nominations

* Claire Hudson and Willie Wilson were also nominated as Ordinary Member.

Bruce Hubbard

Returning Officer

Many thanks to the retiring Management Committee, particularly to Jean Crossland, Paul Sample, David Hare, Keith Whitmore and Andrew Dakers who are not re-standing this year. Between them they had over 20 years of service on the Committee which is greatly appreciated.

Campaigner Awards 2009

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The first ever "Campaigner Awards" were given by ALDC at their Annual Meeting in Bournemouth in late September. The event was kindly sponsored by Midshires and Riso, with the awards including five categories with the winning local parties getting a £100, and an overall winner with the local party receiving £500.

Many thanks to everyone who entered! Artwork (where appropriate) from all the winning entries will be available to download over the coming weeks for ALDC members (in the Campaigner: Best Practice) section.

Overall winner: Lewisham

Very good all-year-round campaigning throughout the borough from Cllr Chris Maines, Cllr Brian Robson, Cllr Dan Houghton, Cllr Philip Peake and Vijay Naidu, but in particular the winning by-election campaign in Downham when Duwyane Brooks and Jenni Clutten were elected.

Best Ward Campaign: Kensington & Chelsea

Colville Ward was gained in a July by-election giving us our first seat in the council, with campaigning organised by Robin Meltzer and with Carol Caruana as candidate.

Commended - Hardwick county division of Cambridgeshire, with campaigning organised by Martin Land and with Cllr Fiona Whelan as candidate.

Best Focus: Meon Valley

Catherington county division in Hampshire was gained by Sam Payne from the Conservatives, with a solid campaign by Andy Chatfield, Liz Leffman, Elaine Woodard and Sam Newman McKie.

Commended - Leamington North county division of Warwickshire which was held by Cllrs Sarah Boad & Eithne Goode, with artwork by Alan Boad.

Best Direct Mail: Bristol

in particular for the campaigns in Horfield (winning councillor was Cheryl Ann, and this is in Bristol North West where Paul Harrod is the PPC) and Ashley (winning councillor was Jon Rogers and this is in Bristol West where Stephen Williams is the MP).

Commended - Horsham Riverside county division of West Sussex, with a campaign by Stuart Millson and Cllr Morwen Millson.

Best literature by a volunteer campaigner: Preston

Cllr Mark Jewell and John Potter for our winning campaign in Preston North West (where Mark won) and the close result for John Potter in Preston Central South.

Commended - Spelthorne (Surrey), for their campaigns in Lower Sunbury & Halliford Division (Caroline & Lawrence Nichols) and Ashford Division (Colin Strong & Diane Appleby)

Best campaign innovation: Hertfordshire

for their Six to Fix campaign from Cllr Chris White and Susan Gaszczak, which is a slogan used elsewhere in the country but the range of materials and the way it was consistently used throughout the county and all the literature makes it stand out.

Commended - West Didsbury by-election campaign in Manchester Withington, for their 'text telling' idea where people text a code to the party when they have voted so we don’t need to knock them up, thanks to Cllr Charles Glover and winning councillor Lianne Williams.

Bournemouth Conference Report

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Just to update members and other Lib Dem Councillors on our busy programme at Liberal Democrat Party conference that finished on Wednesday.

Training saw over over 40 hours from ALDC and our partners. This year the programme was divided into four themes:
- winning in 2010, with support from key individuals such as Andrew Stunell and HIlary Stephenson;
- Councillors Training, in partnership with our colleagues at the IDeA (and Centre for Public Scrutiny);
- Essential Campaign Skills, training for people new to campaigning;
- Skills and Ideas, sessions looking at a variety of issues from websites, to issues facing women councillors and recruiting candidates.

The ALDC Fringe programme kicked off with our Annual General Meeting and Campaigners Awards 2009 presented by Party President Ros Scott. See separate story here. It was great to be able to celebrate the achievements of volunteer campaigners and certainly something to build on in future years.

Both Nick Clegg and Vince Cable joined us at our ALDC Members Reception, again with the kind support of our friends at The Co-Operative. Our policy led fringes saw sessions on Transport (with Greater Manchester ITA; speakers included Norman Baker MP); on campaigning on the Environment (speakers included Simon Hughes MP) and Winning against the Far Right (speakers included Chris Davies MEP).

We hope to be able to publish a "podcast" of the Campaigning on the Environment fringe next week.

For the first time the ALDC stand saw differently themed days. We kicked off with a "Winning in 2010" day highlighting the 877 Lib Dem Councillors who face election next May. On Monday Lib Dem Councillors took part in our interactive wall demonstrating what made them an "Effective Lib Dem Councillor" and on Tuesday we highlighted the success of ALDC's MyCouncillor website platform.

More details on some of the important issues raised will be available over the coming weeks.

Many thanks for everyone's support. Photos are avalable here.

Winning in style in the Cotswolds

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0100

This week’s by-elections were a fairly uneventful lot if you consider that no seats changed hands at all. However, they were still on the whole a pretty good selection of results for the Liberal Democrats.

The Liberal Democrats in Cotswold showed how to win in style, with a resounding defence of the Water Park ward near Cirencester. We took an amazing 72% of the vote on a 32% swing from the Conservatives – something that will fill other local parties with jealousy. As well as an incredibly hard fought campaign with lots of literature backed up by masses of canvassing, the real key to our success was our candidate. The biggest issue in the ward was the controversial decision by the Conservative run council to sell some land to a developer. Our candidate Esmond Jenkins was a leading light in the community campaign against this sale, and so had a strong personal following which helped to bring on board many Soft Conservatives.

In Amersham in Buckinghamshire we were a frustrating 72 votes from victory. This division seems to be always destined to be very close, as our excellent candidate Davida Allen was beaten by just 159 votes in June and lost by 84 votes in the county council elections in 2005.

We were also agonisingly close in Redcar & Cleveland where we were just 88 votes from another amazing gain from Labour. There have been six by-elections on this council in the last year, three of which we gained, and this was the second one in the South Bank ward. We managed to keep up the momentum from our last campaign with lots of good literature and canvassing. Although we didn’t quite manage another amazing win, we did significantly better than last time. You can find out more about how Redcar & Cleveland have managed this level of success in an article in the next edition of ALDC’s Campaigner magazine.

Emergency Motion - Decent Homes

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0100

If you are going to be in Bournemouth for the Federal Conference from tomorrow, please consider supporting this Emergency Motion on Housing submitted by Camden, Sutton and Streatham Local Parties.

Here's the message from members in Camden, Sutton and Streatham:

We’re writing to ask you to support Emergency Motion number 1 on Decent Housing in the ballot between 9.00am and 1pm on Sunday 19^th

Many of you will know what a serious issue housing is in local areas across the country. Labour have failed to meet their own target to bring all social housing up to the basic Decent Homes standard, leaving millions of people in poor quality, unhealthy and overcrowded houses. Now they are raiding budgets earmarked for investing in social housing to bring it up to the Decent Homes standard – just to pay for Gordon Brown’s last desperate attempt to win votes by building a small number of new council houses.

Please read our motion on Decent Housing – copied below – and vote for it in the ballot between 9.00am and 1pm on Sunday. The Decent Homes motion is really important: it impacts on the most disadvantaged members of society and is a vitally important issue that we as Liberal Democrats need to take a lead on if we are to deliver on our rhetoric of being the real progressive party in the UK. It is a clear and powerful example of Labour failing to deliver, and betraying the very people it claims to represent. And it is a crucial issue in many local authorities and Parliamentary seats where we are in power, or fighting to win.

Ballot papers will be published in Sunday’s conference daily, and must be returned to the ballot box in the auditorium between 9am and 1pm on Sunday. Please give Emergency Motion number 1 – Decent Housing – your first preference.

Sutton Local Party
Camden Local Party
Streatham Local Party

Decent Housing

Conference notes the decision by Government to take funding promised to council tenants across England to pay for investment in their homes to bring them up to Decent Homes standards, and divert it into the Building Britain’s Futureprogramme of new house building in the run-up to the General Election.

Conference further notes that council tenants across the county are subsidising the Treasury to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds every year without benefiting from much-needed investment in council home repairs and maintenance.

Conference condemns the Government’s betrayal of council tenants who have already suffered decades of underinvestment in housing by successive Conservative Governments.

Conference therefore calls on the government to:

1. Reverse the decision to abandon the 5% of the population whose housing is still not up to Decent Homes standards.

2. Make a firm commitment to deliver the funding promised to Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMO) which meet the 2 star rating set by the Audit Commission.

3. Ensure that the current Housing Revenue Account review allows the tenants and local authorities to have more control over the reinvestment of local council rents.

Conference adds that this is the latest example of Labour’s unfair policy on social housing investment and condemns the Government’s ideological opposition to direct and accountable local authority management of council housing, which has led to tenants being deprived of any Decent Homes investment because they have not voted in support of an ALMO or stock transfer.

Applicability: England

Bournemouth Conference - Winning in 2010

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0100

On Saturday 19 September 2009 at the Bournemouth Conference we’ve got FOUR half day sessions which are a MUST for people hoping to win in the 2010 local elections.

Two sessions in the morning focus on campaign challenges – capacity and team building, and “two elections, one polling day’ (the session called “look out for the bird!”.

Two sessions in the morning focus on campaign planning – Winning Big for areas with major parliamentary campaigns, Bucking the Trend for other areas.

At 20.00 (Highliffe Marriott) Ros Scott presents the first “Campaigner Awards” at the ALDC AGM with prizes of £1000 going to celebrate local campaign success and innovation.

Click here for a copy of the Local Government Directory for Bournemouth Federal Conference 2009. This contains details of the programme from ALDC and the LGA Liberal Democrat Group and our local government partners. If you’re going to Bournemouth, there will be a copy in your delegate’s bag on registration.

Squeezing Labour

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:16:00 +0100

There were eight principal council by-elections held on 10th September. Labour held one seat and took one off the Greens. The Lib Dems, Tories and Independents each held two seats. In the one Parish and Town council election reported to ALDC the Tories won the seat.

In the Cheadle and Gatley by-election for Stockport council we were particularly keen to win, not just as a fitting tribute to ex-Council Leader Brian Millard who’s untimely death instigated the election, not just because it lies within the Mark Hunters Cheadle parliamentary constituency but also because we lost one of the three seats in 2008 by 17 votes. As you’d expect in a parliamentary target this campaign had all the bells and whistles but was none the less satisfying, particularly squeezing Labour down to 2.9%. This is the second by-election in the new Cheadle constituency this year - the other was Stepping Hill, formerly Maggie Clay’s seat. The two unfortunate but successful elections have allowed us to gather good recent data for about a third of the constituency, which the Tories are targeting, in the run up to next years General Election

In the Market Harborough Welland Ward of Harborough District Council we lost the county seat in June by eight votes. So when one of our district councillors moved and resigned we were glad to hold the seat. Labour failed to stand a candidate so we used both our historic data and Mosaic to identify and squeeze the Labour vote successfully.

In the York City Council ward of Heworth all four major parties fought hard in the seat, which is contained within the York Central constituency. Key to the improvement in the Lib Dem vote was a door-to-door survey preceding the canvass of all households, which picked up over 1,200 pieces of casework, and lots of new deliverers. In a previously unworked Ward we doubled our share of the vote and moving up from fifth into second place collecting deliverers along the way. York have set themselves realistic targets using the by-election to break new territory.

Two Labour Councillors join Lib Dems in Redbridge

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:24:00 +0100

Good news has arrived from the London Borough of Redbridge, where it has been announced that two Labour councillors have defected to us. This increases our group there from 11 to 13 councillors.

The Liberal Democrats in Redbridge have been incredibly successful recently, with two by-election gains in Clementswood and Valentines. With the Conservatives losing their overall majority on the council in May as a result of a number of their councillors falling out over the election of the council leader, things are looking very good for the party in next year's London elections.

Councillor Hugh Cleaver, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Redbridge Council said:

"the addition of two more experienced and able Councillors from the south of Ilford will add significantly to the strength of the Liberal Democrats on Redbridge Council. This means that the Liberal Democrats are in a strong position to make further advances in the 2010 elections. We are the fastest growing political party in Redbridge and we have shown we can play a key role in the running of the Borough for the benefit of all our residents"

For more details, visit the Redbridge Liberal Democrats website.

Bournemouth Highlights

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Highlights for Councillors and Local Campaigners.

Saturday 19 September 2009

-2010 Local Elections Training

We’ve got FOUR half day sessions which are a MUST for people hoping to win in the 2010 local elections.

Two sessions in the morning focus on campaign challenges – capacity and team building, and “two elections, one polling day’ (the session called “look out for the bird!”.

Two sessions in the morning focus on campaign planning – Winning Big for areas with major parliamentary campaigns, Bucking the Trend for other areas.

-ALDC AGM and Campaigner Awards 2009

Ros Scott presents the first “Campaigner Awards” at the ALDC AGM with prizes of #1000 going to celebrate local campaign success and innovation.

Sunday 20 September 2009

-It’s the “Winning in 2010” day at the ALDC stand launched by Local Elections Campaign Chair Andrew Stunell MP. Find out more how ALDC can help you win in 2010.

-Be a Councillor: recruiting MORE and BETTER candidates for your council elections. What do the new English Party rules mean for you and your council?

Wessex Hotel 1pm.

-ALDC Members Reception with Nick Clegg MP and Vince Cable MP and kind support from The co-operative. ALDC members only – food and drink.

-Start of eight IDeA and ALDC Councillor Skills Training sessions on issues from credit crunch to culture, health scrutiny to member development. All top level Party and IDeA trainers.

-A new ALDC training module focusing on ways for new and backbench councillors to be heard and on how to interpret different types of behaviour they may come across in their role. The session is especially aimed at the issues affecting women, but is open to all interested in the area of gender difference and assertive behaviour

-GMITA and ALDC Transport fringe 20.00 with Norman Baker MP.

Monday 21 September 2009

-It’s the “Effective Lib Dem Councillor Day” at the ALDC stand launched by Ros Scott. Come and tell us why you’re an effective councillor? Five minute training taster sessions on the hour, every hour.

-ALDC’s Environment fringe – 20.00 with Simon Hughes MP.

-Campaign Essentials Training continues (Sunday – Tuesday all morning). Sessions aimed at getting you started in Lib Dem campaigning – all welcome.

- THE Local Government Reception – 22.00 until LATE. Rapidly becoming the event of the Conference calendar!

Tuesday 22 September 2009

-It’s the “MyCouncillor” day at the ALDC stand launched by Julia Goldsworthy MP. We’ll set up a website while-you-wait and advice for existing users.

-Be a Councillor Training for trainers. Learn how to deliver this very successful programme from the people who devised it

-Local Council, Local Parliament, more and more residents expect their council to work for them with their best interest so why won;t Government give them the powers they need? .

- Next Generation Reception, up-and-coming, the voice of the future, or the Group Leader in waiting - this is the place to be if you are able, ambitious and elected...

-ALDC Fighting the Far Right fringe with Chris Davies MEP - 20.00.

More detials from www.aldc.org or email emma.hall@aldc.org

Elections 2010 - Who's Defending What

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:26:00 +0100

On 6th May 2010, council elections will be held for:

32 London Boroughs (all-out)
36 Metropolitan Boroughs (thirds)
20 Unitary Authorities (thirds)
78 English Districts (thirds and halves)
4 Directly-Elected Mayors

It is also widely expected that this will be the same date as the next General Election.

In total 4,229 councillors will be elected across these councils, with the current political make-up of these councillors as follows:

1,738 Conservative Councillors
1,400 Labour Councillors
879 Liberal Democrat Councillors
33 BNP Councillors
27 Green Councillors
169 Others

Of the councils up for election in 2010, the Liberal Democrats are defending majority control in Kingston-upon-Thames, Richmond-upon-Thames, Sutton, Liverpool, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Rochdale, Sheffield, Stockport, Bristol, Hull, Portsmouth, Cambridge, Eastleigh, South Lakeland, Three Rivers and Watford, as well as the mayoralty in Watford.

Tackling Volatile Voters

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:05:00 +0100

There were four principal council by-elections held on 3rd September. Labour held one seat and lost one to the Tories. The Tories lost a seat to an Independent and one to the Liberal Democrats. In the six Parish and Town council elections reported to ALDC the Lib Dems held one seat and gained two seats from the Tories. The Tories held two seats and Independents one.

In the Hallow Ward of Malvern Hills council we scored a spectacular gain from the Tories in the key West Worcestershire parliamentary seat. Crucial was the Regional Spatial Strategy advocating 3500 extra houses for the village. The Tories claimed they’d been instrumental in delaying the implementation of the RSS (incidentally following the national Tory strategy revealed last week http://tinyurl.com/torydelaytactics). We pointed out that the Tories had forced through the proposal. Strong issues well used.

In the Luton and Wayfield Ward of Medway Unitary Authority in Kent we had not stood a candidate for years. The parliamentary seat is held by Labour but is a top Tory target. The remaining Labour councillors in the Ward (once Labour’s safest in the parliamentary seat) resigned and joined the independents over the Labour candidates selection. The Tory candidate was a Ghurka but the Tories were closing a local primary school.!! Clearly there was plenty of ammunition but in such a highly charged political atmosphere three leaflets and some target mail is not normally a winning campaign, and so it proved this time.

In the Southwick Ward of the newly unitary Wiltshire an Independent took the seat, leapfrogging our campaign. Whilst the Tory vote was hardest hit it does highlight the issue of how to deal with independents in the current “anti politics” environment. One thing to be extremely careful of is historic canvas data whether it’s from actual canvassing in previous elections or “how did you vote last time/usually” type questions. This data is often gathered without reference to the possible choice of candidates in the current election. Once electors are aware they have a choice beyond the main parties they can be tempted to leave their usual allegiances or abstain. It is something the party needs to address before next May. One approach may be to re-canvas the historic element of the shuttleworth in the last few days of the campaign, perhaps on the final Sunday.

Regular readers of this column may be aware that we have made significant progress in local by-elections this year with over 10 net gains in the year to date. While the causes of success in any election are notoriously difficult to unravel it is evident that one of the keys to Liberal Democrat success is that in by elections we can focus the resources from across a borough or county to campaign in the by-election ward. As Chris Huhne outlined in his article in Lib Dem news last week, our opinion poll ratings double when were not squeezed by Labour and the Tories. It is the volume and quality of our campaigning that helps us bridge this credibility gap. In 2010 the likelihood of combined local and parliamentary elections presents huge capacity challenges to the party as a whole. There are no guarantees of success but it will be clear that where we have not built sufficient financial and human resources will not win. Now is the time to join the Big Build campaign to build the capacity we need for success in 2010.

Tory Councils told to delay Planning Applications

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Conservative councils across the country are being encouraged by their parliamentary colleagues to delay major planning applications until after the next General Election.

The letter from Caroline Spelman instructs Conservative councils to continue with any legal obligations they may have, but to not push through any major schemes with undue haste. The argument for this being that the Conservatives propose abolition or part-abolition of regional spatial strategies if they win the next General Election. Caroline Spelman has also indicated that a Conservative Government would allow councils to review their Local Development Frameworks to remove any policies that were there due to regional strategies.

These delaying tactics are most likely to affect major commercial developments, as well as housing schemes. Whilst this may be welcomed by Liberal Democrats in some areas, it has also been criticised by those who see an urgent need to build new housing developments.

More details are available from Regen.net and Planning Daily.

Northern Star

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0100

There was one principal council by-election held on the 27th August. The Liberal Democrats held the seat. In two parish and Town council elections reported to ALDC the Lib Dems held one seat and the Tories gained one seat from Independents.

In the Starbeck Ward in Harrogate the Tories made a strong attempt to wrest this strong Lib Dem ward from our grasp. A vigorous campaign around saving the local baths from Tory closure put paid to that but the campaign was notable for its strong postal vote. Of 1398 votes cast 530 were postal votes; 38%. At the outset of the campaign, knowing that polling day was in a holiday period, we decided that one of our key campaign targets would be to sign up and engage with postal voters. To this end we targeted key groups for postal vote recruitment. We sent specific “blue “ letters to all non-anti postal voters as well as the usual “How to letter”. We also targeted existing postal voters in the extensive canvas that took place. Whilst a holiday period gave particular focus to this aspect of Starbecks campaigning we would win more if this was replicated as a minimum in all our local by-elections.

Shabby Deals

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:32:00 +0100

There were four principal council by-elections held on Thursday 20th August. The Liberal Democrats gained two seats from Independents but lost one to the Conservatives. The Tories held one seat In the only parish and Town council elections reported to ALDC the Lib Dems held one seat and lost one seat to the Conservatives.

In the Hucknall Central Ward of Ashfield District council, Nottinghamshire the local Liberal Democrats continue to march onward apace. Following dramatic recent electoral progress they had formed the district council's minority administration following the 2008 elections. Then in May this year a cabal of Labour, Independents and the Tories then conspired to oust the Lib Dem administration re-instating Labour much to the fury of local residents. In June’s County elections the Lib Dems made four gains from Labour and have now stormed to success in this District by-election as well. The Liberal Democrats remain the biggest group on the District Council with 13 seats.

In the Mitcheldean and Drybrook Ward, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire we had come second in the county elections from June and had seen a possible district by-election coming. This had allowed us to identify a potential candidate early and prioritise the County “Thank You” and surveying for this district ward, culminating in us calling the by-election. Our campaign was not innovative from a national perspective, but was novel locally including strong postal vote, volume of literature, clear messaging, blue letters, direct mail, eve of poll, good mornings and two knock ups. It was also handy that we had the only local candidate.

In the Saxilby ward of West Lindsay council in Lincolnshire we lost the seat to the Tories. Our councillor had become an Independent before she resigned and then fought and wonthe by-election as a Tory. This was a council that we ran in 2006 but lost control of in 2008.

Bournemouth Programme

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Bournemouth is the venue for this year's Liberal Democrat Federal Party Conference (19-23 September 2009). (Book online here.)

We've already reported on our "BASIC SKILLS" programme of free courses for Lib Dem volunteer campaigners (Sunday-Tuesday in the morning); and on ALDC's busy fringe programme. (Details of both here.)

Effective Lib Dem Councillors

Once again this year we've teamed up with our friends at the IDeA (Improvement and Development Agency) to bring you the only programme at Conference aimed at developing Lib Dem Councillors.

On Sunday and Monday during the day we've a series of eight sessions with the IDeA:
- Councils, Climate Change and Carbon Reduction
- Health Scrutiny
- Members and Officers
- Culture and Leisure
- Member Development Charter
- Managing a Coalition
- Councils: Helping Citizens through the Recession
- Doing More with Less

Also during Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we've a number of other sessions which will be of interest to Councillors:
- Women Councillors, Skills and Development (Sunday 4.00pm)
- Holding your Council Seat (Monday 2.30pm)

ALDC has been working with our friends at the Leadership Centre for Local Government over the last year to develop the Liberal Democrat programme of the Be a Councillor project. If you've missed out on the regional programme of events about finding good and diverse Council candidates don't worry, as you've another chance in Bournemouth:
- Finding Candidates (Tuesday 2.30pm)
- and a special training the trainers session 'Be a councillor' (9.15 - 12.30 Tuesday morning)

More information on all of these sessions nearer the time, in our Conference Directory.

Campaigner Awards 2009

On Saturday evening at Bournemouth, the highlight of ALDC's Annual General Meeting will be the Campaigner Awards 2009 presented by Party President Ros Scott.

We've had a brilliant response to the awards this year which give you a chance to win up to £500 for your local party.

There is still chance to enter - submissions close on Monday (31st August) which should be emailed to: anders.hanson@aldc.org

More details on the categories here.

No change for Lib Dem LGA Board Chairs

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:43:00 +0100

The Local Government Association has announced the new board chairs for the organisation, following a post-election reshuffle. The changes see the Conservatives gaining a chair at Labour's expense, but with the Liberal Democrats retaining its two current posts.

The two Liberal Democrat chairs are:

Cllr David Rogers from East Sussex County Council, who continues as Chair of the Community Wellbeing Board, and

Cllr Chris White from Hertfordshire County Council, who continues as Chair of the Culture, Tourism and Sport Board.

Both David and Chris are ALDC members, and so we welcome their continuing prominent roles in the world of local government.

The other chairs are:
Environment: Cllr Gary Porter (Con, South Holland)
Children & Young People: Cllr Shireen Ritchie (Con, Kensington & Chelsea)
Safer Communities: Cllr Les Lawrence (Con, Birmingham)
Improvement: Cllr David Parsons (Con, Leicestershire)
Regeneration & Transport: Cllr David Sparks (Lab, Dudley)

Conservative Councils - service cuts or simply cost savings?

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Today's Financial Times is running a feature on the cuts in spending by Conservative run councils, with a particular focus on Essex, Barnet and Hammersmith & Fulham. Whilst the Liberal Democrats have also talked about spending money better, and indeed many Lib Dem councils have also worked hard to keep tax rises low, this article suggests that what the Conservatives are doing is something much more fundamental.

