Local Party Reorganisation

9.07.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 19th Aug 2006

Over the last month or two I have been working on the reorganisation of Liberal Democrat local parties in the West Midlands, stage two is now complete. It has been an interesting exercise, I am sure I have won few friends through the process and annoyed some people.

Every time the Parliamentary Boundaries are reviewed every political party needs to review what local parties exist and if there should be any mergers or splitting of local parties. The Liberal Democrats constitution states that the minimum membership for a local party is thirty, however the sustainability of the local party should also be taken into account when deciding what local parties exist.

This Parliamentary Boundary review was relatively unexciting with the creation of an extra seat in Warwickshire and the abolition of one seat in Birmingham. However the Regional Party were tasked with reviewing the existence of every local party - most have no idea that they were discussed as the majority have been left alone.

The timetable was laid down by the English Party, the whole process was to take place over 2006. As soon as the process begun it was derailed by the resignation of Charles Kennedy and the Leadership election - no membership lists were produced, membership figures calculated and the staff involved were busy with the election rather than local parties re-organisation.

The Regional Party were first given the membership figures by constituency. We were then asked to come up with a list of local parties that should exist. In an ideal world I would like to see each local party coving one, and only one, Parliamentary constituency, but for various reasons that does not happen - some are just historical, other practical.

We were then asked to provide a 'Key Contact' for each local party, they will shortly be sent a membership list for the local party. Then the next stage begins, which could be the most problematic - all members will be placed in the constituency they live in, currently there are period that are members in different local parties - ie where they work. There will be another role for the Region to look at cases where people wish to be in a different local party to the one they live in, I have no idea how many people fall into this category I suspect it is not that many. Finally all existing and new parties hold an AGM in October or November.