Lib Dem council seats increase for seventh year
The LGA’s Liberal Democrat Group had a busy time at our party’s national autumn conference in Bournemouth.
We held a number of successful fringe meetings with our friends at the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors: my thanks to all who spoke on panels and chaired the fringe meetings.
A highlight for me was our ever-popular LGA annual reception with Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey MP.
He launched our latest booklet detailing the achievements of Lib Dem councils in front of hundreds of Lib Dem councillors and members. After all, we are the part of the party that is actually in government at the moment!
We were also able to celebrate yet another year of Lib Dem councillors gaining council seats and control of more councils, such as my very own county of Gloucestershire.
The party has now seen an increase in the number of council seats it holds for a seventh year in a row.
Our other events included a fringe meeting to celebrate Lib Dem success at a local level. This conference, we focused on Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, with Leader Cllr Mark Roberts and Deputy Leader Cllr Jilly Julian speaking about their hard work in improving the council.
Tom Morrison, Lib Dem MP for Cheadle, joined them to discuss how a Liberal Democrat council and MP work together.
“We were able to celebrate another year of Lib Dem councillors gaining seats”
Cllr Vikki Slade MP, who has just stood down as Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokesperson, headlined one of our events with the Future Governance Forum think tank on how the town hall and Whitehall can work together to deliver growth. Our thanks to Cllr Gareth Roberts, Leader of Richmond Council, and Cllr Heather Kidd, Leader of Shropshire Council, for stepping in and joining the panel.
And at our other fringe, we heard from Josh Babarinde MP and former Lib Dem Leader Sir Vince Cable on how we can promote progressive values locally in an era of populism.
Our thanks to Vikki Slade for her hard work as the party’s Local Government Spokesperson during the first year of this Parliament.
We look forward to working with Zöe Franklin MP, who took over the role from Vikki this month. Zöe also has experience of being a councillor, as a former member of Guildford Borough Council.
It was great to see conference being formally opened by Cllr Millie Earl, the Lib Dem Leader of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council – introduced to the conference by her predecessor Vikki Slade.
Finally, the conference heard from the Leader of the Lib Dem opposition on Kent County Council, Cllr Antony Hook; Cllr Amanda Hopgood, who leads the opposition on Durham County Council; and Cllr Mike Ross, Leader of Lib Dem Hull City Council, in a question and answer session on countering Reform following last May’s county council elections and mayoral election in Hull and East Riding.
We left Bournemouth with a spring in our step, ready for the year ahead.