Many of the changes in these particular councils have revolved around further outsourcing of service provision, cuts in frontline services such as parks, street cleaning, libraries and 'culture'. Core services that Liberal Democrats usually go to great lengths to defend. But at the same time, the changes often involve cutting down the artificial divisions between departments, prioritising frontline staff over senior management and making services more transparent and accessible at hours that are more convenient. Something that Lib Dems would often support.

The question is whether what the Conservatives are doing is simply a more efficient way of running local government with the attendant cost savings, or is it simply service cuts by the back door (or in some cases, the front door). With the Conservatives now the largest party in local government, is this the sign of things to come in more and more parts of the country?

Bournemouth Fringe Programme

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:17:00 +0100

Members' highlights include:
ALDC Members' Reception (SUNDAY LUNCHTIME) with Nick Clegg and Vince Cable.

Once again we are working with our friends at the Co-operative on our members reception which this year focuses on the theme of sustainable communities. ALDC members only.

ALDC Annual General Meeting and Campaigner Awards 2009 (SATURDAY EVENING)
Members of ALDC are invited to our Annual General Meeting which is also the announcement of the Campaigner Awards 2009.

Policy focused events include:
Will the bus get you back to work? Transport Strategies post Credit Crunch with GMITA (SUNDAY EVENING) with Norman Baker MP and Caroline Pidgeon.
Reclaiming the Green Agenda (MONDAY EVENING) with Simon Hughes MP and Friends of the Earth.
Winning against the Far Right (TUESDAY EVENING) with Chris Davies MP, Seachlight and Cllr Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley)

Full details will be avaialble in our Local Government Directory nearer the time. Please get in touch for more details.

Back to Basics with "Campaign Essentials"
Winning elections is about getting some basics right, so as part of our 40 hours of training at Bournemouth Federal Conference we've got a programme of training every morning from Sunday - Tuesday which is all campaign essentials that all of us need to know. Whether you're new to Lib Dem campaigning, or a seasoned campaigner who needs to refresh those skills these are the sessions for you. We would particularly urge you to encourage new campaigners to attend these sessions.

The sessions will cover:
- FOCUS leaflets - why and how to
- Campaign Planning
- Postal Voters and Direct Mail
- Polling Day - all you need to know for a successful final day
- canvassing techniques
- EARS and Data - why we use collect data and what we do with it

All these sessions are free to any member (or staff member) of the Liberal Democrats. More information in the Local Government Directory to be published nearer the time.

Kickstart 2010

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0100

FACT:
In the next nine months all of us face a General Election; most of England face important local elections - most likely on the same day

FACT:
In just 21 months - May 2011 - more than half of our local councillors face election.

FACT:
To win in these challenging circumstances your team needs the skills and information to campaign effectively. You need a campaign plan in place that can build success through 2010 and 2011.

SOLUTION:
ALDC’s Weekend Kickstart event takes place on 27-29 November 2009 and is the most important training opportunity each year for Lib Dem volunteer campaigners. It's proven to work - last year’s attendees saw net gains of 10 County Council divisions in June 2009.

WHAT YOU GET:
Over 20 hours of training – both advanced and beginner.
Over six hours for your team working with an experienced mentor to develop your campaign plan.
A weekend's accommodation at the Holiday Inn (M6 Junction 7 near Birmingham), food and training rooms. (There's even time for both the pool and the bar...)

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
Kickstart is great if you can bring along your campaign team. Imagine a whole weekend of campaign planning with expert help without any interference!
Individual campaigners are also welcome - they will work together in small teams to develop plans and ideas.
Experienced campaigners and new campaigners. It’s a great way to develop ideas and bring on new people.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST:
Kickstart is financially supported by the G8 process, so the cost is right down to the minimum we can charge.
ALDC Gold Members who book early (before 3 October) £140 for the weekend – a bit more if you’re a Silver Member or not yet a member!
Save £60 by sharing a room – (twins and doubles available!)
We have a small number of HALF PRICE places for groups starting off (see below).
WHY NOT ask your council group to pay or pay half of your costs – it could be the best investment they make all year?
Some people apply to G8 for help attending Kickstart.

If you're near to Birmingham we have some low-cost non-residential rates - not available to book online but contact emma.hall@aldc.org

HOW DO I BOOK:
You can book now – online at ALDC’s website – click here to go direct to the booking form. Remember you need to LOG IN as an ALDC member FIRST to receive your members discount which will then be applied automatically.
More information from Emma Hall – 01422 843 785 emma.hall@aldc.org

50% DISCOUNT
As a new initiative this year ALDC has set aside a fund to pay for a small number of half-price places available for groups who are starting off. This is only for councils where we have NO COUNCILLORS or very few Councillors (e.g. one or two wards).

If you are interested in taking us up on this please contact anders.hanson@aldc.org before 3 October 2009 deadline.

LGA Liberal Democrat Group Elections 2009

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Results are in for Liberal Democrat positions on the Local Government Association bodies for 2009-2011.

All (principle) councillors in England were polled with the highest turnout ever recorded.

Leader: Richard Kemp, Liverpool Deputy Leader, Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Portsmouth Group Whip, John Commons, Manchester Group Chair, Jill Shortland, Somerset

Group Executive Carl Minns, Hull; Howard Sykes, Oldham; Liz Green, Kingston; Stan Collins, Cumbria & S Lakeland Urban Commission Lead Abigail Bell, Hull - Lead; Greg Stone, Newcastle - Deputy Lead Rural Commission Lead Stan Collins, Cumbria & S Lakeland - Lead; Alison Clish-Green, West Devon - Deputy Lead Culture, Tourism & Sport Board Chris White, Herts & St Albans - Lead; Flick Rea, Camden; John Commons, Manchester; Gary Millar, Liverpool - Substitute Community Well-being Board David Rogers, East Sussex & Lewes - Lead; Doreen Huddart, Newcastle; Zoe Patrick, Oxon & Vale of W. Horse; Denise Hawksworth, Chesterfield - Substitute Environment Board Dorothy Thornhill, Watford - Lead; Paula Baker, Basingstoke & Deane; Berni Turner - Liverpool; Roger Symonds - BANES - Substitute Improvement Board Jill Shortland, Somerset - Lead; David Williams, Richmond; John Commons, Manchester - Substitute Children and Young People David Bellotti, BANES - Lead; Gloria Cawood, Somerset & Mendip; Martin Candler, Stockport; Rabi Martins, Watford - Substitute Regeneration & Transport Board Richard Knowles, Oldham - Lead; Heather Kidd, Shropshire; Zulfiqar Ali, Rochdale, Isobel McCall - Milton Keynes - Substitute Safer Communities Board Duwayne Brooks, Lewisham - Lead; Daisy Benson, Reading; Anita Lower, Newcastle; Paul Porgess, Stockport - Substitute Scrutiny Panel Trevor Jones, Dorset & West Dorset - Lead Resources Panel Sarita Bush, Hull - Lead Human Resources Panel Steve Comer, Bristol - Lead; Stephen Knight, Richmond Fire Forum Lead Paul Shannon, Manchester - Lead

The full results are available here.

Lib Dem Appointment to LGA Partner Bodies

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:55:00 +0100

The Liberal Democrat Group of the Local Government Assocation (LGA) are currently looking for nominations for Liberal Democrat vacancies to the following central bodies of the "Local Government family". These are:

Chair                  4ps
Board member    IDeA
Board member    Leadership Centre for Local Government
Board member    LACORS

These 4 positions are appointed and an appointments panel will be established by the Lib Dem Group Executive as soon as the Group elections have been finalised. The closing date for applying for the positions is 12th August so that they can try to have the people firmly in place for 1st September. The positions are open to any Liberal Democrat Councillor whose council is in LGA membership with the exception of those who hold a position within the LGA of Leader, Deputy Leader or a lead Lib Dem member on a Board or Panel.

Application should be by way of curriculum vitae (no longer than 2 sides of A4) and a covering letter
(no longer than 2 sides of A4) emailed to libdem.temp@lga.gov.uk no later than 12^th August.

Are the Tories Suggesting we Pay Council Leaders More?

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0100

We're not quite sure what Conservative Party Chair Eric Pickles means when he suggests that many Local Authority Chief Executives could be abolished. In an interview with the Independent this morning Mr Pickles said "recent changes to the structure of local government meant many chief executives were no longer needed. Since 2000, many councils have switched to having a leader and elected cabinet members handling specific portfolios."

Eric goes on to suggest that: I'm not one of these people who gets excited about high salaries but it should be in proportion to their responsibilities," Mr Pickles said. "A lot of council Chief Executives do not have that level of responsibility."

So is he suggesting that Council Leaders get paid more to do the Chief Executive job?

Early Bird Catches The Seat

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:47:00 +0100

Winning candidate Charlie Stewart (third from left) celebrates winning the All Saints by-election with some of his team.

In the three principle by-elections held on Thursday 30th July 2009 the Conservatives took a seat off the BNP, Labour and the Lib Dems held a seat each.
The Lib Dems held a seat on Cheltenham BC ‘All Saints’ ward after the sad death of long-serving Liberal Democrat Councillor Tina Franklin in May. After a hard fought campaign in which they delivered a constant flow of leaflets and letters, they canvassed over 50% of the ward with the valuable help from outside the constituency. The Conservatives as expected ran a hard campaign, but seemed to get the message wrong by talking about the internal workings of the Council. The result was a good majority of 285 over the Conservatives.

In the Tameside MBC, ‘Denton North East’ ward, Labour held the seat with a slight increase of vote share. The two disappointing points of this result are that we did not stand a candidate even though last time we achieved 18.2% of the votes, and the second was the 13.6% (358 votes) that the BNP achieved.

In the Broxtowe BC, ‘Brinsley’ ward, the Conservatives took the seat with 40.9% of the votes and the BNP came second with 28.3% a drop of 15.7% from when they won the seat last time. The Lib Dems did a full-blown campaign of leaflets, target mailings and a 60% canvass. This ward was targeted by the Tories and even though the Lib Dems did a very good campaign, the Tories had a local candidate who has been a Parish Councillor for 30 years, they out leafleted, out canvassed and did the Postal Vote better than we did, by starting earlier than we did. and using all the messages that we would, but against us, resulting in the Conservatives winning the Postal Vote and the seat, with Lib Dems coming third behind the BNP.

The messages from this week's elections are, start early, target the Postal Vote, talk to as many people as possible and make sure that you set the messages and keep control of the campaign.

Cllr Mark Alcock
mark.alcock@aldc.org

Are you coming to Bournemouth?

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:09:00 +0100

Bournemouth is the venue for this year's Liberal Democrat Federal Party Conference (19-23 September 2009). (Book online here.)

For local campaigners and councillors this is a hugely important conference. It is the last time we will all be together for such a big event before the London and English "thirds" local elections on 6 May 2010, and, of course, the General Election.

Come a Day Early!

Although conference "proper" doesn't start until later on Saturday, our training programme kicks off first thing Saturday making it well worth coming to Bournemouth on Friday evening or very first thing Saturday if you can.

We have a full day of Campaign Planning Workshops (four separate half day sessions) all about WINNING in 2010. There are separate workshops for groups who have local elections but no target parliamentary seats, and for groups who have local elections AND target parliamentary seats.

Campaign Essentials

All of us had to start somewhere, and there is a danger with training that we forget the basics of how we win. From Sunday - Tuesday at Bournemouth we're running a series of Campaign Essentials training aimed not just at newcomers, but also people who want to refresh their knowledge.

Super-Skilled Councillors

Finally we have a packed training programme from Sunday - Tuesday aimed at Lib Dem Councillors. Sessions range from climate change, health scrutiny, using the internet, helping citizens through the recession, recruiting council candidates and much more.

All in all that's almost 50 hours of ALDC training, all FREE, all for Lib Dem local campaigners and local councillors.

More information nearer the time, in our Conference Directory.

Making history in K&C, Making waves in R&C

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Although the Norwich North by-election hogged the political headlines, it was the council by-elections that produced the more interesting, and less predictable, set of political news.

This week’s by-election results got off to an early start, thanks to the holiday plans of Kensington & Chelsea’s Chief Executive creating that rare event – a Wednesday by-election. And what a result to start with! Our victory in Colville Ward, a formerly safe Labour seat which includes the famous Portobello Road, is the culmination of four years of hard work by Carol Caruana and her team. The campaign, ably led by Robin Meltzer, saw monthly Focus leaflets and addressed mailings which concentrated hard on the issues that residents of the area really cared about. This result not only gives us our first ever elected councillor in the borough, but it also upset both Labour and the Conservatives in the process, who both assumed they would win.

Thursday’s elections however were more of a mixed bag.

Our team in Redcar & Cleveland showed once again how to win, with their third by-election gain from Labour in the last year! Our victory in Dormanstown means that we now hold 10 of the 15 seats in the town of Redcar. Local MP Vera Baird must be getting worried.

We also held on to a council seat in Wembley Central in Brent, which had previously been lost when the former councillor went independent before eventually being disqualified from the council. This result, in one of the few bits of Brent to be Liberal Democrat well before Sarah Teather was elected an MP in the borough, bodes well for us keeping control of the council in next year’s London elections.

Disappointingly, we lost a district council seat in Huntingdonshire to UKIP. However, this was an area in which UKIP did very well in June, and so coupled with the death of our popular well known councillor, it was always going to be a difficult defence. We did however win a town council seat from the Conservatives to compensate, and gained a number of new members during the campaign, which will help us build for the future.

We also failed to stand a candidate in Winster & South Darley in the Derbyshire Dales. Surprisingly, this picturesque rural ward in the heart of the Peak District was gained by Labour from the Conservatives, but even more astonishing is that we weren’t organised enough to find a candidate when we held this ward as recently as three years ago.

Housing Revenue Account reform

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:56:00 +0100

This week, the Government published its consultation on reform of the Housing Revenue Account. Liberal Democrats have campaigned in Parliament and on the ground for many years for reform of this system. The subsidy and debt problem, coupled with the loss of right to buy receipts has held Councils back from investing in existing and new housing stock for far too long.

However, the devil is always in the detail with reform.

The Government are proposing to redistribute debt between all Councils, which would abolish the subsidy system, but would mean Councils who are currently debt free taking on debt of other Councils. They are not proposing to use anything from general taxation – so paying off the debt is in a sense still a tenant tax.

The consultation paper is available here from the Department of Communities and Local Government, and Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Housing, Sarah Teather MP, would welcome feedback from fellow Liberal Democrats on the proposals.

To send your feedback, please email the party's Communities and Transport Policy Adviser, Alice Douglas.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

One's enough

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:20:00 +0100

There were six principal council elections held on the 16th July. We held three wards, the Tories two and Labour took a seat from the Tories. In the only Town and Parish Council result reported to ALDC we held the seat.

In the Merseyside metropolitan borough of St Helens we held all three seats in the Moss Bank ward. The council was on a knife edge. Lab 23: LD 19: Con 6. We lead a LD/Con administration. When a well respected councillor for Moss Bank ward, Anne Heyes, died, control of the council was at stake in the ensuing by-election. Our campaign team quickly spotted from early canvassing that one of our other councillors in the Ward, Carole Kavanagh was the Liberal Democrat that most voters identified with. Our campaign was then to use Carole’s popularity to help the new candidate David Kent get elected. We did this by having plenty of target mail from Carole and emphasising David as part of our strong team. Photos on literature were of our two existing councillors with David, not usually of David on his own. This contrasted well with the isolation of the opposition candidate’s campaigns. Labour ran an entirely negative campaign against our administration.

In the Portfield ward of Christchurch Council in Dorset we saw the benefit of knocking up to the last minute. In 2007 in the borough we lost a seat when the vote was tied and lots were drawn. On the first count in Portfield ward there were only 4 votes between 1st and 2nd place. After the first recount we led by one vote as a bundle of 25 had been found to be mixed and this was confirmed on the second recount. It pays to knock on phone and foot to the last minute.

In the Warwickshire County council ward of Arbury and Stockingford Labour again demonstrated their resilience by retaking this ward from the Tories. So far this year Labour has made five net gains in by-elections, not as good as us but very notable in the current national political climate

No change, but two very good results

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:23:00 +0100

This week's by-elections resulted in in the incumbent parties holding their seats, but this hides a good performance by us in two of the three by-elections.

In Brockhurst ward of Gosport we were defending two seats in one ward as a result of a husband and wife team of councillors emigrating to Australia. The backdrop for this by-election was then made tougher still as a result of this week's decision by the Standards Board to bar our council group leader Peter Chegwyn from office for two years. The Conservatives however had their own problems, as Sir Peter "Duck Island" Viggers is the local MP.

Despite these difficult circumstances a local campaign of regular hard-hitting leaflets, lots of canvassing and exposure of Conservative dirty tricks, helped to ensure we held on comfortably. The campaign was masterminded by Peter Chegwyn, who remains one of the party's best campaigners, and they are very grateful for the considerable assistance from the many Liberal Democrats who came from across Hampshire to help out.

The Conservatives will have been gutted by the result. Not only did they arrive at the count thinking they had won, but there was actually a swing to us from the Conservatives with us doubling our majority since the last local elections in the ward.

Lichfield is an area that has seen steady progress over the last few years and we did well in the city of Lichfield itself in the recent county council elections. Yesterday's by-election however was in a rural area to the south east of the city in a county division that saw the Conservatives win 67% of the vote in June. A 5% swing to us in this by-election is a sign we continue to be heading in the right direction.

Unfortunately this week's results were spoilt by the failure of the Liberal Democrats in Suffolk Coastal to to field a candidate in a by-election. What makes it worse is that we have had a good record of winning by-elections in the area, with us taking a county council seat in Woodbridge last December - a seat we the held in June's county council elections.

Don't forget! There are people out there who want to vote Liberal Democrat, so failing to stand a candidate not only denies them that opportunity but it also stops us, (and as a result helps the other parties), build up support in the area and potentially finding people who may be sufficiently motivated by the campaign to become party activists in the future.

Just 13 days to go in Norwich!

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:25:00 +0100

There are just 13 days to go until the Norwich North By-Election, caused by the resignation of Labour MP Ian Gibson. This election is very important as it could be the last parliamentary by-election in England before the general election, but also April Pond is a great local candidate who deserves an excellent result.

Norwich is a great city to visit, so why not spend some time helping out on the ground. You can find the details of how to get to our campaign HQ on the Norwich Liberal Democrats website.

If you can't help out in person, then why not do some phone canvassing from the comfort of your own home. Contact the team at phone@norwichlibdems.org.uk and someone will be in touch.

Clamp the Clampers

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker is campaigning to "clamp the clampers".

Motorists are being held to ransom by unscrupulous private car clamping firms. If you feel you've been overcharged or conned, there is no independent means of redress.

Clamping on private land is already illegal in Scotland. Let's ban it in England too. Please sign the petition here

The Government have begun a consultation into clamping but have ignored the option to ban clamping on private land entirely. To have your say, visit the consultation website

Join the new Facebook group here. If you're interested in campaigning locally on this we have more information at ALDC - contact Anders, Mark or John.

Have your say on HMO planning law

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:51:00 +0100

The government is currently consulting people on the planning laws relating to houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).

The consultation follows last year's commission that reviewed the current position on HMOs. This review recommended that people should be consulted on possible new legislation on HMOs.

This subject will be important to the many Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners who are working in student areas, seaside towns and those populated by young people sharing houses. The review is suggesting three possible causes of action:

Option 1 is to rely on existing ‘good practice' from councils around the country.

Option 2 is to change the Use Classes Order, so that HMOs need planning permission and therefore go through the usual planning procedures to decide whether each application is appropriate.

Option 3 is a proposal to allow HMOs anywhere at all - except where the government agrees to give special powers to councils in limited areas (Article 4 Directions).

The deadline for comments is 7th August and you can find out more on the Department for Communities and Local Government website.

Thank you to Cllr Sharon Ball of Bath & North East Somerset Council for her blog post that alerted us to this important consultation.

Eleven and counting

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:25:00 +0100

There were two principal council elections held on the 2nd July. The Lib Dems gained one seat from the Tories and the Tories held the other. No Town and Parish Council results were reported to ALDC.

Thursday was another good night for the Lib Dems. We now have made eleven net gains since the beginning of the year in council by-elections.

Nonsuch ward, part of the London Borough of Sutton has been a Lib Dem ward but the Tories took a seat in 2006 all out London elections. We wanted it back! So in a held parliamentary seat we pulled out all the stops and utilised help from across London with action days every weekend. How often will the two Lib Dem MPs’ turn up to help deliver the good morning leaflet at 6am only to find there were none left to deliver!
Labour and the BNP ran two leaflet campaigns but the Tories produced six full colour leaflets. The final Tory leaflet went negative against our candidate but the tactic backfired badly. We not only have two local MPs, we also run the council and fighting by-elections when in control is often difficult. In these circumstances getting a swing to the Lib Dems from the Tories and over 50% of the vote in a high turnout election is particularly encouraging.

Unfortunately despite this success we are still failing to stand candidates even in wards where we polled 22% last time. Standing no candidate in the Ferndown Central ward of East Dorset District Council is even more inexplicable as it is in the Christchurch constituency.

For those who had county or Unitary elections in June the deadlines for the receipt of return of election expenses are: Thursday 9th July if your result was declared before midnight on 4th June. Friday 10th July if your result was declared after midnight i.e. 5th June.

Don’t be a wally

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:53:00 +0100

There was one principal council election held on the 25th June. The SNP held the seat. There were no Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC.
In Angus, in the Monifieth and Sidlaw ward we faced an uphill struggle. In 2007 we got 7% on first preferences to the SNP 54%. We improved our vote by 4.9% but the SNP, who run the council, cruised to victory with 68.6% of the vote.
It may seem early to look forward to the local elections in 2010 but it is essential that council groups and local parties let ALDC know:
A)    whether existing councillors are re-standing
B)   if not, who has been selected to replace them
C)   candidates and agents in all defences and key targets.
so that we can target our help and support early enough to make a difference.
Do not wait until you have a full slate. Let us know as soon as you are clear who your candidates are likely to be even if they may not have been formally selected.
The General Election is likely to be held on the same day as the 166 local authority elections on May 6th 2010. 880 Lib Dem councillors will be defending their seats and we will be defending control of 17 councils from Liverpool to Sutton. Joint elections will create extra demands so it’s even more important to build up your infrastructure over the summer. The Campaigns department is running a “Big Build’ campaign. Materials will be made available in instalments on both the party’s extranet site and the ALDC website. The first instalment gives you the tools to get out and recruit the deliverers you need. Later instalments will include: ideas and activities to recruit new Liberal Democrat members, clean up and expand your data pool, increase your garden and window poster sites, increase fundraising, voter identification and much more.
For those who had county or Unitary elections in June the deadlines for the receipt of return of election expenses are: Thursday 9th July if your result was declared before midnight on 4th June. Friday 10th July if your result was declared after midnight i.e. 5th June.
Don’t be a wally and leave it till the last minute - get them in at the end of June.

Maggie Clay Memorial Service

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:00:00 +0100

A memorial service to mark the life of former Stockport and Leeds Councillor Maggie Clay will take place:

Monday 29 June 2009, 12.00noon
Stockport Town Hall

People who wish to attend should let Alison Morrissey at Stockport Town Hall know, so that there is an idea of numbers.

Maggie's family have nominated the Stockport Mayor’s Charity and Send a Cow for any friends and colleagues who would wish to make a donation in Maggie’s memory. Arrangements have been made for this to be administered by Alison Morrissey in the Stockport Chief Executive’s office. If you wish to make a donation by cheque please make the cheque payable to the ‘Maggie Clay Memorial Fund’’

Maggie served over time as Organising and Political Secretary of ALDC's predecessor organisation, the Association of Liberal Councillors and will by much missed by Liberal and Lib Dem campaigners and councillors up and down the country.

Catch up on what happened at the Local Government Conference

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Thank you to everyone who attended the Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference in Sheffield this weekend. The event proved a great success with a full programme of speeches, training sessions, policy discussions and briefings, as well as stalls from many of the key local government organisations, party bodies and outside organisations such as Midas Training and Northern Rail.

The highlights for many seemed to be the speeches from Cllr Paul Scriven, on the success we are having on Sheffield City Council and a session on environmental good practice from Cllr Keith Moffitt, the Lib Dem Leader of Camden Council.

If you missed the conference, or want a recap on what happened, then Liberal Democrat Voice are posting podcasts of the plenary sessions on their website. The first one - voxpops from people attending - is already available. Later today you will be able to listen to the opening plenary with Nick Clegg and Ros Scott.

If you were in Sheffield this weekend and want to pass on any feedback both positive and on how we could have made the event better, then please email Emma Hall at emma.hall@aldc.org.

