In uk.gov.local Mike Pellatt <newsfrom@pellatt.co.uk> wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Oct 2003 17:35:39 GMT, Mike Drew

>> And how do they communicate with you. I have with my party colleague, been
>> putting out "Focus" newsletters for over 22 years.
 
> Here, the Residents' Associations distribute quarterly newsletters or magazines
> to their areas, whether or not they have councillors representing the area.
> And have been doing it for a lot longer than 22 years.
> 
> Once I beat the LibDem County Councillor (2 years after we'd beaten them in
> the one ward they had in the division) Focus completely vanished
> from the streeets. Wasn't even seen in the run-up to the last election.

It's likely that the distribution of Focus in that division was down to
a few individuals giving their own time and money to do it, who just
decided not to carry on. 

In the 1980s I stood twice in a ward (actually once in a county council
division, the second time in a district council ward by-election on
the same boundaries). It had a Liberal councillor who had been producing
Focus and was both a county and district councillor. He became tired and
sick, so didn't stand for re-election to the county, then a year later
resigned his seat on the district thus causing the district by-election.
Having been asked to stand in his place, I found almost all the effort
in producing and distributing Focus had been done by him personally,
and to keep it going I had to spend my own time and money - yes, I paid
for Focus and distributed it (about 4000) copies almost entirely myself
for a period of just over a year.

I was passionate about that ward and its people, it's where I grew up,
and had I been elected a councillor I wold have carried on with that
dedication. However, having narrowly lost both elections, I decided to
pursue my professional career and moved to London, meaning that Focus
stopped appearing in that ward.

I suppose people might have thought "dirty rotten Liberals, only interested
in power, they lost the election then stopped distributing Focus". But I
was young and idealistic then, and really did think of myself as a
community champion fighting to defend the people of my home town. And
if I'd won. I'd probably still be doing it now 22 years later. Then and
now I find the idea that anyone who stands for election on a party
political label is some evil person "only in it for themselves" who
will "put local issues last" to be extremely offensive. 

Matthew Huntbach