Patrick Sullivan: Conservatives in the Community continued

Hamish Stewart has recently written about how he intends to put a greater emphasis on Community Action in Nottinghamshire.  He was also kind enough to reference an article I wrote for CF Diary last year, entitled Conservatives in the Community.  This is something that I cared about then and am even more passionate about now.

Since my original article on this issue both Conservative Future and the Party in general have made a commitment to Community Action. This commitment was made to the public in the 2006 Party Conference in Bournemouth. This was done with great fanfare and we have managed to keep up with the momentum in this area that this conference provided. In that conference we made a commitment to the public that we would place Community Action at the centre of our activities as a party. Now that we have made this commitment we must be vigilant against the possibility that Community Action get sidelined in the run-up to the general election.  The best way to prevent this is to move forward in promoting Community Action projects. This will prevent us from falling back.

If I am elected I promise to make Community Action a key priority for Conservative Future and to build on the work done in this area over the past year. I will also include a Community Action heading in all of my monthly reports,  so I can be scrutinized on the progress made in this area.

One of the most heartening things about this election is how a number of candidates have shown their commitment to Community Action. I am very happy that a number of Area Chairman Candidates are already proposing the implementation of Community Action programmes in their areas. I am also glad to say that a number of my fellow Exec candidates have also worked hard to place Community Action in the mainstream of Conservative Future. Owen Meredith even made the great and doubtless painful sacrifice of having his leg waxed for Children in Need. I do not think that we all need wax our legs but we should encourage and support more of our branches in the running of similar events.  It is important to realise that engaging in the Community and with the voluntary sector can be fun as well as rewarding.

My specific policies on Community Action if elected are:

• To work towards setting up a Conservatives in the Community programme in each Area
• To be a point of contact and support for those running Community Action Events
• To run at least two National Community Action Days during my term, with each region running their own events simultaneously.
• To expand the Christmas Hamper Initiative to give every  branch the opportunity to take part
• To coordinate and advertise CF events in support of Children In Need and Red Nose Day