Stepping up in Stepping Hill

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Following last week's 'super-Thursday' with 89 by-elections on the one day, we are now getting back to normal. However this week's one by-election in the Stepping Hill ward of Stockport was an important one for Liberal Democrats. Not only is it a crucial seat in Mark Hunter's Cheadle constituency, but the by-election was caused by the tragic death of ALDC stalwart Maggie Clay.

The by-election saw an intensive campaign from the Conservatives who were desperate to make headway in the ward with an eye to winning the parliamentary seat at the next General Election. As well as delivering lots of leaflets, the Conservatives also brought in members of the Shadow Cabinet to support their PPC in the campaign. This came slightly unstuck however when they had to print an apology in their Good Morning leaflet for claiming that our candidate did not live locally, when she was the only one to live in the ward. Following a very active campaign of our own, promoting the record of the local council and that of Mark Hunter MP, our candidate Wendy Orrell was comfortably returned as the new councillor.

Don't forget to submit your best literature and campaigning ideas to the ALDC Campaigner Awards 2009. This is your opportunity to show off your best election literature and to pass on good campaigning ideas to other Liberal Democrats around the country. Click here for more details.

Anders Hanson
Senior Political Officer

Local Government Conference - Draft Programme

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:58:00 +0100

We know that many of you will have been so involved with the recent elections that you will have had little chance to do anything else for the last few weeks and months. Now that you have a bit more free time on your hands, don’t delay and book your place at the Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference on Saturday 20 June 2009 in Sheffield.

The draft programme for the day is available here.

Registration is £40 for gold members of ALDC, £45 for silver members (and Party Staff and Group Researchers) and £50 for non-members. (If you'd also been planning on joining after the elections – why not take this opportunity and join now!).

Registration for the conference is online - just click here to register and pay by credit or debit card. ALDC members should log on first to the website, and then your member's discount will be applied automatically.

Don't forget that if there is a group of you coming, it's "buy three, get the fourth place free" - so why not bring along the whole team? For more information please contact Emma Hall or phone 01422 843 785

Why not come on Friday evening for the 3rd annual Lib Dem Local Government dinner hosted by Party President Ros Scott. It's just £30 a head, and you can stay overnight at the conference hotel, the Mercure St Paul's, (you do need to pay this yourself – further details available on the website). With the dinner, the conference and the accommodation all in the same venue it should be an excellent opportunity for networking and meeting other Lib Dem Councillors and activists.

Local Election Results

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:39:00 +0100

The political balance of all county and unitary elections is shown below as the count is completed. You can also view our analysis of the gains and losses for each party by going to our full Election2009 page.

Cumbria
Further news from Cumbria, where we have gained a seat in Carlisle and beaten the Conservative Group Leader in Kirkby Stephen.

Westmorland & Lonsdale (Cumbria)
Our electoral success in Westmorland & Lonsdale continues with us making four gains so far in the county council election. Good news for Tim Farron MP and the team in South Lakeland.

Bedford
We have moved to become the biggest party in Bedford, overtaking the Conservatives. This new council will be no overall control.

West Sussex
Another place showing good results for the Liberal Democrats is West Sussex where we have picked up a few seats from the Conservatives. We are doing especially well in Arun and Mid Sussex.

Suffolk
Some good election results are coming in from different parts of Suffolk, with the Liberal Democrats making gains from the Conservatives and Labour.

Council By-Elections
There were 68 council by-elections yesterday and 25 results have come in so far. The Liberal Democrats gained a seat from the Conservatives in East Hertfordshire, but lost one to the Conservatives in Watford. The full results are available below.

Doncaster
English Democrat Peter Davies has won the mayoral election with the Independent Mick Waye coming a close second and Labour not far behind in third.

A few interesting gains around the country
We have taken Warren Hills in North West Leicestershire from Labour, Bridport in West Dorset from Conservatives, Brereton & Ravenhill in Cannock Chase from Labour and three seats from the Conservatives in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Burnley (Lancashire)
Liberal Democrats have gained five of the six seats in Burnley from Labour - two from third place. The sixth was taken by the BNP.

Somerset and Devon
Liberal Democrats look to have lost control of Somerset and Devon.

Romsey and Eastleigh (Hampshire)
We have retained all our county councillors in both of these marginal parliamentary seats, including a clean sweep in Eastleigh Constituency.

Brentwood (Essex)
We have gained two seats from the Conservatives in Brentwood. This is in the constituency held by Conservative Party Chairman and 'campaign guru' Eric Pickles MP.

Lincolnshire
Conservatives consolidate control at the expense of other main parties. Collapse of Labour means Liberal Democrats become biggest opposition party. Liberal Democrats make net loss of three seats, but make a gain in North Kesteven from Conservatives, but lose seats elsewhere.

Bristol
Lib Dems have gained overall control of Bristol for the first time! Making 4 gains on the night. Labour only won 2 wards its vote share down to 18.88%. Well done to the team in Bristol - brilliant news!
BBC Bristol report

Central Bedfordshire
Conservatives take control of this new Authority which replaces two existing tory-run district. 11 Lib Dems elected to the new Council, Labour wiped out.

Hartlepool
Independent Stuart Drummond has been narrowly re-elected as Mayor of Hartlepool for a third term.

Good Luck!

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:29:00 +0100

Good luck to all LIberal Democrats involved in elections on Thursday!

- county and unitary council candidates and campaign teams
- by-election candidates (over 70)
- campaigners all over the country working for a strong Liberal Democrat voice in the European Parliament.

Our office will be open for urgent queries and problems 9.15 am - 5.15 pm - after that please email via the website Advice and Support section.

A results service for the local elections starts early morning Friday 5th June.

Good luck!

Local Government Conference - Don't Miss Out

Thu, 28 May 2009 14:07:00 +0100

If you're planning on coming to the Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference on Saturday 20 June 2009 in Sheffield - you'd be daft to miss out on the current discount rate which ends on Sunday 31 May 2009.

Currently ALDC Gold Members can register for £35 (£40 for Silver and Party/Group Staff; £45 for others); but from the end of Sunday all prices go up by £5. Don't forget if there are four of you going it's buy three get the 4th for free!

If you're NOT planning on coming, then perhaps you should! It's a packed day that starts with Nick Clegg and Ros Scott; ends with Julia Goldsworthy and Sheffield Leader Paul Scriven with over 25 hours of training, fringe, policy and debate in between!

More information on our website here.

Campaigner Awards 2009

Thu, 28 May 2009 13:59:00 +0100

We know you're busy campaigning ..... but this year we're giving you the chance to win recognition AND money for your local Party with the Campaigner Awards 2009.

The awards, which are run in association and with the kind support of Midshires and Riso, are for local campaign literature.

- 1st Prize £500

- FIVE Runners Up Prizes (£100 each)
Best Campaign Innovation
Best Direct Mail
Best Focus
Best Literature by a volunteer campaigner
Best whole ward campaign

Entering is easy - we just need you to EMAIL your entries (in BOTH PDF and PagePlus format) to: anders.hanson@aldc.org.

The deadline for all submissions is 1 September 2009. The awards will be anounced at the ALDC Annual General Meeting (Saturday evening in Bournemouth) and subsequently online in Campaigner magazine.

Calling the Counties!

Thu, 28 May 2009 13:42:00 +0100

It's now a week to go to the European and Local elections on 4 June 2009.

All of us have European elections - but only some of us have local elections (the English Counties, seven English Unitaries and over 60 local by-elections). 359 Liberal Democrat county Councillors are defending their seats. Most of the Unitaries are new authorities with many existing district and county councillors standing as Lib Dem candidates.

Outside of these areas all of us have been involved in the European Campaign to maximise our vote. After your local commitment to Europe - you might have some extra capacity to help local campaigners elsewhere and make a difference between winning and losing county and unitary divisions and wards.

Lib Dems in Somerset celebrating a 4* Council!

Here are some of the ways you can help:
- phone canvassing - some local areas are set up on EARS E-Canvass system - to access this you need to go the EARS website to download a small programme. This will only work with your postcode and party membership number. This then allows you to get involved in phone canvassing in places that need it!

- Help on the last weekend, eve of poll and on polling day. Have you ever heard of a local party that couldn't do with some extra help on polling day! If you're able to give the time why not travel out to a County/Unitary division nearby? There are places with major Lib Dem challenges taking place within easy reach of London and all the major Metropolitan areas with no local elections this year.

- Phone Knocking Up - if you can't make it over you could still be a great help by helping with telephone knocking up in a keenly fought Lib Dem division or ward.

ALDC will put you in touch with local campaigners who need your help - email us or phone 01422 843 785.

By-Elections 21st May 2009

Fri, 22 May 2009 17:23:00 +0100

After a stormy week in politics, anyone looking for dramatic results in this week's council by-elections will be sadly disappointed.

In the four principal council by-elections held this week there were no changes in political allegiance at all. Even in Salford, where Hazel Blears is the local Member of Parliament, Labour held on relatively comfortably despite a large drop in their vote. In this ward the three main parties saw varying declines in their vote share (although ours held up the best), but this vote split between the BNP, Greens and UKIP.

Whether the Salford result shows any significant political trend is less clear given that every other by-election this week was only contested by the three main parties.

The only significant result for Liberal Democrats was an impressive 31.9% of the vote in Rutland in a ward we have not contested in recent years. The local team is pretty encouraged by this result as it was achieved through only delivering one leaflet.

Commons committee backs local tax powers

Thu, 21 May 2009 16:01:00 +0100

The introduction of a local income tax, an end to capping and a return to local control of business rates are just some of the recommendations made in a report out this week from the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.

The committee chaired by Labour MP Phyllis Starkey - which includes Liberal Democrats John Pugh and Andrew George as members - also calls for stronger powers for local councils on health and policing.

The key recommendations are:

ministers should set a higher threshold before intervention
Department of Health and Home Office should work with CLG to establish a local authority commissioning model for local policing, health and healthcare.
supplementary local income tax should be introduced alongside council tax with a corresponding reduction in central taxation, business rates should return to local authority control, and capping should be scrapped.
the Government should prove its localist credentials by introducing constitutional legislation, placing the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government on a statutory footing.

The recommendations have already been rejected by Local Government Minister John Healey MP who said that "the government has already given councils more financial freedom to meet local needs and priorities... it is right that the Government continues to protect council taxpayers from excessive increases."

To find out more, you can read the full report or the articles on it from The MJ and the BBC.

June 4th By-elections

Wed, 13 May 2009 18:46:00 +0100

June 4th By-elections

There was one principal council election held on the 7th May. Labour held the seat. There were no Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC.
Please remember Tuesday 19th May is the deadline for both postal votes and application for the electoral register to allow a resident to vote in the June 4th elections.

John Bridges
john.bridges@aldc.org

The gains keep on coming

Fri, 01 May 2009 14:26:00 +0100

Following last week’s success in council by-elections this was another week of success for the Liberal Democrats.

Harlow’s by-election came under unusual circumstances when a former Conservative councillor was thrown off the council due to non-attendance as a result of a six month stint on remand. The by-election campaign was centred on Lib Dem opposition to cuts by the local Conservative council and resulted in a collapse in the Conservative vote of 15%. Combined with a Lib Dem increase of 6% this saw John Strachan elected by 60 votes to become Harlow’s ninth Lib Dem councillor. You can find out more about we won this election in an article by Lorna Spenceley on Liberal Democrat Voice.

In Sheffield, we had our first electoral test since taking control of the city council. Each party focused their campaign on our record since last May and the result saw a resounding 819 vote majority in a ward won by just 74 votes two years ago. The contest saw a swing from Labour to the Lib Dems and the Conservatives limped home in fourth place despite a very active campaign. Congratulations to Cllr Colin Taylor and his campaign team that was ably led by Ben Curran and Adam Williams.

Of particular significance this week is that our two by-election wins were in parliamentary seats that are being targeted by the Conservatives at the next General Election. On this evidence, it shows that the task for the Conservatives is a lot harder than their poll ratings show. It also gives hope to those people who worry that the Liberal Democrats may be squeezed out.

Don't Forget - Local Government Conference 19 and 20 June 2009

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Please don't forget to make sure you've booked your places at the Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference on Saturday 20 June 2009 in Sheffield. During the Euro/Local election campaign the registration fee rises again - so please get in early before campaigning becomes full time!

Registrations are now on the discounted rates of £45 - cut that down even further if you are an ALDC member to £40 or £35 (If you're not yet a member -why not join!). There is also a special rate for Party Staff and Group Researchers of £40.

Don't forget that if there is a group of you coming, it's "buy three, get the fourth place free" - so why not bring along the whole team? Book online here. For more information please contact Emma Hall or phone 01422 843 785

The programme for the Conference is taking shape and we have a packed schedule for you.

Why not come on Friday evening for the 3rd annual Lib Dem Local Government dinner hosted by Party President Ros Scott. It's just £30 a head, why not stay overnight at the conference hotel,the Mercure St Paul's, (you do need to pay this yourself). With the dinner, the conference and the accomodation all in the same venue it should be an excellent opportunity for networking and meeting other Lib Dem Councillors and activists.

Saturday itself kicks off with Party Leader Nick Clegg MP. Not only is Sheffield a Lib Dem run city, but it also boasts our Leader as one of its MPs. Nick will be addressing the conference in the morning. As well as Nick and Ros, other speakers include Julia Goldsworthy MP and Councillors Paul Scriven, Kath Pinnock and Richard Kemp.

Training is always an important part of the day. For campaigners (that's all of us), we kick off our Flying Start 2010 programme of sessions aimed to deliver success for Lib Dems in the forthcoming local and General elections (and the possibility of them being on the same day). For Councillors we've teamed up with the IDeA and Midas Training to bring you a busy programme of skills and practical training.

Policy sessions focus on sharing the best practice of Liberal Democrats making a difference at a local level and we've a full day exhibition with a mixture of party bodies, partner agencies and equipment suppliers.

Anders Hanson Joins ALDC Team

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC was happy to welcome Anders Hanson to the team on Monday 20 April 2009. Anders joins us in the new post of Senior Political Officer and will be leading the team on our campaigning and council support work.

Anders joins us from Nick Clegg's Sheffield Hallam Office, and he has previously worked for the Party in Wales and in Hampshire, and served as part of the Council Group on Derby City Council.

Contact Anders on 01422 843 785 anders.hanson@aldc.org

Keep up-to-date with By-Election Emails

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Did you know that in the local by-elections that followed the Budget last Thursday Lib Dem's made THREE GAINS and the Tories TWO LOSSES?

Why not be one of the first to know with our weekly by-election emails - All ALDC members are now able to "opt in" to receiving our weekly by-election email.

The email, which is sent out every Friday lunchtime, gives full results for all the local by-elections the previous day, together with a list of all forthcoming local by-elections.

To receive the weekly emails, log in to the ALDC website at www.aldc.org select "Manage Membership" and tick "YES" for by-election emails! While you're there - take a minute to check your member's information details.

Please note that this service is only available for ALDC members.

Tories lose two and Lib Dems gain three!!!

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:57:00 +0100

There were six principal council elections held on the 23rd April. The Lib Dems gained a seat off the Tories, one off Labour and one off Independents. The Tories held two seats and lost a seat to Labour. There was one Town and Parish Council result reported to ALDC, an Independent hold.

In the Totteridge ward of Wycombe District council in Buckinghamshire we took a seat off Labour. The result saw the Liberal Democrats move from third place in 2007 to victory with over 50% of the vote taking the seat from Labour. The main issue of the campaign was the decision by local Conservatives to close the open air swimming pool. Steve Guy and the Lib Dems have been running a campaign to save the pool.

In the Inverness West ward of Highland Council in Scotland , in Danny Alexander MP’s seat we won on the first round with 60% of the vote taking the seat from an Independent. There was a 22% swing to us from the SNP and the Conservatives came a dismal 5th.

In the Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside ward of Aberdeenshire council we took a seat off the Tories. Labour didn’t even bother to field a candidate and the SNP were pushed into 4th place by an Independent candidate.

We also had a 17% increase in our vote in the Wanstead Ward of the London Borough of Redbridge, which will do no harm to our chances in Leyton & Wanstead at the General Election and next year’s locals in London.

In the Alford , Cranleigh Rural and Ellen’s Green Ward in the Borough of Waverley we had a 14% increase in our vote which will boost Sue Doughty’s hopes of returning as the MP for Guildford.

Stop the BNP

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:00:00 +0100

There was one principal council election held on the 16th April, which was held by Independents. There was one Town and Parish Council result reported to ALDC, a Lib Dem hold.

We have discussed on a number of occasions in this column the threat posed by the BNP. We now face the real threat of the BNP gaining Euro seats with all the financial and organisational potential that would follow. The BNP have raised the money for full colour Freepost in every region, which will undoubtedly attempt to make themselves look like “nice people”. We need to challenge this in our non Freepost literature between now and June 4th for the Euros and locals. To help you do this we’ve produced a pack of ready to use artwork that can be dropped into your leaflets. It’s available on our website at www.aldc.org. We also have available our “Tackling the BNP” publication which not only provides campaigning advice and ideas but also the history and background of the BNP - useful when challenging their smart suit façade.

What you can do:

a) Where the BNP are standing a candidate in the county or unitary elections do not ignore them - they will not go away. Make stopping the BNP one of your key campaign themes in all your literature. Use the threat as a means to increase turnout with targeted letters to supporters and key groups likely to oppose the BNP e.g. ethnic groups and Labour supporters (where they’re the third party).

b) Where there is no local election BNP candidate, just those on the regional Euro list it is still important to put the anti BNP message in all our non-freepost literature. You can still use the European BNP threat to encourage our supporters to vote. Why not use it in a mailing to encourage supporters to sign up for postal votes? It’s sometimes difficult to motivate our helpers and members to think that they can make a difference in the European elections. Use the real threat of the BNP in mailings and emails to our activists to encourage them to do more.

Please let us know if the BNP are standing a candidate in your County Division or Unitary ward so that we can help and advise. Please send or email us copies of any BNP literature so we can monitor their performance.

Maundy Thursday First

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:30:00 +0100

Manchester has claimed another first - the first time in British political history an election has been held on Maundy Thursday. This has only been a legal possibility since 2006 but as Returning Officers have a range of possible dates from which to choose they usually opt for another day. The seat was held by Labour.

The City of Manchester, Moston ward holds fond memories for John Leech the Lib Dem MP for Manchester Withington. In the 1995 Moston Ward by-election he was the candidate and I was the agent. Some things don’t change too much; In 1995 John received 18.2% of the vote; last week we got 19.9%.But

a) we had decamped in 1995 for the Littleborough and Saddleworth parliamentary by-election held on the same day.

b) The BNP did not stand.

c) And Labour could blame the Tory government for their inadequacies.

The 2009 Moston campaign was hard fought and most residents would have received 7-10 pieces of good spot colour risoed literature from us. Labour and the BNP fought with full colour literature throughout. The Tories competed on volume but they ignored local issues and must have been disappointed to drop from second to last place - a feat they managed in 1995 as well. Labour got 76% and 69% in the two Moston elections in 1995; in 2009 they got just 38%.

With a difference of 119 votes between ourselves and the BNP we requested a bundle count. This is simply a check that the bundles of ballot papers put against each candidate are all for those candidates and are not for another or mixed. It might seem “picky” at the end of a tiring night but position is everything in elections and it is very easy for a bundle to go astray. This is just one reason why box counts are so important - it gives you the confidence to ask for a recount when there is a reasonable discrepancy between your own figures and those being tentatively “offered” by the returning officer. Often candidates and agents who think they’ve lost, give up too early. The Local Elections (Principal Areas) Rules 2006 No 46 clearly give agents and candidates the powers required: “no step shall be taken on the completion of the counting or any re-counting until the candidates and election agents present at its completion have been given a reasonable opportunity [to ask for a recount]. Requests for recounts can only be rejected if “the request is “unreasonable””

Knock until you drop!

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Knock until you drop!

There were seven principal council elections held on the 2nd April. The Tories held four seats and gained one from Labour. The Lib Dems gained one seat from Labour and held one seat. There were two Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC. One Lib Dem loss to Tory, and two Tory holds.
In the Redcar & Cleveland BC Dormanstown Ward, Ken Lucas achieved a 17.3% increase in vote share to take the seat from Labour. The campaign delivered was based around a mix of leaflets and target mail, with the emphasis on, getting on the doorstep. From having no data for this ward, the local team now have data from 55% of the ward. This shows again that you have to get on the doorstep.

In the Camden Ward of Belsize, Tom Simon achieved an increase of 5.4% against a concerted Conservative campaign, which consisted of lots of leaflets along with lots of negative campaigning being delivered on the doorstep and phone. The Lib Dem campaign was targeted with lots of doorstep voter contact and plenty of leaflets and targeted mailings to identified voters. Yet again showing that doorstep is best for connecting with our voters.
In the Leeds City Council Temple Newsam, Ward Ian Dowling and his team came from 5th in May 2008 with 521 to come only 283 behind the Tories with 1,468, which boads well for the next election in Temple Newsam ward.
In the Arun DC Ward of Felpham West Martin Lury’s team achieved an increase of 6.2%. In the Calderdale Ward of Skircoat the local team led by Pauline Nash came a good second and are in a good place for the next election to go on and win it. In the Huntingdonshire DC ward of Ramsey we came third behind the Tories, In South Holland we achieved 18.9% in a seat where we had not stood before, with more work this is a good start for future elections here.

Mark Alcock
mark.alcock@aldc.org

Councillors Connected

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The IDeA online conference "Councillors connected: the social media online conference" is happening today, and until Wednesday this week (6-8 April).

Anyone can join the online conference - go to www.communities.idea.gov.uk to register. (You will first need to be logged to their website to view the links below.)

They have a great line up of speakers this morning, but this conference is really all about you - we’ve already had some great responses. Feel free to ask questions or start your own topics on social media and local government. Maybe start by introducing yourself to the conference and share a little about how you use social media at work and personally. You can use our conference programme to find your way around the growing list of resources, including a hints and tips for getting the most out of the conference.

Opening address: Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government shares a video message on using social media and supporting local democracy. She’s very positive about the impact of social media on the relationship between local government and local people, but are there some ominous undertones about mandating the use of social media by local government?

James Cousins (LB Wandsworth, Conservative) has a video address on how social media can help humanise the communication between councillors and their constituents. I live in Wandsworth and I’ve been watching (and sometimes engaging) in his really helpful interactions with local people via Twitter.

Richard Kemp (Liverpool, Liberal Democrat) Deputy Chair of the LGA, talks about taking his first steps in social media tool Twitter. More and more councillors are using Twitter; how can it help councillors in their work? Richard will be live in the conference between 11 and 12 today (working computer permitting - a drawback of all this technology is sometimes it lets you down - he’s phoned to say his connection’s down, but he’ll be online as soon as he can)

Tim Pickstone (Bury MBC, Liberal Democrat) provides an excellent piece on how blogging has helped him in campaigning, communication and accountability and provides links to other councillor blogs.

and

Louise Brown from the National Council of Voluntary Organisations talks about how social media provides opportunities for councils and the voluntary sector to work together. She’ll be available from 3 to 5pm today for live discussion.

If you’re a Twitter user please use #cllrsconnnected or on Delicious cllrsconnected to bring outside content into the conference space. If you don’t know what that means, then this conference is a great opportunity to find out.

Election Results Thursday 2nd April 2009

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:44:00 +0100

Huntingdonshire DC, Ramsey

Redcar and Cleveland BC, Dormanstown

Leeds City, Temple Newsam

Camden LBC, Belsize

Huntingdon TC, East

Bridport TC

Calderdale MBC, Skircoat

South Holland DC, Moulton, Weston and Cowbit

Arun DC, Felpham West

Now the clocks have changed its time to get on the doorstep

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:26:00 +0100

There were seven principal council elections held on the 26th March. The Tories held two seats and lost one to Labour. Labour held three seats and gained one seat from the Tories. The Lib Dems held one seat. There were two Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC. One Lib Dem hold and one Tory gain from Labour.

In North East Lincolnshire we run the council with the Tories. This did not stop them fighting a very negative but unsuccessful campaign against our candidate, a local ex-headmaster, in the Yarborough ward by-election. We focussed on the basics with teams out every day canvassing, making sure our voters knew the new candidate and that we had sufficient voter ID for an effective polling day operation. The BNP got 17% on a poor two leaflet campaign.

Now the clocks have changed it's time to get on the doorstep. Whether you’re in a County or Unitary seat for June or it’s using the Euros to prepare for the General Election we need to gather Voter ID. The old rules about “declaring your candidature” starting your election expenses have changed. The regulated period for election expenses for the Euros has already begun and for the Local elections cannot start till 28th April. There is maximum of one week’s difference between the earliest and the latest date on which the regulated period for your local election can start. This is only likely to matter in the very highest spending campaigns. For most it will be more important to maximise their Voter ID by starting canvassing now.

If you’ve not done one recently an easy way to gather voter ID early in the campaign is to use Surveys, particularly for first timers - “knock and drop” style surveys are an easy start for those nervous about knocking on doors. There are a range of “off the shelf” surveys for you to adapt locally available on both ALDC members website at www.aldc.org or on the party’s Extranet site at www.libdems.org.uk . Remember to log your contacts on the million door challenge website. If it rains don’t call it off, get on the phones!

Fighting for position

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:06:00 +0100

There were four principal council elections held on the 19th March. The Tories held three seats and Labour held one. There were three Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC, all three Lib Dem holds.

The Leek East ward of Staffordshire Moorlands Council lies in the marginal Labour held parliamentary constituency of the same name that only has a majority of 2438. Yet the Labour party chose not to stand a candidate in this by-election. We had not stood ourselves in 2007 but the ward lies in a county division that we are fighting. We surveyed the ward prior to the elections and ran on the strong local issue of Tory proposals to introduce parking charges in the Town centre. Our petition gathered hundreds of signatures and worried the Tories into action. We were not helped by the fact that both the Green candidate and one of the Independents were ex-Lib Dems. Whilst we did not win we are now in second place in the run up to the county elections and the Tories back tracked on the parking charges – Focus Victory.

In recent local by-elections the BNP have begun to use full colour Riso leaflets. This is just another step up in their attempt to get representation in Brussels with the funding that comes with it. It is therefore even more essential that we maximise our vote in all the June elections to help keep them out. One straightforward way to do so is get our supporters on to postal votes. Ideally this should be a concerted postal voter recruitment campaign across your area and there are materials available on the ALDC website and the Party's Extranet to help you do it. However if you’ve got friends, members and relations you keep in touch with via the web why not encourage them to get Postal Votes using the national website www.aboutmyvote.co.uk.

Remember the clocks change on Sunday and the lighter evenings should enable us all to get onto the doorstep, surveying, recruiting or canvassing. It’s also time for another Royal Mail stamp price rise, with the cost of stamps rising on the 6th April up 3p for 1st and 2nd class. So it’s a worthwhile investment to buy your stamps now, for elections in the year ahead.

Local Government Conference - Don't Miss Out!

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:14:00 +0100

Don't miss out on your chance to benefit from the special discounted rate for early registrations for the Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference on Saturday 20 June 2009 in (Lib Dem run) Sheffield.

Registrations received by 31 March 2009 come at the special discount rate of £40 - cut that down even further if you are an ALDC member to £35 or £30! (If you're not yet a member -why not join!).

The programme for the Conference is taking shape and we have a packed schedule for you.

Why not come on Friday evening for the 3rd annual Lib Dem Local Government dinner hosted by Party President Ros Scott. It's just £30 a head, and we've done a deal with the conference hotel (the Mercure St Paul's) for delegates to stay overnight (you do need to pay this yourself). With the dinner, the conference and the accomodation all in the same venue it should be an excellent opportunity for networking and meeting other Lib Dem Councillors and activists.

All this for as little as £30! - but only if you book early!

Don't forget that if there is a group of you coming, it's "buy three, get the fourth place free" - so why not bring along the whole team?

Book online here. For more information please contact Emma Hall or phone 01422 843 785.

Online Social Media Conference

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:59:00 +0100

The IDeA is running a free online conference early next month on how councillors use social media.

The conference is completely free of charge and we are keen that as many councillors and people connected to local government as possible share their experiences.

The conference will be held on the IDeA's community of practice platform and details can be found both on our website and on our facebook event page.

Another Gain

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:58:00 +0100

There were five principal council elections held on the 12th March. The Tories held one seat, Labour two and the Lib Dems made a gain from Independents. In Scotland the SNP gained a seat off Labour. There were two Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC. Labour held one and the Lib Dems gained one from UKIP.

The Hartland and Bradworthy by-election for Torridge Council in Devon showed the advantage of an extremely well known local candidate. Brian Redwood is an active parish councillor and charity fundraiser. If you’ve got a candidate this good, get them on the doorstep. Comments like “you’re the only ones that we’ve seen” and “you’re the only ones doing anything” demonstrate the difference getting on the doorstep makes.

With the county elections fast approaching make sure you’ve organised enough voter ID sessions to give a workable shuttleworth for polling day. Don’t be afraid to start now, If you call “on behalf of Fred Bloggs the Liberal Democrat standing in the County elections on June the 4th” you would obviously be declaring his candidacy but for most this is not a problem. The earliest the regulated period for local election expenditure can start is the 28th April – this would be the case if your candidacy were declared on any day prior to the 28th. Only for those who intend to spend up to the limit in the regulated period will this be an issue.

St Helens had two by-elections, one in Rainhill, which we targeted; the other in Parr, which we did not. Both had strong Labour majorities and the Lib Dems had no existing organisational or campaigning infrastructure. To complicate matters we run St Helens council with the Tories so were defending the council’s record. Whilst two second places may not sound good both the BNP and the Tories were marginalised. The campaign developed the ambition, experience and skills of the local party, and demonstrated that the Lib Dems are the party who can take the parliamentary seat off Shaun Woodard at the general election.

In the Norwich City Council by-election in Bowthorpe ward we saw a massive 20% leap in our share of the vote. If the swings were repeated in the General election we would take the Norwich South parliamentary seat from Labour.

Council Group of the Year 2009

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The LGA Liberal Democrat Group "Lib Dem Council Group of the Year" awards were announced at Harrogate on 6 March 2009.

The winners were:

Backbencher of the Year
Councillor John Marshall – councillor on North Yorkshire County Council for over 30 years service.

London Councils Award for Innovation in Candidate Recruitment
Liberal Democrat Group in Lewisham.
Highly commended – Lib Dem Group on Lambeth Council.

Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour
Liberal Democrat Group on Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council.

Helping Children and Young People
Sheffield City Council Liberal Democrat Group

Improving Social Care Services
London Borough of Sutton

Supporting Culture, Leisure and Regeneration
Liberal Democrat Group on the London Borough of Islington.

Green Council Group of the Year
Liberal Democrat Group on Liverpool City Council
HIghly commended: Liberal Democrat Group on Cardiff City Council

Council Group of the Year
Liberal Democrat Group on Newcastle City Council
Highly commended: Liberal Democrat Group on Waltham Forest. and Liberal Democrat Group on Cambridgeshire County Council

Be a Councillor - Final Reminder

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Just a final reminder about the FREE workshops that are taking place over the coming weeks as part of the Liberal Democrat "Be a Councillor" programme.

The events are free to any LIberal Democrat, and taking place in a town or civic hall near you!*

The Be a Councillor programme is about finding and recruiting good, representative and diverse people to be local council candidates. The sessions look at who we could be asking to be council candidates for the future and how to ask them. People who've been to earlier sessions have come away with some brilliant ideas to take home.

These sessions are about building for the future - so particularly important for building for the "thirds" elections in 2010 and the all-out-districts in 2011.

Birmingham [Monday 30th March]
Bristol [Thursday 12th March]
Cambridge [Monday 23rd March]
Eastbourne [Monday 20th April]
Leeds [Tuesday 17th March]
Newcastle [Thursday 30th April]
Northampton [Monday 16th March]
Portsmouth [Tuesday 21st April]
Stockport [Wednesday 29th April]

All the events take place from 7-9pm, and our host is the Leader of the Council in each case.

Come yourself, make sure other colleagues attend including local party members and campaigners.

Please let us know you're coming by registering here - but remember the event is FREE!

* Please note this is an England only programme at present, we will discuss this further with colleagues in Scotland and Wales as most, if not all, of the issues are common to all of us.

Young Peoples Shadowing Scheme Consultation

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 +0100

A new nationwide Local Councillor shadowing scheme is being established as a part of new National Body for Youth Leadership, the British Youth Council will be leading on running a 2 year programme for over 1000 young people to spend a week shadowing local councillors.

As the Councillors’ Commission report (December 2007), evidenced, there is a real lack of understanding of the role of Local Councillors and local democracy. It also provided evidence that people are likely to value Councillors more highly if they have met and dealt with them face to face on real issues.

The aim of our programme is to engage young people in their local democracy and their local communities. As part of the development of this new programme we are running a consultation event with young people and Local Councillors to turn this programme into a practical reality.

If you are interested in taking part in this consultation and are able to attend an event in London on the 17th April 2009 between 11am to 3pm, then please email your details to Tim Pickstone at ALDC - there are a limited number of places for Liberal Democrat Councillors - BYC is able to cover reasonable travel costs for Councillors to attend. If you would like more information please contact David Clark at the British Youth Council on david.clark@byc.org.uk or 020 7785 64 61

Harrogate Highlights

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 +0100

It was brilliant to see so many ALDC members and Councillors at the Federal Party Spring Conference last weekend in Harrogate. Not everyone is able to attend, and for those of you who did you can't be at every part of the conference, so here's our brief highlights:

Fringe
The Local Government fringe was some of the best attended in Harrogate. ALDC's sessions on Europe and the Counties (with ALDE); on the "Be a Councillor" programme (with the Leadership Centre) and on Social Housing were all full with lively discussion. On Friday night the LGA Group with London Councils held the "Council Group of the Year" awards to a packed out room. Elsewhere we saw the launch of the Leadership Centre Next Generation Programme 2009 and the new LGA Group book "Cabinet Member for my Ward".

Training
ALDC ran a programme of eight training sessions - four on campaigning, four on being a councillor, with some of the latter in partnership with colleagues from the IDeA and London Councils. If you're interested in the slides from any of the sessions please let us know (ALDC members only).

Advice and Information
Once again this year we shared our stand with peers from the IDeA (Improvement and Development Agency) to provide additional support to councillors at conference. We were also busy with our "60 second survey" on how much Councillors should be contributing to party activities which created great interest - more to follow on this important subject.

Policy and Debate
There is an excellent run-down of the policy and speeches at the conference at the Party Website, including a video of Nick Clegg's closing speech. As local campaigners we've got some excellent things to go and campaign on - 20 hours free childcare, class sizes of 15 for infants, and of course a continuing unique commitment to scrap tuition fees.

For our photo highlights, visit ALDC's Flickr site here.

PS
The Party celebrated its 21st birthday on Friday in Harrogate - happy birthday from ALDC - we (ALDC/ALC/ASDC) will be 42 this year......!

A good day’s work …beating both the BNP and the Tories

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:56:00 +0100

There were six principal council elections held on the 5th March. The Tories held three seats and lost one to the Liberal Democrats. Labour gained a seat from the Tories. The Lib Dems held one seat. There were two Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC . One Lib Dem hold and one Lib Dem gain from Independents.

In the Buxton Ward of Broadland Council in Norfolk we took a seat from the Tories with 71% of the vote. This election demonstrated that high literature volumes in rural wards do work! Our campaigners found that they were hitting a glass ceiling for voter ID despite good turnouts at Saturday mass canvass sessions. It’s important to vary the times of day, and days that you canvass. Some people will always be out on Saturdays. Once this was taken on board “outs” were sought at different days and times until they were canvassed.

The successful candidate Barabara Rix made a bee-line to the ALDC stall at Harrogate conference to sign up as a member of ALDC. Remember members of ALDC are three and half times more likely to get elected in local elections than non –members. ALDC is for those campaigning to become councillors as much as those who are already elected.

The BNP targeted Castle Ward of Carlisle Council for another gain following last weeks result in Sevenoaks and some encouraging results in Cumbria. Castle ward has been Lib Dem held for years, but the by-election was due to the resignation of our newest councillor. The BNP hopes to get Nick Griffin elected as MEP in the North West and put out 12 pieces of literature, flooded the ward on the day with a full polling day operation, and had Nick Griffin out on the streets. The North West is lucky; it woke up to the BNP threat some years ago. The region and its MEP organised help and interventions to improve the Castle campaign and ensure the BNP’s defeat.

This proactive approach combined with a specific campaign fund are initiatives that some but far from all regions have emulated, it’s time they did.

Harrogate Highlights

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:22:00 +0100

Its only a couple of days to the Party's Federal Spring Conference in Harrogate (Friday 6 - Sunday 8 March 2009). If you've been able to get to Harrogate please join us at one of the many events for councillors and local campaigners, or just come and say "hello" at the stand. If you're not able to be there, please feel free to contact us if you would like any more information about the training or fringe events.

In the previous two weeks, we've given details of the ALDC programmes for campaigner and councillor training in Harrogate. As promised, here are some final details on our busy fringe programme.

The full local Government Programme is available to download here.

Friday 6 March 2009 8.00-9.15pm, Holiday Inn, Charter Suite
Europe Matters Locally
Its just gone three months to go to the European and County/Unitary elections on 4 June 2009. Join our platform of key parliamentarians and campaigners: Willie Rennie MP, Andrew Stunell MP, Danny Alexander MP, Andrew Duff MEP and Director of Campaigns Hilary Stephenson. Chair: Cllr Graham Knight (Mid Sussex). DRINKS

Saturday 7 March 2009 1.00-2.00pm, Holiday Inn, Bramham Suite
Be a Councillor Lib Dem Programme
Join us for the launch of the Be a Councillor Liberal Democrat Programme. This exciting programme being delivered by the Leadership Centre for Local Government and ALDC, will look how we can find and recruit good and diverse council candidates: Julia Goldsworthy MP, Steve Hitchins and Cllr Laura Willoughby. Chair Cllr Claire Hudson (Mendip) LUNCH AVAILABLE

Saturday 7 March 2009 6.30-7.30pm, Holiday Inn, Charter Suite
Social Housing - a Credit Crunch Crisis?
As the credit crunch hits people hard, we examine what the future needs to be for social housing. Join our top panel of experts: Adam Sampson (Chief Executive, SHELTER); Sarah Teather MP; Deputy Leader of Leeds Council Cllr Richard Brett; and Executive Member for Housing in Islington Cllr Terry Stacy. Chair: Cllr Sarah Boad (Warwickshire). DRINKS

Won one, lost one

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:29:00 +0100

There were five principal council elections held on the 26th February. The Tories held two seats and gained one from the Ratepayers. Labour gained a seat from the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems gained one seat off the Tories. There was one Town and Parish Council result reported to ALDC which the Tories held.

In Epsom and Ewell we had two by-elections running concurrently. Wisely we focussed on our defence in Court Ward. At the time of writing the post mortem has yet to be held but it looks likely that, as usual, more than one cause led to our defeat. However one of the stronger reasons seems to have been the messages from the opposition. In 2007 we caught Labour napping. With two strong local issues we took all three seats. Unfortunately at the time of the by-election neither issue had been visibly resolved. This gave Labour plenty of ammunition combined with a more resilient Tory vote to let them slip back in.

On East Devon District council in the Honiton St. Michaels Ward the Tories were complacent and stood a candidate from outside the Ward. The Labour PPC lived in the Ward yet they gave up and failed to stand a candidate. We stood a well-respected Town councillor. The campaign was competent but nothing special. In 2003 we only stood two candidates in a three councillor ward – a simple tactical mistake and we lost. In 2007 we did not even stand a candidate making the victory even more dramatic.

Remember the regulated period for European Election Expenses has started (5th Feb – 4th June). If you are any doubt a ) include either a joint local election /Euro election imprint or b) if you’ve no locals election in June then use the Euro Election imprint on all materials or literature you use in the regulated period. Start now to keep copies of literature and their associated invoices to help your Local Party Treasurer submit his part of the Euro Election expense return after polling day. Your Local Party Treasurer will have received a letter from Cowley Street with further details.

By-Election Emails

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:00:00 +0100

All ALDC members are now able to "opt in" to receiving our weekly by-election email.

The email, which is sent out every Friday lunchtime, gives full results for all the local by-elections the previous day, together with a list of all forthcoming local by-elections.

Please note that this service is only available for ALDC members. To receive the weekly emails, log in to the ALDC website at www.aldc.org select "Manage Membership" and tick "YES" for by-election emails! While you're there - take a minute to check your member's information details.

Harrogate Councillor Training

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:28:00 +0100

The new "Local Government Directory" for the Harrogate Spring Party Conference is now available. Click here to download a printable version - if you're going to Harrogate there will be a paper version in your delegate's bag!

Last week we outlined the programme of ALDC training for Campaigners in Harrogate. Below, as promised, are details of our training programme for Councillors. Next week more information on the Local Government fringe programme.

The sessions all take place on the Saturday 7 March 2009, they're all free to attend, but open only to Party members.

Pavement Politics to Strategic Politics 9.15-10.45
Cllrs Gerald Vernon-Jackson and Derek Osbourne look at taking forward ideas strategically.

Making the most of your MyCouncillor Website 11.00-12.30
Cllr Tim Pickstone shows us some of the tricks for better websites!

Scrutinising Finance - Making it work 14.30-15.45
Ed Hammond (IDeA) and Stephanie Ouzman (Lib Dem Support Officer) look at getting the numbers right!

Finding and Recruiting Good Council Candidates 16.00-17.30
Cllrs Laura Willoughby and Steve Hitchins look at getting good and diverse candidates.

Local Council Local Parliament

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:52:00 +0100

Is your local council a local parliament? Should it be? What would this involve? Join the debate!

Fringe meeting at Federal Spring Conference in Harrogate: Panel includes Simon Hughes MP and Cllr Richard Kemp.
Food and drink provided.

Friday 6 March, 20:00-21:00, Harewood Suite, Holiday Inn
Brought to you by the LGA Lib Dem group, and the Leadership Centre for Local Government

Standing a candidate matters more than ever

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:00:00 +0100

There were five principal council by-elections held on Thursday 19th February. The Liberal Democrats held three seats. Labour held one and lost one to the BNP. In the only parish and Town council election reported to ALDC the Lib Dems gained a seat from the Conservatives.

As you might expect from a by-election in the held Harrogate parliamentary seat we fought the Bilton Ward by-electon hard and well. We managed to build on good canvas returns to get an 89% contact rate. Many agents locally and nationally will be very jealous of that!!

In holding the two seats in the Downham ward of the London Borough of Lewisham we had an excellent result with majorities in excess of 400. There had been a history of BNP activity in the ward, which has always been confronted by the Liberal Democrats. The BNP only achieved 10% in this election yet Labour’s only campaign pledge was to get the Union Jack flying over the Town Hall, which they could have done at any point in their last 37 years of control in Lewisham. This was seen by many as a policy pandering to a racist vote and smacked of Labour’s desperation.

In the Swanley St Marys ward of Sevenoaks Council in Kent the BNP took a seat off Labour. Our local party failed to stand a candidate, though one had been identified. ALDC has been told a complicated, sorry tale as to why this volunteer was not then nominated. What is clear is that it was a conscious decision. It was one ALDC utterly condemns.

Even if we can only run a paperless campaign it is imperative that we stand candidates in all by-elections. Not standing a Lib Dem candidate can directly benefit the BNP by as much 5%. Irrespective of whether the BNP has a “history” in your area they fought 30% of all by-elections in 2008 and are fighting 40% in 2009. In some areas that figure rises to 60%. The Swanley BNP candidate is the 5th to get over 26% this year in the ten seats they have fought.

Can we simply reiterate

Always stand a candidate, even a paperless campaign will damage the BNP.
In conjunction with Searchlight , ALDC has produced a publication “Tackling the BNP” which is there to help – it's available from our online shop.
If you are actively fighting a by-election where the BNP are standing contact ALDC for help, support and artwork.
Make sure your region and regional campaigns officer are aware that you are fighting the BNP. Some have dedicated campaign funds or will commit extra support.

Lib Dem Local Government Conference

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Liberal Democrats councillors and local campaigners come together in (Lib Dem run) Sheffield on 19 and 20 June 2009 for the third Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference.

For further information, and for details of exhibition space, please contact Emma Hall on 01422 843 785 emma.hall@aldc.org

This is a great opportunity for Liberal Democrats across the Country to exchange best practice and prepare for the electoral challenges that face us in the coming years.

Register online now to take advantage of the special "Early Bird" registration fee of £30 (ALDC's Gold Members); £35 (Silver) and £40 (non-ALDC members). ALDC members should "log in" to the website FIRST to receive your members discount - its then applied automatically).

Why not bring along a group to the Conference? - if you pay for three places at the Conference - then your fourth place is free!

Friday 19 June (daytime) - Satellite events including Leadership Centre programme for Council Leaders.

Friday 19 June (evening) - Lib Dem Local Government Reception and Dinner with Party President Ros Scott. (Tickets for this are £30 on top of the normal registration fee).

Saturday 20 June (daytime) - Local Government Conference - speakers, training, debate, exhibition and policy. We can now confirm that the Party Leader, Nick Clegg MP will be addressing the Conference on Saturday 20 June.

Be a Councillor Lib Dem Programme

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:00:00 +0100

How are you finding it recruiting your candidates?

WHAT?
Be a Councillor is a Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) project launched in January 2009 delivered by the Leadership Centre for Local Government for each of the three main political parties to assist YOU with the recruitment of a broader, deeper, and even more able pool of talented council candidates for future council elections. It is more about talent than about diversity but one leads to the other!

HOW?
For each party, nine separate party meetings will be organised in regional venues. For the Liberal Democrats these will be in:

Birmingham Monday 30th March
Bristol Thursday 12th March
Cambridge Monday 23rd March
Leeds Tuesday 17th March
Newcastle Thursday 30th April Please note corrected date
Northampton Monday 16th March
Eastbourne Monday 20th April
Portsmouth Tuesday 21st April
Stockport Wednesday 29th April

They will be evening meetings commencing probably at 7pm and ending soon after 9pm. Venues are in part chosen for ease of access for councils in neighbouring areas to also attend. Refreshments will be provided – after the meeting and travel expenses (for councillors) are refundable from your council because these are LGA meetings.

Further meetings will be held at the Federal Conference in Harrogate on 7th March (with Julia Goldsworthy MP) and at the LGA/ALDC Councillors Conference in Sheffield on 19th June.

Its free, but please register on-line.

Women's Local Government Society AGM

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The Women's Local Government Society will be meeting in Birmingham on Saturday 21st March 2009. The day will include an update on our activities and discussion about how we can meet our aims.

This year they have focused on the drive to recruit more women candidates, and launched their 'find a friend' pack available on the website. We are also lobbying and campaigning to help make sure women have fair access to winnable seats, and have the support they need once they are elected.

An application form is here.

Conservative Local Government Proposals

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:50:00 +0100

Yesterday the Conservative Party launched its Local Government "green paper" entitled "Control Shift - Returning Power to Local Communities".

Key points include (for a full list - see LGA Briefing):

• Discretionary power to levy business rate discounts and firms given power to support/stop increases in local business rates through local referenda.
• New relationship between local and central government (including power of general competence).
• Local referenda on ‘excessive’ council tax increases.
• Legislate for referenda on directly elected mayors in 12 major cities. (Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield Bradford, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Wakefield, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, Newcastle upon Tyne)
• Directly elected police commissioners. Giving local people more power over local spending priorities

Richard Kemp - who leads the LGA Liberal Democrat Goup commented on the proposals:

"Tories right for Direction but woefully lacking in substance"
The Leader of the Liberal Democrats in local government, Cllr Richard Kemp has welcomed the direction of the Tory proposals for local government, but has cited four major concerns.

"This is a wholesale repudiation of the Thatcher and Major governments which stripped councils of their power and finance and made them into puppets of central government, but the plans lack substance in 4 areas".

1. They do nothing to correct the imbalance between central and local funding. Whilst central government supplies up to 80% of the money spent by local government they will continue to call the tune asserting national priorities over local ones. They have similarly chickened out of tackling the way we raise money locally by keeping in place the grossly unfair Council Tax whilst we would propose a fair local income tax.

2. They have learned nothing about local mayors. Some Mayors, and of course our own in Watford, have been successful. And where people decide that they want a mayor they already have the right to elect one. But of the 12 elected mayoral systems in England two are in deep trouble with Stoke already voting to end their mayoral system. If the same proportion of councils generally were in trouble there would be aid teams outside 38 Town Halls today.

3. They have learned nothing about regionalism. They are, of course, right to rail against the bureaucracies of unelected regional government. But to suggest that employment, housing, transport and planning matters stop at the boundary of each council is ludicrous. Councils must and do work together and should be empowered themselves to develop sub regional and regional frameworks.

4. Proposals for elected commissioners for the Police are deeply scary. Most people believe that the head of the Police should be a serving and experienced police officer. Although the green paper does not define what an elected commissioner would do there would be no point in having such a position if that person were unable to radically change policing policy and operational policing activity.

Cllr Kemp added: "In these proposals the Tory MPs are clearly not listening to their own councillors who would support many of these points especially the one about police commissioners. In particular they have shown that they know little about urban government with many major urban councils like Liverpool. Sheffield and Newcastle being entirely Tory Free Zones."

Cornwall back on for June!

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:08:00 +0100

"Democracy has triumphed over delay" is the response of Cornish MPs to reports that Local Government Minister John Healey is set to confirm the election date for the new Cornwall Council as 4th June 2009 (rather than delay to October).

The Cornish MPs say that "this decision will make sure that the new council is shaped by councillors and elected by the people in its first crucial months, not run by unelected caretakers".

The team of Cornish MPs wrote to the Local Government Minister John Healey on 29th January 2009 setting out their view that the new Council should be elected at the earliest opportunity, with 123 councillors serving a four year term. Where Parish Councils or others have requested uncontroversial changes to the draft boundaries, these should be implemented before June 4th, and the MPs have pressed the Local Government Minister to guarantee resources are available to ensure this happens.

Full story on Julia Goldsworthy's website here.

Achievable Goals

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:03:00 +0100

There were four principal council elections held on the 12th February. The Tories held three seats and lost one to Labour. There were two Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC. The Tories took one seat from the Lib Dems and the Lib Dems took one from the Tories.

In the four principal elections put together we only polled 440 votes. In most by-elections we will fight to win and you can often get much bigger swings than are possible in a regular local election. The entire Local Party's resources (and help from outside) can be directed into a small area. Not fighting to win should be rare and would only usually happen except in a very poor ward when perhaps you are in the run up to wider local elections and you do not want to take effort away from your main targets. But even when you are not going all out to win you can still set yourselves achievable goals. Your goal may well be to develop your organisation in that ward or to build data in your strongest areas to help at a different election – perhaps the General Election or the next set of locals in the area. Your goal could be to train campaigners in election skills for future elections. Don’t miss the opportunity.

Be A Councillor - Lib Dem Programme

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:00:00 +0100

How are you finding it recruiting your candidates?
The Liberal Democrat programme

HOW?
For each party, nine separate party meetings will be organised in regional venues. For the Liberal Democrats these will be in:

Birmingham Monday 30th March
Bristol Thursday 12th March
Cambridge Monday 23rd March
Leeds Tuesday 17th March
Newcastle Thursday 28th April
Northampton Monday 16th March
Eastbourne Monday 20th April
Portsmouth Tuesday 21st April
Stockport Wednesday 29th April

Further meetings will be held at the Federal Conference in Harrogate on 7th March (with Julia Goldsworthy MP) and at the LGA/ALDC Councillors Conference in Sheffield on 19th June.

WHO?
All councillors will be invited. MPs and MEPs will be notified. But it is up to each of you to invite those people from your local party whom you think should be there. The optimum group of attendees from each council would include the Group Leader, at least two other councillors, someone responsible for the campaign, someone responsible for the candidate processes and a non-councillor candidate. All contact will be by e-mail.

Please register on-line.

WHEN?
The meetings are being held in March and April to be completed before the Euro campaign hots up. As you can see most of the venues are in areas where the Liberal Democrats control the council.

Your host is the Council Leader who will be introducing the event. It is unlikely and unavoidable that we’ll pick dates which don’t clash with meetings for some of you! That’s why we’re not issuing regional invitations but giving all councillors the chance to attend any of the meetings

WHAT?
The meetings are based on a pilot conducted in London which was very successful. The meeting is not an end in itself but each one will facilitate the identification of a substantial number of names of people whom the participants must then approach about becoming candidates.

There is opportunity for follow-up and support as well in the second phase.

WHO?
Leadership Centre for Local Government has appointed Steve Hitchins to run this project for the Liberal Democrats with ALDC and the Lib Dem Group Office at the LGA.

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?
More information will be coming out in the near future but don’t hesitate to contact me directly with any questions. My e-mail is steve.hitchins@googlemail.com and my mobile 07801106860.

WHAT DO I DO NOW?
Go on line and reserve your place NOW! Contact colleagues in your local party and make sure they go too.

Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Liberal Democrats councillors and local campaigners come together in (Lib Dem run) Sheffield on 19 and 20 June 2009 for the third Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference.

This is the third year running that the conference has been jointly organised by ALDC and the LGA Liberal Democrat Group,and builds on the success of the last two events in Birmingham. This is a great opportunity for Liberal Democrats across the Country to exchange best practice and prepare for the electoral challenges that face us in the coming years.

Register online now to take advantage of the special "Early Bird" registration fee of £30 (ALDC's Gold Members); £35 (Silver) and £40 (non-ALDC members). ALDC members should "log in" to the website FIRST to receive you're members discount - its then applied automatically).

Why not bring along a group to the Conference? As a special offer if you pay for three places at the Conference - then you fourth place is free!

The conference takes place in the centre of Sheffield at both the St Paul's Hotel and Sheffield Town Hall, which are next door to each other. On Friday 19 June 2009, the Leadership Centre for Local Government and others will be organising satellite events during the day. Further details will be available shortly.

On the evening of Friday 19 June, you are welcome to join us at the Lib Dem Local Government Dinner, at St Paul's Hotel, with Nick Clegg MP and Baroness Ros Scott. Accommodation on Friday evening is available at St Paul's Hotel. Dinner on Friday night is £30 extra (sorry no group discount here!)

On Saturday the main conference takes place from 9.30am – 4.00pm and will include: - training – skills for councillors and campaigners - speakers and debate - exhibition - fringe events and workshops

Confirmed contributors on Saturday include: Baroness Ros Scott, Julia Goldsworthy MP, Andrew Stunell MP, Councillor Richard Kemp, Councillor Kath Pinnock and Councillor Paul Scriven.

For delegates attending the whole Friday daytime and Saturday programme, a special full delegate rate is available of £125 which includes dinner.

Accommodation must be booked separately which can be done online here.

For further information, and for details of exhibition space, please contact Emma Hall on 01422 843 785 emma.hall@aldc.org

They won’t just go away

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:19:00 +0100

There were five principal council elections held on the 5th February. Labour held two seats and the Tories held three. There were no Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC.

In the Plaistow ward of Chichester District Council in West Sussex we came within 113 votes of taking the seat off the Tories. The by-election was called following the resignation of a Conservative Councillor who attended just one of the seventeen council meetings held since he was elected in May 2007. In the run up to polling day another Conservative Councillor resigned from the Tories and backed our candidate. The swing of 21% to us was huge but this was a ward in which the Tories got 78% of the vote in 2007.

There has been a worrying trend in recent months. Each week we have had at least one by-election which the BNP have clearly targeted – presumably nationally. This week it was Hyde Newton Ward in Tameside where the BNP got 29%, coming second to Labour. Last week it was Fenham Ward in Newcastle where the BNP got 836 votes, 27% only 213 behind the Lib Dems, but in third. On the 22nd January it was in the East Wickham Ward in Bexley, London where they got 790 (26.5%) only 8 votes from the Tory victors. As they did not win these seats it may not have received national news coverage. Full marks to our local parties for standing candidates and fighting all these seats. What is clear is that you can’t “carry on regardless” and hope the BNP will go away.

If your by-election has been targeted by the BNP, and your campaign is not just a flag waving exercise then you need to do more. One of your key campaign messages needs to be exposing the BNP as fascists. This may be an obvious concept to active Liberal Democrats but the public has lowered its tolerance threshold and we need to remind them of who and what the BNP are and what that means. As with all your key campaign messages this means including it in all your literature. For help and guidance please get a copy of “Tackling the BNP” from ALDC and contact us for advice and standard artwork when you are planning your campaign.

Children's Conference Going Ahead!

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:10:00 +0100

The LGA Lib Dems are re-assuring people that the Children and Young People's conference will still go ahead tomorrow (6th Feb) and Saturday in Nottingham, despite the snow! The venue have confirmed this morning that they are open, although they have told us that due to the weather they are unable to provide transport from Nottingham station, so delegates will need to get a cab if coming by train.

The journey takes about 10 minutes or so. There is a taxi rank at the station itself but should you want to pre-book a cab, two local cab firms are: DG cars - 0115 9607 607 or try Cab line 0115 922 5226. Cab firms have confirmed to us on the phone that they are able to negotiate the roads OK, although of course everyone should take care when travelling in wintry conditions and allow a bit more time to reach the venue.

As mentioned before, the accommodation is in the same building as the conference venue so there are no worries about negotiating icy pavements to get back to your room. No snow is forecast in Nottingham tomorrow. We look forward to welcoming you to Nottingham. In addition to the packed agenda, I for one am looking forward to the food, which has always been great whatever the weather!

More information LGA Lib Dems

Internet Tools for Councillors

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:00:00 +0100

There are a number of internet sites that could be useful to us in our work as Councillors. Here's three we've found useful recently - let us know if they're useful to you, or if you know of any others that should be promoted:

Fix My Street

www.fixmystreet.com is a sort of (non-party) online casework service. The site encourages people to register their local issues, and then monitor how, when and by who they're fixed by.

Enter your postcode (or a postcode in the middle of the ward you represent) and you'll get a list of issues in your local area. You can sign up for email alerts every time someone enters a new issue. This might be a good way to keep on top of new issues in your area - let us know how you get on!

Planning Alerts

www.planningalerts.com has been around on a trial basis for a little while now - its pretty straight-forward: give your postcode and email address and in return you get news of planning applications by email. The email alerts seem to be better than many offered by councils themselves, so this may also be a useful service for councillors and colleagues to promote to the public in your patch. It covers 315 local authorities at the moment, and if your isn’t one of them then you can help add it to the service. (with thanks to Mark Pack for this story).

Write to Them
Another website from the same people as Fix My Street is www.writetothem.com. This is less for you, but for your constituents to contact you. But its worth checking that your information is up there an up to date!

Enter the postcode in your ward, and hopefully you should come up as a Councillor!

Six out of seven ain’t bad

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:48:00 +0100

There were four principal council elections held on the 29th January. Labour held one seat and lost two to the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems held one seat. Of three Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC the Lib Dems gained two from Independents and one from the Tories.

In Newcastle’s Fenham ward we were in third place before we won it in 2006. In 2007 we lost by 4. In 2008 we won by 303. Our victory last night by 24 votes, bringing our group in Newcastle to 50, the largest in the country was just as sweet seeing of both Labour and a strong BNP challenge. Newcastle’s elections are very different from many. 46% of the electorate across the city have postal votes. In this by-election 2963 postal votes were issued and 1979 returned – 64% of the votes cast in the by-election. Inevitably a lot of emphasis was put on work with this self-selecting group of the electorate.

In the Valentine Ward of the London Borough of Redbridge we made another stunning gain. The key to success was identifying and running with the strong local issues we identified; 1. The Tory closure of a local swimming pool 2. The distance kids were being forced to travel due to a lack of school places and 3. The council attempting to gag our candidate when he tried to raise the issue.

Didsbury West Ward is not inner-city Manchester and contains the multi-million pound mansions of several Labour MP’s – yes that affluent. It had been one of the Tories safest wards in the City prior to their demise in the 1980’s, with Tory party membership in the ward over a 1,000. In last Thursday’s by-election following the tragic death of North West Campaigns Officer Cllr Neil Trafford the Tory vote was squeezed to just 13% and the Lib Dem vote topped 50%. This is one of seven wards in John Leech’s Manchester Withington increasingly less marginal parliamentary constituency. The campaign, full of bells and whistles, produced a healthy swing to the Lib Dems that bodes well for the general election. Winning six out of the seven by-elections last Thursday is a great start to the new year!

Slow Start to the New Year

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:00:00 +0100

There were three principal council elections held on the 22nd January. The Tories held two seats and the Lib Dems one. Of four Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC the Tories held two seats and gained one off the Lib Dems.

The Lib Dems gained one seat from the Tories. In the East Wickenham Ward of the London Borough of Bexley the BNP came within 8 votes of taking the seats from the Tories. See last weeks article highlighting the relative threat posed by the BNP.

Nobody will be surprised that, without a candidate, UKIP’s vote seems to have switched directly to the BNP. In each of the principal council by-elections held last Thursday the deceased’s party held the seat.

When the incumbent is one of the established parties and the by-election follows a death then it usually - though emphatically not always - is held. In the final 3 months of 2008 there were four by-elections following the deaths of Lib Dem councillors, of which we held three. In the eight following resignations we only held four, just 50%. People don’t like going to the polls unnecessarily. If the by-election is predicable for any reason and we would be defending the seat early work pays dividends. Find and then establish in the community and focus your “reserve” candidate. Make sure casework is being done and the wards data is kept or backed up to multiple sites.

Councils and Icelandic Banks

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:05:00 +0100

Councils throughout the UK are being advised by Cllr Richard Kemp, Leader of the Local Government Association Liberal Democrat Group to urgently review the services bought from companies providing information and advice on investment.

Cllr Kemp said that all councils want or need is an information service than they are paying through the nose for the service at present. He will be asking the LGA and CIPFA later this week to consider the establishment of a financial and investment information service which could be provided to councils at a fraction of the cost that they are paying now and which would be more useful".

More information from the LGA Lib Dem Group

LGA Management Changes

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:01:00 +0100

The Local Government Association has announced changes to its senior management, with the following message from the Chair of the LGA, Cllr Margaret Eaton:

"As you know, since December 2008, the LGA’s Chief Executive, Paul Coen, has been on an agreed period of leave, following concerns that the political and managerial leadership of the LGA were not in the right alignment. Matters have now been resolved and Paul is announcing today that he will be leaving the LGA on 31 January.

The Group Leaders and I felt it was very important for the LGA to have continuity and stability during the next challenging period, and I am pleased to inform you that John Ransford, the current Deputy Chief Executive, has been appointed as Chief Executive through to December 2010. He will provide experienced leadership through to the next General Election and beyond. I am also pleased to confirm that Jo Miller, currently Deputy Chief Executive of Bradford MDC, will join the Association as Deputy Chief Executive from 1st September. Jo has a record of dynamic leadership, innovation and managing change, and the LGA Group Leaders and I are delighted to have been able to recruit her to this important role for the Association and for the sector.

I appreciate that over the past few weeks there has been some uncertainty and speculation in the press. These new arrangements will enable us to put this behind us as we support member councils through the challenges that we face in 2009."

Government to deny voice to local people

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The Government have introduced legislation making it harder for people to petition their local council.

Over 8 pages of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill are dedicated to setting conditions on the form petitions to local councils can take. The section runs to 3,221 words of primary legislation, with further statutory guidance expected to follow.

Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords are mounting an attack on the Government’s ridiculous proposals to force local Councils in England and Wales to spend time and resources on setting up and managing these complicated bureaucratic procedures.

Commenting ahead of his attempt to remove the legislation from the Bill, Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokesperson Lord (Tony) Greaves said, “This Bill gives councils the chance to throw out the vast majority of petitions they receive because they will not be ‘valid’ according to the bureaucratic and legalistic rules they want to set into law.

“Far from helping people to put forward their views, they will make it a lot harder. “I have been an elected Councillor for about thirty years in total and I have been a member of the Lords for nearly nine years and I have never seen anything quite as silly as this.

“It’s Gulliver politics. This Lilliputian government is seeking to tie up Councils in red tape and detailed rules which will cover every single thing they do, just as Gulliver was tied up on the beach.”

“Instead of wasting councils’ time and resources, they should be freeing councils’ hands to provide support to local people during the economic crisis.

It is expected that the House of Lords will debate the relevant sections of the Bill today, Monday 26 January 2009.

Channel 4 Political Impact Awards 2009

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:06:00 +0100

Channel 4 are having an online vote for the Political Impact Award 2009.

The candidates are:
* Gordon Brown
* Vince Cable
* Boris Johnson
* Peter Madelson
* Eliza Manningham-Buller
* Andrew Walker

Click here to vote.

Council Group of the Year Awards 2009

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The LGA Liberal Democrat Group have called for nominations for the Liberal Democrat Council Group of the Year Awards 2009.

The awards, which will be presented at Liberal Democrat Spring Conference will include:

* Council Group of the Year
* Green Council Group of the Year
* Backbencher of the Year
* Vice-Presidents Award***
* London Councils Award - a special award supported by London Councils - separate information available elsewhere.

***(a special award for a group of particular mention, perhaps a group that is fiesty or operating in difficult circumstances).

How to Enter
You will need to submit a detailed note setting out what your group or member has done to qualify for each award. This should be no more than 4 sides of A4, and may be accompanied by up to three attachments, but not totalling more than 6 sides of A4. Forms must be signed by the Group Leader.

For more information or to apply please contact libdems@lga.gov.uk or phone 020 7664 3235

Creating a Progressive Society

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:36:00 +0100

Whilst members may wonder what the purpose of one day conference on policy that has no decision making powers is, the One Day conference “Creating a Progressive Society” held at the LSE on Saturday 17th January was certainly busy, provocative and interesting.

The two major themes of the conference were Poverty and Inequality.

Poverty
The Institute of Fiscal Studies briefed a session trying to “map” where poverty is worst in the UK, and how the poorest can be best helped. It also considered how Liberal Democrats should approach the issue of poverty and how far our current policy is adequate. The conclusions were both fascinating and revealing. The IFS are making the presentation available on their website www.ifs.org.uk shortly.

Inequality
Later in the day there was a discussion of social mobility in the UK following the reporting back of the independent Commission on Social Mobility. This was established in January 2008 by Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg and chaired by Martin Narey, Chief Executive of Barnardo’s and the Chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition. The commission investigated the reasons for Britain’s apparently low levels of social mobility and recommend policy changes to enable children from disadvantaged backgrounds to fulfil their full potential. Findings include:

1.that a child’s life chances are ‘dependent on the background and earnings of its parents’.

2.that increased education funding has failed to reach those children most in need.

Nick Clegg said “"We agree with the overwhelming majority of the reports’ recommendations, especially targeting resources in schools to those children who need most help, boosting vocational education for teenagers, and radically altering the tax credit system so it is focused on helping those families most in need. "Whilst we do not agree with some other recommendations, such as the abolition of the 10p rescue package or the use of admissions ballots in schools, the report will considerably strengthen the commitment by Liberal Democrats to providing equality of opportunity to every child to succeed in Britain. "This damning report shows that a child’s prospects are still tied to the circumstances of their birth. That is why we will make improving the prospects for all our children a key part of our election manifesto."

Not rocket science perhaps but an important message none the less and timely given the recent government white paper - New Opportunities: Fair chances for the future. Copies of the commission report are available to download at www.socialmobilitycommission.org.

Copies of the government white paper are available to download at www.hmg.gov.uk/newopportunities/download.aspx

Fight the Good Fight

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:41:00 +0100

There were two principal council elections held on the 15th January. The Tories held one seat and Labour held the other. One Town Council result was reported to ALDC where the Tories held the seat.

It’s not often that local council by-elections get coverage in the national broadsheets but a by-election in a Labour Ward in the London Borough of Haringey following the Baby P case was always likely to be high profile. We started as the main opposition on the council but on only 12.7% and in fourth place in this ward the last time it was fought in 2006. So to get the largest swing of any party, adding 8% to our vote in this potential squeeze situation was a very creditable result. If the same swing were repeated across Haringey in 2010 we would sweep to control with the Tories still winning no seats.

The intervention of all Non Aligned Parties (NAPs), such as the Greens in Haringey, has a very noticeable effect on any election above the direct vote it obtains. Votes for NAP’s are unpredictable and can and do come from all parties and none. As important for the final result is the way that NAPs, like the BNP, can polarise voting behaviour. The likelihood of facing a candidate from these parties in any given by-election varies radically across the UK. In 2008 the Greens stood in around 30% of by-elections but in London that rose to 53% of seats. Other areas where you are more likely to find a green fighting are the East of England, Yorkshire, the West Midlands and Scotland.

In the Newent Central Ward by-election for the Forest of Dean Council in Gloucestershire, we failed to stand a candidate. This is not a hive of Lib Dem strength but we do have two councillors on the council and by-elections are an obvious way to build up new wards for the future. During 2008 Western Counties had an enviable record of standing candidates; 21 in 21 contests. It seems a pity that we can’t develop systems to avoid these “unforced errors”.

Harrogate Spring Conference 2009

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:16:00 +0100

Liberal Democrat Spring Conference takes place 6-8 March 2009 in Harrogate. If you've not registered yet and would like to follow this link.

We will be circulating fuller details of the whole Local Government programme nearer the time, but here's a first preview of ALDC's programme in Harrogate:

Fringe
We have three fringe meetings organised for you: On Friday evening we're working with our colleagues in the European Parliamentary Party to bring you a fringe on how European and local issues link together - particularly relevant for the elections this summer! On Saturday lunchtime we're working with the Leadership Centre for Local Government to bring a special meeting on the national roll-out of the "Be a Councillor" programme for attracting and recruiting council candidates. At the end of the afternoon on Saturday we'll be making the case for more social housing in the light of current circumstances.

Campaigner Training
Campaigner training (all on Saturday - free to all Party members) sees sessions on: "11 weeks to go" (to 4th June); Polling Day - the basics; "if you don't do this, you won't win" (postal votes, direct mail and telephoning for local campaigns) and Keeping Your Council Seat.

Councillor Training
Our programme of councillor training this conference comprises sessions on Scrutiny of Finance; pavement politics to strategic politics (both of these sessions are ALDC and the IDeA); making thw most of your myCouncillor website and Finding Council Candidates (with London Councils).

More details on all these sessions will follow with the Local Government Directory in the next month. Please get in touch if you need to know more.

How Many Doors Have You Knocked On?!

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:57:00 +0100

There has been a brilliant response to Nick Clegg's "Million Door Challenge" for local activists to be spending more time talking to local people and to local voters. We've been hearing some excellent stories from up and down the country - and regions and counties have been setting their own local targets and competitions.

If you've not started yet - the materials can be downloaded from ALDC's Online Goldmine (for ALDC Gold Members) or from the Party's Extranet.

Now the Party needs an update on how many doors you've knocked on, so we can monitor when we meet the challenge! Email your numbers - no matter how small or large to onemilliondoors@libdems.org.uk

If you have any interesting stories about how the Million Door Challenge has helped your local Party we'd be interested in hearing from you for "Campaigner" magazine. Similarly, both ALDC and the Campaigns Department are always on the look out for good local examples of campaigns, particularly at present single issue campaigns (saving or delivering on a local service or facility). Email john.bridges@aldc.org

2nd-Hand Riso Wanted

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:42:00 +0100

Liberal Democrats working with our international colleagues in the Liberal Party of Moldova are asking if anyone has a 2nd hand, and unwanted Riso that they could donate.

The need is quite urgent as it needs to be transported around the end of the month. If you might be able to help please email us and we'll forward your details.

Election Briefing January 2009

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:51:00 +0100

The latest Election Briefing is now available, (for ALDC members only), to read online or download.

Topics include:

"Will you be ready in 2009?"
"Things to do now"
"Are you throwing your money down the drain?"
"The Four P’s"
"Local Election Timetable 2009"

Click here to read Election Briefing, (ALDC members only).

Sign up postal voters

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:00:00 +0100

There were two principal council elections held on the 8th January.The Tories held one seat and the Lib Dems held one seat. No Town and Parish Council results were reported to ALDC.

In the Drypool Ward of Kingston-upon-Hull City council we had a potentially difficult defence. One of our councillors in Drypool fell out with the group leadership, defected to the Tories and then resigned when discovered living in Guernsey by the press. Our third defection in one ward in 10 years! Our control of Hull was not dependent on the result but taking the seat back was certainly a moral boost. Drypool is a ward where we have already won in 7 out of the last 8 elections. However the last Labour councillor for the Ward was not ousted until 2007. He was runner up in the Labour selection to replace John Prescott in Hull East, the parliamentary constituency where Drypool lies, and confidently stood again in this by-election.Labour was stunned to be beaten again by more than when he was the defending incumbent in 2007.

Before the election began we had a good level of Voter ID and a healthy shuttleworth. We had surveyed the whole ward in the summer as part of our normal community politics and our candidate was well known for her work in a residents association. Given the likelihood of bad weather throughout the campaign but specifically on polling day we decided to focus our canvassing at the beginning of the campaign on those in the pool without postal votes to encourage them to apply for them. After the deadline for postal vote applications passed we widened our net to include new voters as well. The figures speak for themselves. Of the 940 postal voters 703 voted - 75%. Of the 8400 non postal voters 1795 voted - 21%. Of all votes cast postal votes represented 28%. The message is simple sign up your supporters as postal voters.

In the Bush Hill Park ward of the north London borough of Enfield saw the Independent “Save Chase Farm” candidate who got 24.4% in 2006 fail to stand a candidate. Their vote reverted to the Tory giving them a pyrrhic victory.

Happy New Year

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Best wishes for 2009 from all of us at ALDC, if you've had a break over Christmas, hope it was a good one!

A number of people have contacted us regarding the downloading of PagePlus files from the members-only area of the website. This problem has now been resolved and all files should download correctly.

Do not stand down

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:09:00 +0100

There were five principal council elections held on the 18th December. Labour held two seats; the Tories held two seats and the Lib Dems gained one seat off the Tories. There were six Town and Parish Council results reported to ALDC; the Tories held one seat, Lib Dems held two and gained two seats off the Tories and one from Labour.

Our only principal council gain of the night was in the Newchurch Ward, on the Isle of Wight where Parish council chairman and farmer Colin Richards won back his old seat lost to the Tories in 2005. He had previously sat as an independent but fought as a Lib Dem in the by-election.

The second story of the night was the BNP threat. In the Hibstock and Heather ward of the North West Leicestershire council the BNP increased the UKIP vote from 20% to 31% to come within 15 votes of winning. Here the local Lib Dems did the right thing by standing a candidate. There is demonstrable evidence that the BNP do worse in seats where we put up a candidate, irrespective of the level of campaign we then run. To not stand a candidate is to aid the BNP. The “united front”/ ”standing down to give the strongest challenger a clear run” argument is simply not supported by the facts.

In the Kells and Sandwith ward of Cumbria County Council we failed to stand a candidate and the BNP came within 16 votes of winning. The local party were aware that the election had been called by the BNP and that they would therefore be standing. It is incumbent under the 3.1(b) (i) of the constitution for local parties to secure the election of Liberal Democrats to local authorities The Copeland Local Party failed to do this.

Local officers can easily overlook the significance of individual by-elections to the regional and national party. Different solutions to this ongoing problem have been modelled. In Shropshire they are now using a countywide flying squad. Another method may be for the regions to suspend local parties who consistently fail in this obligation.

The third story of the night was in the Parish council election in Penketh East, in the Warrington South parliamentary constituency, where we took a vital seat by 5 votes, coming from a previous third place to take the seat from Labour. Penketh was until last night the only part of the marginal Parliamentary Constituency of Warrington South not to have any Liberal Democrat representation at Borough or Parish Council level.

Finally in Weston-super-Mare, Clarence and Uphill Ward of North Somerset Council the seat was decided by the toss of a coin!!

Happy Christmas

Councillor Reps on Federal Committees

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Results have been announced for the election of Councillor Representatives to Federal Party Committees, following a ballot of Lib Dem Councillors.

Federal Executive
Stan Collins
Merel Ece

Federal Policy Committee
Stan Collins
Richard Kemp
Susan Juned

We expect the full results to be available Colin Rosenstiel's results site shortly.

Solid Defence

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:25:00 +0100

There were six principal council elections held on the 4th December. The Lib Dems held two seats. The Tories held four seats. There were three Parish Council and Community Council election results reported to ALDC. Two were Tory gains from the Lib Dem holds and one a Tory hold.

In the Highams Park and Hale End Ward of the London Borough of Waltham Forest we successfully held both seats with an increased vote share and majority. The by-elections were caused by the sudden death of Cllr John Beanse and enforced retirement due to ill health of Cllr Noel Penstone. The three-councillor ward was narrowly won for the first time in the “all-out” May 2006 London elections, with our third placed candidate Sheila Smith-Pryor coming just 19 votes ahead of the top Tory. The by election started while another by election was already being fought in the next-door Valley ward where added 10% to our vote. A combination of Focus and targeted letters combined with a 60% canvass contact by Lib Dems held off a fierce Tory challenge.

The Liberal Democrats have won four of the five Waltham Forest by-elections called during 2008, increasing their representation on the Council to 20 seats. The two new Lib Dem Clllrs Nick Bason and Jane Morgan join the 20 strong Lib Dem Group on Waltham Forest. Labour are on 25, having lost a seat to us earlier this year. The Tories have 15 seats.

Don't forget ALDC this Christmas

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:34:00 +0100

It's nearly that time of year when we will need to think about buying festive presents for our loved ones. We've got two ideas where you can shop for Christmas gifts and raise money for ALDC!

Saving money is probably on most people's minds this year, and websites like Amazon can provide great savings - nowadays it's not just their vast selection of books, CDs and videos, but also electrical goods, toys and clothing.

For people who've moved fully into the "digital age" - ITunes is the most popular site where you can buy music (and now videos and films) for your iPod or MP3 player, or computer.

If you don't know the exact tastes of people you're buying for, both ITunes and Amazon also sell gift vouchers - for as little £10.

Buying from Amazon and ITunes by following the following special links doesn't cost you a penny more than normal, but for each £1 spent ALDC receives a small donation. That way we're all happy!

Click on these links, or click on the Amazon or ITunes links at the bottom of the ALDC website.

Ordinary people will pay for the mistakes of the Government and the bankers

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:34:00 +0100

Tell us who your candidates are!

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:00:00 +0100

In just a couple of weeks ALDC's Candidate Support service for the 2009 elections starts in earnest. We'll be providing written and email briefings to all Liberal Democrat candidates right through to polling day and beyond. We'll be giving practical advice on campaign plans, telling you where to download artwork templates and keeping you up to date on election law and campaign themes. Nearer the time we'll be guiding you through the nomination forms and the election expense returns. All candidates in 2009 will also be receiving free copies of our popular publications Winning Local Elections - Volumes 1 and 2.

But we can't support you if we don't know who you are! Please let us know who your candidates are by filling in this online form. Alternatively email or post your candidate details into the office.

Click here to tell us your candidates online.

We're also now collecting information on candidates for the 2010 local elections in London, Mets and many English Unitaries and Districts. In many areas you might have already identified your target ward candidates - if you have let us know who they are and we'll start sending our regular advice email in the new year.

Comment on Election Results of Thursday 27th November 2008

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Where we work we win!

There were four principal council elections held on the 27th November. The Lib Dems gained one seat from the Tories and lost one to the Tories, and held one seat, the Tories also gained one from Labour. There were four Town Council results reported to ALDC the Lib Dems gained one from the Tories in George Osborne’s Seat.

In the four principle by-elections, the Lib Dems gained a seat off the Tories in the Hardwick division of Cambridgeshire CC.

This was a hard fought campaign by both the Tories and the Lib Dems, with lots of leaflets and letters from both sides. The telephone was not left out with the Lib Dems using it in a targeted way and the Tories doing their usual mass telephoning.

The local Lib Dem team knocked on every door and achieved around a 50% canvass. Newly elected Fiona Whelan was another user of the mycouncillor website in her election campaign, see it at: http://fionawhelan.mycouncillor.org.uk/

After a hard fought campaign the local team achieved a fantastic result in taking the seat from the Tories with a 14.5% swing to the Lib Dems.

In the Devon CC Exminster & Kenton ward another hard fought campaign resulted in the Lib Dems retaining the seat with a 12.1% swing. This ward is in the new seat of Central Devon.

In the Teignbridge DC ward of Kenn Valley we lost a seat to the Tories, after a vigorous campaign resulted in a swing of 15.3% away from the Lib Dems, this result came down to the Tories working extremely hard in the ward since the last election and the Lib Dems only doing minimal. Remember what we say, Where we work we win!

In the final principle election in the Birchills & Leamore ward of Walsall MBC, we had a paperless candidate who achieved a respectable 4.1% vote share.

In the Knutsford TC Bexton ward we took the seat in the centre of George Osborne’s constituency, this was the first win in the Knutsford area for six years.

This result was following on from a by-election on the 9^th October, the local team just carried on from that campaign into this one and reaped the benefits resulting in the Conservatives losing a seat in the heart of their MP’s constituency.

Nick Clegg on the Queen's Speech - A wasted opportunity

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Neil Trafford

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:28:00 +0100

All of us at ALDC have been saddened and shocked by the news that Neil Trafford was killed in a motorway accident on Sunday.

Neil worked at ALDC for just over three years from 2000-2003 as our Information and Conferences Officer. Since then we continued to work closely with Neil in his role as Regional Campaigns Officer for the North West Region and a Councillor on Manchester City Council.

All of us involved in ALDC have very fond memories of Neil and the energy that he brought to his work and to the cause of liberalism. Both the present day team at ALDC, and those who worked alongside Neil will miss him terribly. Our thoughts are with Neil's family, loved ones and colleagues at this difficult time.

More details are in this Manchester Evening News article. When we have further details of funeral arrangements we will make these available.

If at first you don’t succeed…..

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:25:00 +0100

There were two principal council elections held on the 20th November. The Lib Dems gained one seat from the Tories and Labour held one seat. There was one Parish Council result reported to ALDC which the Lib Dems held.

There is a tradition of service in the Walmsleys. Service to the community but also service to the Liberal Democrats. Frances Amrani is the daughter of Chris Walmlsey of the South Derbyshire by-election fame. Frances has been standing in council elections since her student days in Manchester in the 1980’s, perhaps 8 or 9 times without success. But persistence has finally paid off. She was the victor in the Teversham Ward By-election for South Cambridgeshire Council.

Superficially her result may not look as good as it actually is. Both the other candidates have been county councillors for the Electoral Division which includes Teversham. The Independent was a Labour County Councillor and got Labour help in the by-election. He also was the chairman of the “South Cambs Against (stock) Transfer” and ran his campaign almost solely on that issue. He was not some typical centre-right Independent who split the Tory vote, but attacked us from the left and, in some sense, split the anti-Tory vote.

25% of all the votes cast in this by-election were postal votes and this part of the campaign was key to our success. We wrote to all non-Tory electors early in the campaign to encourage them to apply for a postal vote. This worked well. We then wrote to them twice before the postal vote ballot issue on top of the normal election literature and did a targeted good morning on the day the postal ballot arrived on doormats. On polling day we then reminded postal voters with a separate knock up leaflet that it was not too late to use their vote.

As a member of ALDC Frances has had her own mycouncillor website www.francesamrani.mycouncillor.org.uk for some time before the by-election was called. As with most things we do it’s hard to measure or isolate their electoral effect but it certainly did not do any harm! Remember ALDC is there to help get campaigners elected so you do not need to be a councillor to use the mycouncillor website hosting service.

November Campaigner now online

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0100

The latest edition of ALDC's members’ newsletter "Campaigner" is now available. ALDC members can log in to the website and download this, and all previous editions.

The current edition highlights Nick Clegg's "Million Door Challenge", features campaigning and best practice ideas from Northampton, Hampstead and campaigners up and down the country fighting to save post offices. Comment this edition is from ALDC Chair Cllr Kath Pinnock and Welsh Assembly member Peter Black AM.

Campaigner is sent free to all ALDC members. ALDC membership is open to all members of the Liberal Democrats, £75 for gold membership, £45 for silver membership. Council Groups who join together receive a 12% discount. Click here for more information.

BNP exploits downturn

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:31:00 +0100

In the four principal council elections held on the 13th November the Lib Dems held one seat and the Tories held two. The BNP gained one seat from Independents. There were two parish council elections reported to ALDC, both were Tory holds.

In the Fenside Ward of Boston Borough Council in Lincolnshire we had a perfect storm for the BNP that many local residents who did not vote will probably live to regret. Until 2007 the ward had elected Labour councillors when the local pressure group campaigning for a by-pass for the town stood a slate of candidates winning 27 of the 32 councils seats. Since then the wave of local euphoria has ebbed with no progress on the bypass other than rumours of a back room deal. A succession of defections and disqualifications has reduced the “BBI”’s numbers to 18. So an area let down by the established parties, with little Lib Dem presence opts for change and gets let down again. Add to this mix one of the largest local employers, Geest, sold its many local food processing businesses in 2005. Until now this has not been an issue but the purchaser was Bakkavor, an Icelandic firm and many are now concerned for their jobs With large Portuguese and East European communities the BNP has had fertile ground. Our small local team stood a candidate and delivered an A3 and an A4 but on a poor turnout the disillusioned electorate has voted in a racist. The BNP stand in about 25% of local council elections. If one is called in your area assume the BNP are going to stand and prepare accordingly. ALDC has updated and re-published “Tackling the BNP” available online on our website www.aldc.org. to help you combat the threat of the far right.

In the Markfield Stanton and Field Head ward of Hinckley and Bosworth Council in Leicestershire we were fighting the squeeze in a Labour/Tory marginal. The Tories stooped to new lows exploiting and distorting issues around travellers yet we still managed to hold back the BNP and increase our vote by 12.8 % at Labour's expense.

Job Opportunity, Senior Political Officer

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC is recruiting for a new position of Senior Political Officer.
Full Time. SO2 – PO1 c £26,700 - £31,400

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the team at the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors to take forward our work to support local councillors and campaigners within the Party.

ALDC is a membership organisation that brings together Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners. We have ambitious plans to take forward liberal democracy and campaigning at a local level.

The new post of Senior Political Officer will head up our small team of political officers, coordinating and developing our support for councillors and help for campaigners. You and the team will be providing advice, writing articles and publications and providing training and group support.

You will be working closely with our partners the Campaigns Department and local government support agencies to make sure we maximise our impact for our members and the Party.

The post is based in Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, and will act as deputy to ALDC’s Chief Executive in his absence.

To do this role you will have: - extensive experience of Liberal Democrat campaigning- experience of leading and managing teams- good communication, training and interpersonal skills

You don’t have to be a councillor, but we welcome councillors to work for ALDC.Applications are in writing by noon on Monday 15 December 2008. Interviews will take place on Friday 9 January 2009, in Hebden Bridge.

Download an Application Pack

Congratulations Ros

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Congratulations to our new Party President (Baroness) Ros Scott.

Ros was elected earlier in the week with a stunning 72% of the vote of Party members. Ros has been an excellent friend of Liberal Democrats in local government. Not only was Ros a Councillor herself in Suffolk for many years, but more recently she spoke for the Party on Communities and Local Government in the House of Lords.

Ros Scott speaking at the ALDC/LGA Group Local Government Conference in 2008.

Well done Ros, all of us at ALDC look forward to working with you.

Weekend Kickstart - Don't Miss Out!

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Don't miss out on what could be the last big training event for volunteer activists before major elections of 2009 and 2010. ALDC's Kickstart Weekend takes place in Birmingham 28-30 November 2008.

The next two years see three key electoral tests for Liberal Democrats:

· 2009 County, Unitary and Euro Elections
· 2010 London, Met and local elections
· ???? General Election

All three elections will be a tough challenge for Liberal Democrats, but a real opportunity to make a liberal difference in town and county halls, and in Parliament. ALDC's Kickstart Weekend is a 48 hour programme of training and campaign planning to give you the best chance in the elections in 2009 and 2010.

Using the top trainers and campaigners in the Party we will give your campaign team the skills, ideas and plans to win in 2009 and in 2010. Make sure your team gains from: · first class local campaigns that take advantage of the best modern techniques · team building – get a hard-working and motivated local team · excellent campaign strategies and plans that target to win · a packed programme of training from top Liberal Democrat campaigners and trainers with basic essential campaign skills for newer members of your team advanced training on new techniques for the more experienced members of your team. Take a look at the draft programme here.

Book online today - book through an ALDC member to receive both "gold" and "silver" levels of discount. We've also arranged a "day rate" for people near Birmingham.

Yes you can

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:47:00 +0100

There were four principal council elections held on the 30th October. The Lib Dems held one seat. The Tories held two and lost one to Labour. There were five Parish Council and community council election results reported to ALDC. Two Lib Dem holds and one hold for the Independents. Labour gained two seats, one off the Independents and one from Plaid.

In the Kentish Town Ward by-election in the London Borough of Camden we successfully defended a seat. Only two years ago in the same Ward, in a difficult by-election fight we made a gain from Labour. On this occasion we were running the council and are well beyond any honeymoon period. Labour ran an unremittingly negative campaign; we did not.

Camden Lib Dems are well known for their innovative campaigning and three ideas seemed to work well:

The first idea was for an addressed survey to start the campaign. Not a very new idea but extremely effective in obtaining early Voter ID information where conventional foot and phone canvassing often struggles to contact the many flat dwellers. It also had the added bonus of establishing a new candidate and the Lib Dems with the very local green and cost of living issues with which it dealt.

The second was again not new but perhaps an old technique re-invigorated. Mass canvassing with 20 plus people eating in a local pub and then going out to do an afternoons voter ID together every Sunday. It built camaraderie, made tangible progress and kept campaigning fun.

The third was responsiveness. Work had been done prior to the campaign to make sure the walks in EARS for the ward were not simply based on size, time and deliverability or even the whims of deliverers. Kentish Town specifically aimed to have walks that covered small geographic areas with similar characteristics. This made the production of street letters very, very simple allowing us to react quickly as issues arose. During the campaign a popular local pub was threatened. Street letters were key to our campaigning on the issue, so when it was saved we had leaflets on the street within hours of the decision.

Keeping elections fun, exciting and topically relevant helps motivate our helpers and supporters.

Who controls where?

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:19:00 +0100

Each year the local elections are followed by an often dramatic round of negotiations in the many councils in “no overall control” (NOC) to sort out who will run the administration for the following year. The variety of agreements that are hammered out from formal pacts, coalitions and power sharing agreements, to informal agreements, “sit on your hands “ or rainbow administrations demonstrates that UK politics has plenty of experience in dealing with the situations where one party does not have overall control. A lesson that may be very relevant after the next general election!

ALDC has again recorded these administrations in its annual publication “Who controls Where?” available to download here for ALDC members

Environment and Transport LGA Group Event

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

The LGA Lib Dem Group is holding a one day conference on Environment and Transport issues on Thursday 13th November 2008.

An agenda for the day can be downloaded here, and you can book for the day by downloading this form

2009 Election Details Confirmed

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:19:00 +0100

Parliament has now approved the Statutory Instrument which moves the date of the 2009 local elections to 4 June 2009.

There are some additional points to note:

- The by-election cut-off date remains at 7 November 2008 for seats fought next June (ie a vacancy occurring in a division that will elect on 4 June 2009 that occurs after 7 November 2008 will not result in a by-election).

- Cornwall's elections have been postponed until October 2009. There will be no Mayoral election in Stoke-on-Trent following the referendum which has abandoned the directly elected Mayorality.

- The Government will be bringing further recommendations regarding potential unitaries in Devon and Lowestoft in December 2008, it will then consider whether this has any impact on the 2009 elections in these areas.

- The European Elections will be counted on a Local Authority basis, not Parliamentary Constituency basis. That includes the issuing of PVs within that area.

LibDig launched

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Found something interesting on the internet? Now you can easily share it with other Liberal Democrats with the new http://LibDig.co.uk site.

It uses the Liberal Democrats Account (LDA) system, so you don't need to register a new username or remember a different password. You can either post up content you have seen, or vote on content that other people have posted up; either way it’s a way of saying, “I found this interesting. I think you’ll find it interesting too.”

It only lets Liberal Democrat members post content or vote on content which is up there. Like many other party services, LibDig uses the Liberal Democrats Account (LDA) system, so if you have an LDA username and password, you can start using the site straight away without having to go through a new registration process or having to remember a new username and password. If you can't remember your LDA username or password, you can sort this with the options in the left-hand menu on http://login.libdems.org.uk

LibDig also comes with a “bookmarklet”. This is a shortcut you can add to your web browser’s favourites menu so that if you come across something interesting on the internet that you would like to share, all you need do is select this shortcut from your favourites menu. It makes the whole process very quick and easy. You can get the bookmarklet from http://libdig.co.uk/page/widgets.html. On the site itself, you can see the most popular items posted to it, those which are recently gaining in popularity (“upcoming”) and vote (“dig”) to make an item more popular. There is also now a shortcut to the site in the party's free web browser toolbar, which you can get from http://liberaldemocrats.ourtoolbar.com

The site has been produced by Ryan Cullen, a party member who has created a string of tools that have been very popular within the party, including most notably Liberal Democrat Blogs (www.libdemblogs.co.uk) – thank you Ryan!

No Easy Wins

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:47:00 +0100

There were nine principal council elections held on the 23rd October. The Lib Dems lost one seat to Labour and one to the Tories. The Tories held six seats and Labour one. There were no Parish Council election results reported to ALDC.

In Merthyr Tydfil where we won our first six seats in living memory in May we lost a councillor in Town Ward to Labour following an unexpected resignation. Labour maintained their vote from May but ours failed to turn out. We ran a sustained campaign but Labour “upped the anti” with ministers, MP’s and AM’s all visiting the ward. The unwelcome intervention of three independents sucked 31% of the votes away from the main candidates. It probably did not help that polling day coincided with the birth of their first child to two of our councillors and key campaigners in the ward Amy Kitcher and Kevin O’Connor. Happy birthday baby Gwenllian Mabel Kristina!

In the Billington and Old Langho ward in Ribble Valley we had more time to prepare but despite delivering more literature and target mail than the Tories we failed to get our shuttleworth out to vote on a wild and wet Lancashire evening. Turnout normally tops 40%. It dropped to 24% with the differential turnout favouring the Tories. It was an accident waiting to happen in a split two-member ward where we only had a majority of 13 over the third place candidate.

In the next two years we face some tough joint elections; it’s not too late to register for the Party’s main training event for the local elections. The “Kickstart” weekend takes place over the weekend of 28-30 November 2008, at the Junction 7 Holiday Inn near Birmingham. The weekend kickstart is ideal for groups to develop their campaign plans - either for June 2009, or even better over the longer term for May 2010. You will work with one of the Party’s top campaigners as a “mentor” over the weekend. Kickstart is also packed full of training courses that are aimed at either new members of your team, or refreshing and adding to the skills of more experienced campaigners.

“Kickstart is an excellent opportunity for local groups,” said Party Director of Campaigns Hilary Stephenson - “you can follow the success of groups who attend through the results the following year”.

Register online TODAY - call us for more information on 01422 843 785.

Kickstart 2009

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:00:00 +0100

Is your group sending a team to this year's Kickstart Training Weekend?

28-30 November 2008

2009 and 2010 will see enormous challenges - and opportunities for Liberal Democrats:

- June 2009 - County/Unitary and European elections - the first time for 16 years that the English Counties have elected without a General Election the same day.
- May 2010 - all-out London and thirds elections across many areas of England - possibly on the same day as a General Election.
- ????? A general election sometime before June 2010.

Now is the time that you need to equip your team with the right skills and knowledge to succeed in these crucial two years. Next year might be too late.

The weekend includes;
- 16 high quality training sessions, aimed at both beginners and experienced campaigners, ranging from the basics to new ways to add to your campaign
- a weekend programme of mentoring of your team to develop your campaign - over 6 hours mentoring from an experienced winning team
- your registration fee includes two nights at the Holiday Inn (Birmingham), all food and speakers which include Director of Campaigns Hilary Stephenson.
Although most delegates do come as part of a team we also cater for individuals attending who will work with a mentor on their own campaign. We've also done a day rate for people who live nearby in the West Midlands - the day rate includes food and Saturday's dinner, but no accomodation.

Register online TODAY - call us for more information on 01422 843 785.

Experience has shown us that teams that attend the Kickstart Weekend perform consistently better in subsequent elections. Make sure you're one of the winners!

Tell us about your Candidates

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:35:00 +0100

The date for 2009's local elections to English County Councils and some Unitary Authorities has now been confirmed as 4 June 2009.

ALDC's Candidate Support service starts in earnest in the next month. We'll be providing written and email briefings to all Liberal Democrat candidates right through to polling day and beyond. We'll be giving practical advice on campaign plans, telling you where to download artwork templates and keeping you up to date on election law and campaign themes. Nearer the time we'll be guiding you through the nomination forms and the election expense returns. All candidates in 2009 will also be receiving free copies of our popular publications Winning Local Elections - Volumes 1 and 2.

But we can't support you if we don't know who you are! Please let us know who your candidates are by filling in this online form. Alternatively email or post your candidate details into the office.

Click here to tell us your candidates online.

Don't Forget ALDC this Christmas!

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:29:00 +0100

It's nearly that time of year when we will need to think about buying festive presents for our loved ones. We've got two ideas where you can shop for Christmas gifts and raise money for ALDC!

For people who've moved fully into the "digital age" - ITunes is the most popular site where you can buy music (and now videos and films) for your iPod or MP3 player, or computer.

If you don't know the exact tastes of people you're buying for, both ITunes and Amazon also sell gift vouchers - for as little £10.

Buying from Amazon and ITunes by following the following special links doesn't cost you a penny more than normal, but for each £1 spent ALDC receives a small donation. That way we're all happy!

Click on these links, or click on the Amazon or ITunes links at the bottom of the ALDC website.

BNP fall back

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:49:00 +0100

There were four principal council elections held on the 16th October. The Lib Dems held one seat and lost one to an independent. Labour held one seat and gained one off the BNP. There were no Parish Council election results reported to ALDC.

In the Tudor ward in Watford our comfortable win was the result of a well organised effort where we “out campaigned” the other parties. We won our first seat in the ward in 2002 by just 69 votes and have successively knocked off Labour and Tories to take all three councillors in the following years.

The Tories picked a well-known local man, who stands (and loses) most years., In this by-election he “peaked” with the lowest Tory percentage and actual vote for well over 10 years. In their literature the Tories did nothing but attack the Lib Dems – despite the high profile court case about their PPC’s vendetta against Lib Dems - and got exactly what they deserved!

The BNP started campaigning in the ward with a newspaper and several A5 leaflets , including a national glossy and ended almost two weeks before poll with a local " Tudor Patriot" before their candidate announced that he was dropping out but he remained on the ballot paper. They got 4.5% against a more usual 15% in by-elections.

We put out our hard hitting regular leaflets and hit back at the lies with rebuttal leaflets and letters. We targeted hard our supporters, squeezed soft Labour and soft Tories with three separate letters. In the last week we delivered a leaflet or letter a day and two on eve of pool including a bring when you vote petitions. The Tories were gob-smacked.

The BNP also suffered a set back in the Dewsbury East Ward of Kirklees BC where their councillor stood against Nick Griffin for the party leadership, lost, fell out with them and resigned. We stood our ex-councillor for the ward and had a swing of 14% since May, moving from third to second only 108 votes behind Labour who took the seat off the BNP.

Remember to get “Tackling the BNP” ALDC’s recently revised guide to fighting the BNP.

G8 Stage 2 - Register your interest

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:47:00 +0100

A recent (21/12/11) email to all members has misdirected to this page on the ALDC website.

To go to the 2012 criteria and forms for G8 click here.

Expressions of interest are now invited for Stage 2 of the G8 Grants for the 2009 elections – this is for campaign activity in the first four months of 2009. There's no time for delay – the deadline for applications for Stage 2 is 1 December 2009 and all applications must be with ALDC by this date. Grants are available to local parties who have local elections in 2009 (English County Councils and some Unitary Councils).

Grants are awarded to pay for extra campaigning in your target wards/ divisions – places where we aim to gain a seat or those who will have a hard defence. They are not for building up no-hope divisions or for your "safe" seats. They are for seats that are realistically winnable in 2009.

For the county council elections, applications will be accepted at either district or county level.

The G8 committee will expect to see some evidence of campaign co-ordination between districts for their county council campaign, although it is appreciated that different places will have different local campaigns.

Click here to register your application, we will then get in touch with the named contacts for details of your campaign plans.

ALDC administers the programme of G8 Grants to help pay for campaigning in the run up to local elections.
G8 grants are paid for by kind contributions from the Federal Party, and from the English, Scottish and Welsh Liberal Democrats.

Group Leaders at Conference

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:31:00 +0100

The Federal Conference Committee has asked us to remind local parties and groups about the change to the regulations regarding delegates to Federal Party Conferences.

Group Leaders of Liberal Democrat Groups (on principle authorities - ie NOT town and parish councils) are now entitled to attend Conference as a voting delegate. This is in addition to a local party's normal entitlement to delegates.

Many local parties will soon be having their AGMs and its worth bearing in mind that this might "free up" a space for another person to attend Conference as a voting delegate.

4th June 2009 for Local Elections

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:26:00 +0100

Local and European Elections are set to be on the same day next year - Thursday 4 June 2009. Local Government Minister John Healey has announced that the Government will seek Parliament's approval to move the 2009 local elections in England to the same date as the European elections.

The decision follows consultation over the summer which showed overwhelming support for the change, including from the Electoral Commission, the Association of Electoral Administrators and the Local Government Association.

The changes to regulations also affect Parish and Town Council elections. These can now be held on the same day as two other elections - so parish elections can be held on 4 June 2009.

Next year's local elections were scheduled for 7 May 2009, with the European elections due to take place four weeks later on 4 June 2009.

The draft order will be debated and must be approved by both Houses and made no later then the 7 November if the change is to made. It also seeks to address a number of technical matters that were raised during the consultation, such as ensuring that, as in 2004, the European election is administered on local government boundaries.

There are 34 councils where the 2009 election date will be moved - all English Shire Counties, and the Unitary Authorities of Cornwall, Wiltshire, Shropshire, Bristol, Isle of Wight, Bedford and Central Bedfordshire. There are 4 areas where the 2009 Mayoral election date will be moved. These are: Doncaster; Hartlepool; North Tyneside; and Stoke.

More of the same please

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:58:00 +0100

There were eight principal council elections held on the 2^nd October. The Lib Dems made two gains, one from the Tories and one from Labour. The Tories held five seats and Independents made one gain from the Tories. There was one Parish council election result reported to ALDC, a Tory hold. Our very impressive gain from Labour in the Kirkleatham Ward on Redcar and Cleveland Council demonstrated the importance of standing candidates for all available vacancies in multi member wards. Redcar and Cleveland have all out elections, the last being in May 2007. In the Kirkleatham ward, in that year, both the Lib Dems and Labour stood three candidates each for the three vacancies. The Tories only stood one candidate and came third. We achieved 31% the vote on a single leaflet campaign. However it is at least reasonable to suppose that some of the 438 people who voted for the Tory did not waste their remaining two votes and voted for Lib Dems, with at least enough of them doing so to account for the margin of 70 votes that separated the 3 Lib Dems and the Tory. If they had stood 3 candidates the chances are we would not have got 2^nd place in 2007, the springboard to our success in this by-election.

Redcar and Cleveland - Lab/Ind administration
Tory	Labour	Lib Dem	Green	Ind
11	27	14		7

Shropshire have wisely seen that by- elections will play a vital part in the build up to the County and Unitary elections next June. It can break new ground, build capacity, provide a training ground for new techniques, motivate the membership and provide local voters clear evidence of our ability to win - vital in all elections. At the end of August we failed to make a gain by just 10 votes in the Shropshire District of Shrewsbury and Atcham so we were doubly determined that we would do better in the Castle Ward in Oswestry last week. A countywide campaign provided the capacity for the intensity required to win, despite the appalling weather on polling day.

Oh, and we had candidates in all principal by elections for the third week running!

Local Democracy Week

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:44:00 +0100

2008's Local Democracy Week will take place in the third week of October - from Monday 13 to Sunday 19.

The Local Government Association has a variety of packs and resources which are of use to Schools, community groups etc here.

This is a good time to get contact local schools as a local councillor and get involved in their local democracy work.

Cameron Catches Cold

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:23:00 +0100

There were eight principal council elections held on the 25th September. The Lib Dems held one seat and made two gains from the Tories. The Tories held one seat and made a gain from Independents. Labour held two seats and made a gain from Independents. There were two Parish council election results reported to ALDC, a Tory hold and Lib Dem gain from Labour.

In a day of great results against the Tories it would be easy to overlook the hold in the Colden Common and Twyford Ward of Winchester City Council. Here we faced yet another Tory onslaught attempting to overturn our majority of 176. Residents were reporting having received eight letters and the equivalent of 24 sheets of A4 in literature from the Tories alone.

Despite this we fought back with some innovative campaigning. It is now recommended practice to “knock up” our postal voters on foot at least once before the full polling day. It is also quite common for our supporters to be phone knocked on the eve of poll as well as on the day itself. The Winchester team combined the two by doorstep “knocking ” on both our supporters and our postal voters, on the Sunday before polling day. This delivered a number of benefits:

It felt like a friendly chat rather than the slightly manic knocking they would later receive on polling day - more like a soft re-canvass.
Probables could be firmed up
Errors could be removed before polling day
Additional posters sites could be found to provide momentum
Late swings and Tory smears rebutted
“Do not knock before” times and lifts identified for polling day
Postal voters who had sent their ballot papers in could be crossed off the shuttleworth.

This was not the only innovation, targeted Eve of Poll leaflets were mail-merged on the Riso, surveys had individual letter responses and we got 100 people joining a Facebook group on poor buses services for young people.

The resulting majority of 242 was a swing against the Tories, leaving us one seat from control of Winchester City council.

It’s clear from Winchester, Camden and Wealden that where we work and use best practise the Tories are still beatable.

By-election success on eve of Tory Conference

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:15:00 +0100

Lib Dems Liberal Democrats have burst the bubble of Tory euphoria on the eve of their party conference in Birmingham says Party President Simon Hughes MP.

On Thursday, in by-elections in the London Borough of Camden and Wealden, East Sussex, Liberal Democrats won two seats from the Conservatives. In Camden, long-time Hampstead resident, businesswoman and leading member of the Chinese Liberal Democrats Linda Chung won seat of Hampstead Town from the Conservatives with a majority of 128. In Wealden, local campaigner and former councillor Andy Watkins overturned a Conservative majority of 430 on a swing of 23%.

The Liberal Democrats’ win in Camden came in Labour’s Hampstead and Highgate constituency, currently held by Glenda Jackson and targeted by the Liberal Democrats as a gain at the next election.

Commenting on the wins, Liberal Democrat Federal President Simon Hughes said: “This week’s local elections show a clear 2-0 victory for the Liberal Democrats over the Conservatives. “In both central London and rural Sussex, real votes in real seats will burst the bubble of Tory euphoria in the midst of this year’s fevered conference season. “Liberal Democrats are not only holding their ground but are making advances – against Conservatives and Labour in the North, the Midlands and the South.”

Nick's Million Door Challenge Campaign Pack

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC has a limited supply of the Campaign Pack for Nick Clegg's "Million Door Challenge".

About the Million Door Challenge
More people than ever feel alienated by the political process in Britain today. To many it doesn't seem to matter who runs the country – nothing ever changes. Gordon Brown has been a disaster. There is little enthusiasm for a return to Conservative rule. Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats are the only party who can reach out to these people.

The best way to engage with people is to go and talk to them. That's why Nick Clegg is setting his party the challenge of knocking on one million doors and talking to millions of people between October 2008 and June 2009.

The campaign
The Campaigns Department has produced a campaign pack to support local parties to achieve the Leader's goal of knocking on one million doors between September 2008 and June 2009.

The pack is available from ALDC online today by credit and debit card. The pack retails at £10, however to cover the sheer size and weight of the packs, had to make that £13, in addition to the regular 20% postage you pay orders just to cover the postage.

Click here to order online.

Please let us Know how you get on!

It would be great if you could at the same time encourage people to take part in the campaign and get out knocking on doors, reminding them of the email to send info back to - onemilliondoors@libdems.org.uk .

ALDC Management Committee 2008-2009

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:35:00 +0100

The nominations for ALDC's 2008-2009 Management Committee have now closed, and the Returning Officer has declared that the following nominations have been received and accepted. As the correct number of nominations for each post have been received there will be no ballot of members this year.

President: Cllr Mike Storey (Liverpool)

Chair: Cllr Kath Pinnock (Kirklees)

Vice-Chairs (2): Cllr Paul Sample (Salisbury), Cllr Mike Ross (Hull)

Secretary: Cllr Sarah Boad (Warwickshire)

Treasurer: Mike Ward (Mole Valley)

Management Committee (10):

Jon Burden (Hammersmith and Fulham)

Cllr Stan Collins (Cumbria / South Lakeland)
Jean Crossland (South Lakeland)

Cllr Andrew Dakers (Hounslow)

Steve Hitchins (Islington)

Cllr Claire Hudson (Mendip)

Cllr Graham Knight (Mid-Sussex)

Cllr Adrian Smith (Hinckley and Bosworth)

Cllr Keith Whitmore (Manchester)

Cllr Willie Wilson (Perth and Kinross)

English Rep: David Hare (Wokingham)

No nominations were received for either Scottish or Welsh Reps, normally a co-option is made at the first meeting of the Committee after consultation with colleagues in Scotland and Wales.

There have been some changes this year, and thanks go to a number of members of the Committee who have moved on, or moved to different positions, after many years of service to the organisation:

Sarah Boad after a second period as Chair of the organisation - most recently as chair for the last four years. Sarah will now be the Secretary of the organisation. John Commons after four years as Vice-Chair, and also as a Management Committee member before that who is leaving the committee. Jean Crossland who has been our secretary for the last two years, and before that Treasurer for five years, who will now be serving as an ordinary member of the Committee. And Linda Forbes, leaving us after a number of years on the Committee.

ALDC Members Reception 2008

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Members of ALDC came together for our annual members reception at the Hermitage Hotel in Bournemouth on 15 September 2008.

The event was kindly supported by the Co-operative on the theme of "Fair Trade".

Party Leader Nick Clegg MP joined us at his first ALDC members reception as Leader, and we also welcomed Shadow Communities and Local Government Minister Julia Goldsworthy MP and, speaking on the Fair Trade theme, Fiona Hall MEP.

More photos on our Flickr photo site here

Community Transport Fringe

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Once again in Bournemouth ALDC worked with the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) to bring a transport theme to our programme at Party Conference.

This year's theme looked at the issue of Community Transport, and speakers included Deputy Leader of GMPTA Cllr Keith Whitmore, Newcastle's Environment, Sustainability and Transport Executive Member Cllr Wendy Taylor, Norman Baker MP and the chair was Cllr John Hunt from CENTRO.

Renewable Energy Fringe

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC worked with the Renewable Energy Association and Solar Twin to address the important issue of renewable energy at Bournemouth Conference.

The meeting was chaired by Trafford Councillor Jane Brophy, and our speakers were: Steve Webb MP, Andrew Cooper (REA), Ben Parker (Solar Twin) and Cllr Andew Walker.

A podcast will be available for ALDC members shortly.

How Green is Your Council?

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC's Sunday evening Fringe at the Bournemouth Federal Party Conference was "How Green is Your Council?"

The meeting, in association with the Environmental Services Association, looked at a wide range of ways that Liberal Democrats are and could promote the green agenda through local Government.

Speakers included: Steve Webb MP, Dirk Hazel (ESA), Cllr Alexis Rowell, Cllr Paul Burall. ALDC"s Cllr Andrew Dakers was in the Chair.

ALDC AGM

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC members gathered in Bournemouth yesterday evening to conduct the formal business of the Association in its annual meeting.

Members agreed the annual report and accounts, and agreed the membership fee levels for 2009. More information will be circulated to members in due course.

We were delighted to be joined by a number of speakers at the event. Shadow Communitie and Local Government spokesperson Julia Goldsworthy MP opened the meting, and Chris Huhne MP joined the co- author of our new publication "Theory and Practice of Community Economics" to launch the new resource.

More photos at our Flickr photo site here

PR for Local Government in England and Wales

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC's fringe programme at the Party's Autumn Federal Conference kicked off with a packed meeting on proportional representation for local government.

The meeting, jointly organised with the Electoral Reform Society, looked at the success of STV for local elections in Scotland, and the case for rolling this out across Britain.

Speakers were Willie Rennie MP, Peter Black AM, Katy Wright from the ERS with ALDC's Vice-Chair Cllr Paul Sample in the chair.

More photos at our Flickr photo site here. A podcast of this Fringe will be available for members shortly.

Federal Conference

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

ALDC's office will be closed on Friday 12 September, and Monday - Wednesday 15-17 September 2008 as staff will be at the Party Federal Conference in Bournemouth.

We hope to see many members in Bournemouth. Our full programme of training, fringe events, advice and information is contained in the Local Government Directory here.

Don't miss our Annual General Meeting on Sunday evening 20.00-21.15 in the Mayrick Suite of the BIC. Julia Goldsworthy is our guest speaker, and we're launching the new publciation the Theory and Practice of Community Economics.

Members are also urged to join us at the Members Reception on Monday 15 September 1.00-200pm in the Hermitage Hotel. Nick Clegg MP is our guest and the event is kindly sponsored by the Co-operative as our Fair Trade reception.

If you're not able to come to conference, don't worry! We will be giving a full report back with a large number of resources available for members online.

mycouncillor guides

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Two new "how to" guides to using ALDC's Councillor/local campaigner website platform "mycouncillor" have been produced.

MyCouncillor is a free (to ALDC members) website platform for Liberal Democrat Councillors and local campaigners to create an easy to use website.

The two new guides look at Getting more Visitors to your Website - which looks at how you can publicise and attract visitors to your site using Focus, the press, good content and how to use the Hit Counter. Making the Most of Photos - looks at how best to use photos on your website including sourcing photos already on the web, uploading photos and making the most of external sites like Flickr, Picasa and Picnik.

ALDC members can download the files in the Resource Centre (log in as a member first).

Goldmine - a beginners guide!

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:40:00 +0100

ALDC has produced a "beginners guide" to its Online Goldmine - the campaign resource for its Gold members.

The guide gives a step-by-step guide to logging into the Goldmine, and takes members through the various resources that are available.

ALDC's Online Goldmine is an extensive "one-stop-shop" for campaign resources, with materials produced by ALDC, the Campaigns Department, Innovations and more. The Goldmine includes campaign resources, leaflet and election campaign templates, best practice, practical guides, logos, fonts, pictures clipart and more!

Click here to download the guide (LOG IN as an ALDC member FIRST!).

Training "Roadshow" Autumn 2008

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:14:00 +0100

ALDC has launched its Autumn 2008 "training roadshow" which will provide campaign training at a wide range of Regional Conferences and "Kickstart" events during Autumn 2008.

The programme features events in Yorkshire, Eastern Region, West Midlands, South Central, London, North West, South East, Devon/Cornwall and East Midlands regions this Autumn - including special "kickstart" events in Yorkshire, London and the flagship weekend in Birmingham.

All regional conferences with ALDC will include:

- training sessions on planning your campaign and direct mail

- advice on campaign plans

- information, publications and membership stand.

ALDC training at regional conferences is FREE to all party members, but you will need to register at your regional conference - see your Regional Party for details.

The Training Guide also contains registration details for the one-day kickstart in London and the weekend Kickstart in Birmingham.

Download a copy of the Training Roadshow flyer here.

Bournemouth Photo Opportunities

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

The PICS team from Cowley Street are once again organising photo opportunities for candidates and campaigners at Bournemouth Conference.

Sunday 14th September: 11.30am - 12.30pm Tregonwell Hall, BIC What would the UK look like if the polar ice caps melted? Have your photo taken with Steve Webb MP and a map of what’s left of the UK after the floods.

Sunday 14th September: 3.30pm-4.30pm Tregonwell Hall, BIC With the cost of basics such as food and fuel rising sharply, inflation is now a big political issue. Have your photo taken with Vince Cable MP and two baskets of groceries, one showing the cost last year and another showing the higher cost for the same goods now.

Monday 15th September: 2.30pm-3.30pm Highcliffe Hotel garden Post Offices - Rest in Peace. Join Sarah Teather MP at the grave of over 4,000 post offices closed by the government, complete with a gravestone.

Wednesday 17th September: 10.30am - 11am pavement at rear of BIC 12 billion carrier bags are handed out in the UK each year. Join in the group shot with Steve Webb MP and a line of carrier bags amounting to what an average household would use each year.

To make use of the photo ops, all you have to do is turn up. However, it will help us if you could email j.wallace@libdems.org.uk with your name, local party and which events you are attending.

More information on the full flyer (log in as ALDC member FIRST) here.

Well Done MyCouncillor Users

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:36:00 +0100

Three ALDC members who've been using their "mycouncillor" sites (the free website platform for ALDC members) have been shortlisted for the 2008 Liberal Democrat Blogger of the Year award.

Owen Temple and Diana Smith have both been nominated for best "new blog", and Richard Baum for best Blog for a Lib Dem holding public office.

A full list of the nominations is on Lib Dem Voice here.

Bournemouth Local Government Directory

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:32:00 +0100

The Local Government Directory is now available. This gives details of the events, training and information available for Lib Dem Councillors and local campaigners in Bournemouth from ALDC, the LGA Liberal Democrats, the Leadership Centre for Local Government and the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA).

Fringe Programme

Bournemouth sees a busy fringe programme for the local government family.

Fringe meetings from ALDC include: PR for Local Government, How Green is Your Council?, Renewables and Community Transport.

LGA Group fringe events include: a Local Government Question Time, Tackling Violent Crime and Taking Flood Prevention Seriously.

The Leadership Centre launches its 2008 Next Generation Programme, with fringes on The Local Parliament and Empowerment.

Receptions

Highlights of the week include the Leadership Centre 2008 Next Generation Programme launch and reception (Sunday evening); ALDC’s Members Reception (Monday lunchtime) and the Local Government Reception (late Monday evening).

Training

ALDC and the IDeA are working together to provide a programme of Councillor Training. This includes two half day workshops on Being an Effective Local Councillor (Saturday)and Making Scrutiny Work (Sunday). Other sessions look at councillor’s websites, town and parish councillors, casework, group away days, political support officers and group cohesion.

ALDC is also providing a full programme of campaigner training. This includes a full day Page Plus Workshop (Saturday) and a half day session on Voter ID and Canvassing (Saturday). Other sessions cover essential campaign skills such as Focus, manifestos, pool, delivery networks, finding candidates, the postal vote and taking photos.

Advice

ALDC and IDeA are sharing a stand again this year and staff from both organisations are on hand throughout to give advice and information. Find out more about ALDC’s publications, our members’ websites and membership. The LGA Group and the Leadership Centre are also available nearby with information and advice.

Look forward to seeing many of you in Bournemouth.

By-Election Results 28 August 2008

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

There were two principal council elections held on the 28^th August. The Tories held one seat and Labour the other seat. There was one Parish council and one town council result reported to ALDC where the Lib Dems made a gain from an Independent and lost one to the Tories.

In the Pim Hill ward of Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council, the Liberal Democrats came from nowhere to within 10 votes of taking the seat off the Conservatives. The last time the seat was fought it was a two-horse contest between the Tories and Labour, with the Tories gaining 80.6% of the votes. In the by-election Labour did not stand leaving it as a four-way fight between the Lib Dems, Tories, BNP and an Anti Incinerator candidate.

After a slow start, the campaign picked up pace with three leaflets and lots of canvassing being achieved, if the campaign had been started earlier and with one more piece of literature being delivered we could have achieved the 11 votes needed to win this seat. In by-elections extra effort is needed to be put in and more pieces of literature than you would deliver in a normal election is required to win, especially when we are coming from a standing start.

In the Wickersley Ward of Rotherham MBC by-election, we stood a candidate and with one leaflet achieved 6.8% vote share, the BNP had 19.2% of the vote.

It was really good to see that we had a candidate, meaning that 191 people who wanted to vote Liberal Democrat had the opportunity; this gives a good base to build on and with some hard work, at the next election we could pick up a lot of the protest vote that is in the BNP vote. This could put us in a position to challenge for the seat.

Congratulations to Tavish Scott

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Congratulations to Tavish Scott MSP, who this morning has been announced as Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. He was elected through an all-member ballot with 59% of the first preference votes.

Prior to being elected to the Scottish Parliament, Tavish was a local councillor from 1994 to 1999 Tavish Scott was a local councillor representing Lerwick Harbour and Bressay Ward on Shetland Islands Council. Since 2007 Tavish has been our Spokesperson on Local Government in the Scottish Parliament.

Lives not Knives

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:18:00 +0100

Thursday, October 9th is the day for the planned youth vigil “Lives not Knives”.

Between 3.30 and 4.30 (times can be varied locally) young people will be invited to hold a local vigil to show solidarity against violence and knife crime. In each community it is hoped that young people can get together in this way.

The silent but most effective “demonstration” by hundreds of young people in Islington/Camden following the stabbing of Ben Kinsella is an example of what we hope can happen. It was impressive to see young people, mainly in white shirts or tops, with just one or two banners showing that the great mass of people deplore and reject the use of knives.

Please can we all consider initiating a vigil in our own communities ? Permission might be needed to gather in a certain venue, the message will need to be spread (nearer the date) as widely as possible.

A word to robertsr@parliament.uk would be appreciated. Chris Richards- 07749464058 is keeping an eye on developments !

Thank you for your co-operation. Roger Roberts – House of Lords.

Liberal Youth 2008 Freshers Fayre Campaign

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Do you have a university or college in your area? Will they be holding a freshers fayre this autumn? If so, order a free pack of recruitment and campaign materials from Liberal Youth now, to help you gain young members in your area and establish a local Liberal Youth branch. To order a pack please visit our ordering website from last year at: http://www.libdemfreshers.com/index.html.

The packs cost us over £60 to produce. We only ask for a £5 contribution towards the pack postage costs. Make sure you are making the most of our support among young people in your patch.

Lib Dem Blogger of the Year Awards

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0100

In recent years awards have been given for Liberal Democrat “Blogger of the Year", nominations for the 2008 awards close on 31 August 2008.

The categories for this year’s awards are:
- Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st August 2007)
- Best blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office
- Best use of blogging or social networking by a Liberal Democrat
- Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2007)
- Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog
- Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year

There’s no reason why there shouldn’t be a good representation of Councillors and local campaigners in the awards. So, if you think your website is something to shout about, you can send in your nominations by email to ecampaignteam@libdems.org.uk.

You’ve not got long as nominations close on 31 August 2008. Full details from Lib Dem Voice here

Training for Campaigners

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Dates for your diaries - we have a packed campaigner training programme set for Bournemouth with 16 sessions focussing on “Essential Campaign Skills” and “Winning in 2009 and 2010". If you are available in Bournemouth on the Saturday (13^th September) you might be interested in our full day workshop on using Page Plus (the Party's recommended DTP software). This will be an interactive session – so bring your laptops!

On Saturday afternoon there is a special half day session on “Voter ID and Knocking on Doors”. Again this will be an interactive session aimed at improving how we contact voters.

Training for Councillors

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Delegates for the Bournemouth Federal Conference should recently have been sent the Party’s training programme, but just to highlight some of the opportunities for Councillors in Bournemouth.

Once again we are working with our colleagues in the IDeA (Improvement and Development Agency) to bring you some very high quality training.

We have two special half day sessions (3.5 hours) to enable us to give a more detailed level of training:

- Saturday 13 September 2008 (am)
“Being an Effective Ward Councillor”

- Sunday 14 September 2008 (am)
“Successful Scrutiny – making scrutiny work for you”

Other training for Councillors in Bournemouth includes:

Town and Parish Councils
Effective Small Groups
Beyond Surgeries
Group Cohesion and Management
Casework
Running an Effective Away Day
Councillors Online (websites)
Political Support Officers.

Full details of the training programme will be circulated in September, and will be available online at the ALDC website.

By-elections 7th August 2008

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:40:00 +0100

We can WIN in 2009 & 2010

There were three principal council elections held on the 7^th August. The Tories held all three seats. There was one Parish council result reported to ALDC where the Lib Dems made a gain from Labour.

In the Maldon North ward of Maldon DC in Essex we failed to stand a candidate.

We did not stand in the Ward in 2007 and have no councillors on the council. The Greens have no councillors on the council and did not stand in 2007 but they managed to grab second place with 24% in the by-election. Surely we can do better than this.

Newsham with Eppleby is a very rural ward in Richmondshire District Council of North Yorkshire on the fringe of William Hague's Constituency. It is a one councillor Ward that the Tories won unopposed in 2008. Despite some problems in our group in Richmondshire credit must be given for not just standing a candidate but fighting a campaign that included a Village survey, an A4 Focus an A3 Focus, Good Evening leaflet and knock up on election day.

The next two years see three key electoral tests for Liberal Democrats: in 2009 the County, Unitary and Euro Elections; in 2010 the London, Mets and local elections; a General Election at a date to be determined by the Daily Mail.

All three will be a tough challenge for Liberal Democrats, but a real opportunity to make a liberal difference in town and county halls, and in Parliament.

To win we will need:

• first class local campaigns that take advantage of the best modern techniques

• hard-working and motivated local teams

• excellent campaign strategies and plans that target to win

ALDC’s Kickstart Weekend 28^th-30^th November is a 48 hour programme of training and campaign planning to give you the best chance in the elections in 2009 and 2010. Using the top trainers and campaigners in the Party we will give your campaign team the skills, ideas and plans to win in 2009 and win in 2010.

Click here to book places for your team.

John Bridges

By-elections 31st July 2008

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0100

You’ve got to be in it to win it

There were six principal council elections held on the 31st July. The Lib Dems held two seats and the Tories held four seats. There were no Parish council elections results reported to ALDC.

In Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire we run the council. Fighting by-elections from control is never easy. Everything is the fault of the council.

Luckily in the Uplands Ward when faced with a by-election we had a good campaign and a good candidate. The Tories, including their local MP, threw everything at this election including hard-hitting leaflets in the final week culminating in a huge polling day effort without success. Their candidate has now been defeated by Liberal Democrats in eight elections since 1995!! There’s a record worth maintaining.

In the month of July there were 37 by-elections. We defended eight and held six but with only one gain we had a net loss of one in the month. The Tories made seven net gains, five from Labour. We fought 31 of the 37 by-elections. 84% is in line with our recent performance but is still far below the Tories 96%.

There are usually three reasons/excuses for not standing:

1. We didn’t know - this is usually a problem in “black hole” authorities and it needs co-ordinated action from the region -perhaps including twinning authorities to gather the information on vacancies and organise nominations.

2. Tactical - almost never the right decision. Sometimes used when facing the BNP etc but it is completely the wrong tactic in these cases. See our “Tackling the BNP” publication for the arguments here.

3. Error - presumably unavoidable occasionally.

The first two should not happen, sometimes you may choose not to fight a campaign as hard as others but always stand a candidate.

There is a clear role for the regional and state parties here. First to look at how derelict constituencies and councils are covered. Secondly to deal with “organised” local parties who are repeat offenders.

Let’s sort this out.

John Bridges

Calling Cards Offer

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0100

A group of PPCs are ganging up to get full colour calling cards printed to save us money. Either A6 postcard size, full colour. Or DL size, again full colour. These would be done in time for conference, so people can collect them there (they can be posted out at cost). They are also suitable for councillors etc. Orders in multiples of 2,500.

If anybody is interested can they complete this form so we can judge initial demand. Please email it back to calling.cards@borrowman.org.uk

http://www.borrowman.org.uk/resources/sites/84.234.17.197-45b8efd6b15c87.55308295/Calling+cards+order+form.doc

Lib Dems on your iPod/iPhone

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Get the party's latest films on your iPod! You may have seen the Liberal Democrat films which appear on YouTube, including most recently Nick Clegg's summer message.

Now you can also get the films on your iPod, with the latest films automatically appearing as they are released.

The feed to subscribe to is: http://feeds.libdems.org.uk/LDiTunes

(In iTunes, go to the Advanced menu and then Subscribe to Podcast. Enter the above address in the URL: window.)

RISO on offer!

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:00:00 +0100

A local Party in Yorkshire is offering a second hand Riso printer to any Liberal Democrat group who could use it.

The machine is a GR3750 model, it is in need of minor repair, but is repairable (apparently Midshire's will repair for £108.50 plus VAT).

On offer to any local party who needs it on a "first come" basis. You need to be able to collect it from Scarborough.

Please contact Mark Alock
mark.alcock@aldc.org

New Fees for Marked Registers

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:00:00 +0100

The Department has announced new fees for Marked Registers, which take effect from this summer. They are set out in the draft Representation of the People (Amendment) Regulations 2008 which have been laid before Parliament and were debated and approved in both the House of Lords and House of Commons on Wednesday, 2nd July 2008.

The new fee structure is as follows:

There is a single administration fee of £10 for each request for a copy of the marked electoral register and other lists made to the relevant registration officer or sheriff clerk. Please note that this fee is charged per request whether the information sought is for the whole marked register or part of the marked register, and whether the request is for a copy in paper form or data form, or a combination of both forms. However, if the whole or part of the marked registers or lists is requested in both printed and data form, this should be treated as two separate requests and so a further administration fee should be charged.

In addition, there will be a charge for the volume of information requested calculated at:

£2 for each 1,000 entries (or remaining part of 1,000 entries) in printed format, and

£1 for each 1,000 electors (or remaining part of 1,000 entries), in data form.

The new fees will apply for marked registers produced at Westminster Parliamentary elections in England, Wales and Scotland, and local government elections in England and Wales (including elections for the London Mayor and Assembly); and to the supply of marked registers and lists produced at an election to the National Assembly for Wales.

The new fees will apply to requests made after the Regulations come into force. This will include copies of marked registers arising from the elections on 1 May 2008. The new fees will not apply to requests made prior to the Regulations coming into force and, for example, there is no provision for refunds to be made in respect of requests made prior to the Regulations coming into force.

The new fee structure will mean that for a request, for example, for a polling station marked register containing 8,000 entries in printed format, and the marked list of postal voters containing 2,000 entries in data format, the fee will be:

£10 administration fee, plus

£2 x 8 = £16, plus

£1 x 2 = £2

Total = £28.

LGA Conference Seminar on Culture, Tourism and Sport

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:37:00 +0100

On Wednesday 27th August the LGA Liberal Democrat Group are organising a LGA specialist Conference Seminar on Culture, Tourism and Sport for Liberal Democrat councillors.

This is the best place for all those who are involved to discuss key tourism and culture issues in the Olympic year - controversial and powerful these topics will get a real airing amongst fellow elected Liberal Democrats. This looks to be one of the best conference available this year - this email is to urge you to book yourself in.

The conference is in the World Heritage City of Bath that will enable us to discuss relevent topics with on hand illustrations, learn lessons where appropriate and also include the local MP and Liberal Democrat front-bench spokesperson Don Foster MP. Topics to be covered will be as varied as licensing, libraries, use of culture and history within a community, sport and leisure as well as the wider national debates on funding. This will be a real chance to influence the national perspective and discuss this with the front bench team in parliament as well as your national team in local government Cllrs Chris White, Paul Massey, Alan Gloak and Paul Crossley.

There will be an overnight option on Tuesday 26th August and we will have an appropriate function that evening to welcome delegates, so please do indicate when you book if you would like details of the hotel arrangements. It is expected that the hotel will be approximately £80. Confirmation will be available this week.

This is an LGA activity and our experience of the last three years is that local authorities have been able to support councillors registration (£25), travel and hotel costs. If you encounter any difficulty on this please do contact this office.

Registrations should be booked via email to Evelyn Mark on evelyn.mark@lga.gov.uk and we will then email back an invoice. Please do BOOK TODAY.

New Unitaries proposed for Norfolk, Suffolk and Devon

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:00:00 +0100

The Boundary Committee for England has published a draft proposal for new unitary local government arrangements in Devon, Norfolk and Suffolk and has begun a consultation on the proposals.

Devon
The proposal outlines a single unitary authority covering the whole of Devon, Plymouth’s and Torbay’s boundaries would be left unchanged. However, the Committee also saw merit in another pattern of unitary local government in Devon – with one authority covering Exeter and Exmouth and one covering the rest of Devon, without changes to Plymouth and Torbay.

Norfolk and Suffolk
The proposal for Suffolk is for two unitary authorities – one covering Ipswich and Felixstowe and one covering the rest of the county without Lowestoft. In Norfolk, the Committee proposes a single unitary authority which would cover the whole county and include Lowestoft.

However, the Committee also saw merit in other patterns of unitary local government in both counties. In Suffolk, we thought there was merit in a Suffolk unitary authority covering the whole county except for Lowestoft. In Norfolk, the Committee thought there was merit in linking Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Norwich in a unitary authority, the rest of Norfolk would form another unitary authority. They also saw merit in a ‘doughnut’ pattern, with one authority for Norwich on expanded boundaries and one for the remainder of Norfolk which would also include Lowestoft.

More information, and to respond to the consultation: www.boundarycommittee.org.uk

Giving Power to People and Communities

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:26:00 +0100

Earlier today Nick Clegg gave a major speech to the Local Government Association on giving power to people and communities:

"I am drawn to the philosophy of decentralisation and local empowerment for many reasons. There's the basic principle of subsidiarity - the liberal belief that decisions just ought to be taken as close to the people they affect as possible.

"But it's more than that. Centralised government simply doesn't work to deliver the change I want for Britain. It doesn't improve services fast enough. And it certainly doesn't deliver fairer outcomes – where everybody gets opportunities no matter their background.

"If the New Labour decade has taught us anything – this is surely it. The great experiment of trying to improve our public services for everyone by pouring money in through a tight funnel in Number 10 Downing Street has failed.

"And there's now no more money to put in. So it's time to think about how we improve our public services – not just how much we spend on them. And the biggest 'how' of all is decentralisation."

You can read the rest of Nick's speech - including his proposals to turn these ideas into specific action - on the Party's website.

Conference Photos

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:23:00 +0100

A selection of photos from the Local Government Conference earlier in the month are now on ALDC's Flickr site. Please let us know if you'd like (electronic) copies of any that you feature in!

Baroness Ros Scott and Andrew Stunell MP meet exhibitors in the Exhibition Hall.

Shadow Local Government Minister Julia Goldsworthy MP addresses conference.

Mark Pack, the Party's Head of Innovations, promoting the use of texting.

All photos copyright Fishnik.

Building Liberal Communities

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Thank you for everyone who attended the "Building Liberal Communities" Lib Dem Local Government Conference on Saturday. Almost 300 Lib Dems from across the country came together for a packed day of policy, best practice, training and campaigns.

A report will be produced for members in the next edition of Campaigner.

In the meantime, our friends at Lib Dem Voice were kind enough to record the key Conference sessions as "Podcasts", which are available for you to listen below.

Enjoy!

Part One

The opening plenary of the Conference. ALDC Chair Sarah Boad introduces speakers Baroness Ros Scott, Andrew Stunell MP and Party President Simon Hughes MP.

Part Two

The Lunchtime plenary with speakers Chris Huhne MP & Steve Webb MP.

Part Three

The closing plenary which included Julia Goldsworthy MP.

Henley Needs You!

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:00:00 +0100

The Henley By-Election has been called for 26 June 2008.

We’ve got the candidate...

We’ve got the leaflets...

Now we NEED YOU!

We've gained a huge head start over the Conservatives, who struggled through a difficult selection procedure. Their candidate is now having to defend the dreadful Conservative record running Oxfordshire County Council - we have loads of ammunition to fire at him! Canvassing is well underway and we are finding plenty of voters who supported Boris last time but who are undecided on who to vote for this time.

Our campaign HQ is open 9am to 9pm everyday between now and the close of polls on June 26th.

For more information go to www.henleylibdems.org.uk

We have a raft of local issues which we are already running petitions on and Stephen Kearney and the team are working closely with our local councillors and activists.

We are confident that we can get a really good result here - we just need your help.

Printed Published and Promoted by M Roberts on behalf of S Kearney (Liberal Democrats) c/o 9 Bertie Rd, off Wenman Rd, Thame, OX9 3XA

Local Government Conference 2008

Fri, 09 May 2008 15:22:00 +0100

The 2008 Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference is on Saturday 14th June at the ICC Birmingham

Speakers include: MPs Julia Goldsworthy, Chris Huhne, Steve Webb and Andrew Stunell and Baroness Ros Scott.

Training is being provideed by the Campaigns Department, ALDC, IDeA, EARS, Midas Training and the Innovations Team at Cowley Street.

More details of the programme here

Many council groups are bringing along a team, so please help support
this important event.

Register now online at www.aldc.org - click on "events".
Registration starts at £40 for ALDC's Gold Members, but rates rise
before the day itself. Groups of 5 get one place free!

This is preceded by four events on Friday 13th June:

Leadership Summit. Council Group Leaders will have a chance to discuss issues facing them and their council area at a closed conference taking place at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Birmingham starting at 10.30am through to 5pm. If you are a group leader and want to attend this please email Seth Thevoz at the Leadership Centre for Local Government seth@localleadership.gov.uk

Representing ALL communities. A one day conference on issues and opportunities of working with Britain's black, ethnic and minority
communities. This should especially appeal to BME councillors,
activists and PPCs as well as those with a commitment to equality and diversity. £30 registration to the LGA (just £10 extra if registered
for the Local Government Conference the next day).

Political Group Officers Away Day. Open to all political group
reasearchers and support staff this will commence at 2pm through to
6pm in the Council House at Birmingham City Council. For more
information or to book a place please e-mail either Rob Banks
rob.banks@lga.gov.uk or Tom Dommett tom.dommett@basingstoke.gov.uk

The Local Government Dinner. This is a great evening event at 7pm for 7.30pm in the stunning Banqueting Suite at Birmingham City Council House. Tickets for this is just £30 and places can be booked online through ALDC.

Crewe Needs You!

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:02:00 +0100

Liberal Democrat campaigners and activists are needed to help Elizabeth Stenton, the Liberal Democrat candidate in the Crewe and Nantwich Parliamentary by-election.

Elizabeth is working hard for people in Crewe and Nantwich, and she needs your help to become our next MP. ALDC's staff members have already been to Crewe and will be there this weekend.

Your help can really make a difference to her campaign.

Elizabeth Shenton’s Campaign HQ is open 9am and 9pm, 7 days a week at Capital House, Fourth Avenue, Crewe, CW1 6XL, 01270 847500.

There is parking available outside and it is 10-15 minutes walk from Crewe station.

More information from Elizabeth's website

Changed Circumstances 2008

Fri, 02 May 2008 16:01:00 +0100

If your Lib Dem Group finds themselves in a "changed circumstance" after Thursday's local elections, then help is at hand!

A changed circumstance could be moving to control, opposition, NOC, or a significant shift in the balance of NOC, or a major change like a much smaller or larger group or new leadership.

Please remember there is no need to make a rushed decision in NOC. Often it is a very good idea to chat things through with someone from outside your area FIRST.

If you need urgent help over the weekend then we have staff on standby to help you, or we can put you in touch with some of the local government support agencies who can help. Over the weekend please email us (tim.pickstone@aldc.org) and one of our staff will ring you back.

On Sunday 4 May 2008 we have a Changed Circumstances event at Manchester Town Hall. This is 10.30am - 3.00pm in Committee Rooms 2 and 3. The event has been organised by the Leadership Centre for Local Government, together with ALDC and the IDeA. Its free to attend, and please bring as many of your group as needed. If you're attending "en masse" please let us know so we can plan logistics!. Tea and coffee provided, but not lunch so please pick up a sandwich/etc on you're way there.

Local Elections Update Friday Afternoon

Fri, 02 May 2008 15:56:00 +0100

Well done to Liberal Democrat local campaigners up and down the country for some terrific results which have continued to to come in during the day:

BBC are estimating the Liberal Democrats beating Labour in the notional national share of the vote with 25% for the Lib Dems.
There are more Liberal Democrat Councillors than before, building on our gains last time most of these seats were up in 2004.
Lib Dems have taken control of Sheffield, Burnley, St Albans and Hull. Labour now only run just one of the big Met cities!
We have successfully defended control of Newcastle, Watford, Three Rivers this morning, as well as Stockport, Cambridge, Eastleigh and Rochdale last night. South Lakeland is yet to declare but looking good.
Liverpool remains in Lib Dem hands as an independent joins the group to maintain our majority.

Liberal Democrats making gains so far include:

6 Gains in Sheffield to take control AND 6 gains in Merthyr Tydfil as Labour lose control (including unseating the Labour leader!

5 Gains in Burnley (to take control) Stratford-upon-Avon, Hull (to take control) and Gosport (to deprive the tories of control)
4 gains in Oldham (to become the largest party), Derby (to become the largest party) and Colchester (where the tories lose control).
3 gains in Newcastle, Knowlsey and in Cheltenham and Wrexham where we become the largest Party. Three gains in Cardiff where we are already the largest party.
In Purbeck to Tories have lost control and are level pegging with the Lib Dems, in Exeter we are now the largest Party.

There was disappointment in Oldham, Warrington, North East Lincolnshire and Cheltenham where we missed out on control by just one seat.

In the new Northumberland Unitary Authority we are the largest party with 26 seats and in the new Durham Unitary Authority 27 councillors. These are gains from the Press Association "notional" figures of 12 and 17 seats respectively.

Less good news in West Lindsey where we lost the Council to the Conservatives, and in Pendle where we have lost control of the Council.

The scores at 1.00pm

Conservative + 243 Councillors to 2990
Labour - 297 Councillors to 2265
Lib Dems + 24 Councillors to 1742

Thursday Night Results

Fri, 02 May 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Well done to Liberal Democrat local campaigners up and down the country for some terrific results last night:

BBC are estimating the Liberal Democrats beating Labour in the notional national share of the vote with 25% for the Lib Dems.
Overnight Lib Dem's have been making a net gain of Councillors with two-thirds of the results in
Lib Dems have taken control of St Albans and Hull
We have successfully defended control of Stockport, Cambridge, Eastleigh and Rochdale.
Liverpool remains in Lib Dem hands as an independent joins the group to maintain our majority.

Liberal Democrats making gains so far include:

6 Gains in Merthyr Tydfil as Labour lose control
5 Gains in Stratford-upon-Avon, Hull (to take control) and Gosport (to deprive the tories of control)
4 gains in Oldham (to become the largest party), Derby (to become the official opposition) and Colchester (where the tories lose control).
3 gains in Knowlsey and in Cheltenham where we become the largest Party.

There was disappointment in Oldham, Warrington and Cheltenham where we missed out on control by just one seat.

In the new Durham Unitary Authority, we made a stunning 17 gains from the Press Association "notional" figures to give us 27 Councillors.

Less good news in West Lindsey where we lost the Council to the Conservatives, and in Pendle where we have lost control of the Council.

The scores at 8.30am

Conservative + 147 Councillors to 1977
Labour - 162 Councillors to 1573
Lib Dems + 9 Councillors to 1086

Friday Lunctime Results Update

Fri, 02 May 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Well done to Liberal Democrat local campaigners up and down the country for some terrific results which continue to come in this morning:

BBC are estimating the Liberal Democrats beating Labour in the notional national share of the vote with 25% for the Lib Dems.
Lib Dems have taken control of Burnley in addition to St Albans and Hull
We have successfully defended control of Newcastle, Watford, Three Rivers this morning, as well as Stockport, Cambridge, Eastleigh and Rochdale last night.
Liverpool remains in Lib Dem hands as an independent joins the group to maintain our majority.

Liberal Democrats making gains so far include:

6 Gains in Merthyr Tydfil as Labour lose control (including unseating the Labour leader!
5 Gains in Burnley (to take control) Stratford-upon-Avon, Hull (to take control) and Gosport (to deprive the tories of control)
4 gains in Oldham (to become the largest party), Derby (to become the largest party) and Colchester (where the tories lose control).
3 gains in Newcastle, Knowlsey and in Cheltenham where we become the largest Party. Three gains in Cardiff where we are already the largest party.
In Purbeck to Tories have lost control and are level pegging with the Lib Dems, in Exeter we are now the largest Party.

There was disappointment in Oldham, Warrington, North East Lincolnshire and Cheltenham where we missed out on control by just one seat.

In the new Durham Unitary Authority, we made a stunning 17 gains from the Press Association "notional" figures to give us 27 Councillors.

Less good news in West Lindsey where we lost the Council to the Conservatives, and in Pendle where we have lost control of the Council.

The scores at 1.00pm

Conservative + 184 Councillors to 2356
Labour - 214 Councillors to 1796
Lib Dems + 20 Councillors to 1372

Good Luck on Polling Day

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Good luck to all Liberal Democrat candidates in the local and london elections on Thursday from the team at ALDC.

Polling stations are open from 7am - 10pm and its our job to make sure that as many Liberal Democrat supporters turn up and vote as possible. I know that an enormous amount of work has already been put it up and down the country, so good luck on the day itself.

ALDC's office is open for emergency queries during office hours (9.15-5.15) on Thursday, and then again at 9.00am on Friday morning. We'll be posting Lib Dem results and stories from first thing Friday on the website. Take a look and let us know any good news stories from your area.

Good luck!

Everyone at ALDC

All eyes on the 1st May

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Important local elections take place on Thursday 1 May 2008. Elections will take place for all Welsh Unitary Authorities and in many Metropolitan, District and Unitary Authorities in England. London will vote for its Mayor and Assembly.

ALDC Gold members access our Local Elections Packs in the "Online Goldmine" which are packed full of leaflet templates, target letters and other materials. All ALDC members can access the Election Briefings, Election Tools and information bank resources on election law and related issues.

All Liberal Democrat candidates are being sent the ALDC candidate information service – but only if we know who you are! You can report your candidates details online here.

ALDC is here to provide advice and support to all Liberal Democrats on campaigning and election law issues. Use our online advice forms or call us on 01422 843 785.

2nd Local Government Conference - 14 June 2008

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Saturday 14 June 2008 is the date for the second national Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre (ICC). The event, which is jointly organised by ALDC and the Local Government Associaiton Lib Dem Group, builds on the success of the first conference in 2007 which saw over 370 Liberal Democrats involved in local government came together for a highly succesful one day event.

The 2008 conference will see an even bigger programme of debate, training, exchange of ideas and high profile speakers form across the Party. Speakers include Shadow Local Government minister Julia Goldsworthy, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne MP and local elections campaign chair Andrew Stunell MP . Training includes campaign training from ALDC and Campaigns Department staff, and training on councillor skills from ALDC and partner agencies.

Registrations are now open – click here to register online. Registration for the one day event starts at £30 for ALDC Gold Members - but it pays to register early as rates rise at the end of March.

A programme of activities is also planned for the Friday 13th in Birmingham before the Conference proper. This includes a Council and Group leaders event, and a one day conference for Black and Minority Ethnic councillors.

ALDC at Liverpool 2008

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Federal Party Spring Conference this year takes place 7-9 March 2008 in Liverpool. ALDC has a packed programme of training and fringe debate. Following on from our successful Councillor Skills Training Day, a full day of training is available for Lib Dem Councillors, and a parallel programme is available for campaign skills.

Fringe events include “Save our Post Offices” with Sarah Teather MP, “Food Miles” with Tim Farron MP (with kind support from Waitrose) and a Local Elections 2008 Briefing with Andrew Stunell MP and Hilary Stephenson.

Once again the IDeA will be joining us on our stand (Stand 5). ALDC and IDeA staff will be available give advice and information throughout the weekend.

More information in the Local Government Directory, available here.

Why not Stay on Sunday in Liverpool for a couple of hours after the conference finishes. Liverpool is the largest Lib Dem run council in the country – help keep it that way by joining ALDC and the Liverpool team leafleting in target wards on Sunday afternoon.