Our six great Party Award winners from Bournemouth Conference

On the final day of the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference in Bournemouth, I had the pleasure of giving our some Party Awards. Here are the great winners, as emailed out also to all our party members:

The President’s Award – Caroline Pidgeon
First elected to the London Assembly in 2008 and serving ever since, Caroline announced last Autumn that she would be standing down next May. Having also served as a councillor in Southwark for many years, and also as the Lib Dem Mayoral candidate in 2016, Caroline was and is an absolute prizefighter.

The Harriet Smith Liberal Democrat Distinguished Service Award – Simon Mackenzie
Awarded to a Party Member showing outstanding commitment and service to the Party, Simon’s innovative solutions for processing the marked electorate register have saved thousands of hours of manual data entry. He is also a long-time activist for the party in Stratford-on-Avon, giving us a winning edge against our competitors in so many ways.

The Belinda Eyre-Brook Award – Millie Earl
Awarded to an individual who has shown outstanding dedication to our elected representatives in their local areas, Millie is recognised as an exceptional multi-tasking, multi-skilled and unflappable campaigner, who always manages to be kind and caring. Without her the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole campaign of 2023 would not have got near to the impressive 13 gains they achieved – and leadership of the council.

The Dadabhai Naoroji Award – Oadby & Wigston Lib Dems
Awarded to the local party which has done the most to improve our diversity and inclusion, this award rightly goes to Oadby & Wigston Lib Dems. A fantastic outreach programme plus local election wins mean the council is now led by our first ever non-white female council leader, Cllr Samia Haq.

The David Penhaligon Award – Liverpool Lib Dems
Liverpool Lib Dems gained four seats in the May City Council elections and they have gained dozens of new members since. They topped the Lib Dem league tables for this quarter’s recruitment, with the majority being young female members. They are rightful winners of this award for the local party with the most impressive membership recruitment and involvement of their members and supporters.

The Patsy Calton Award (awarded by Liberal Democrat Women) – Vikki Slade
Vikki is the leader of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, which we took control of in May  and where she is now leading the team cleaning up the mess left by the Conservatives. She is also our candidate for Mid Dorset and Poole, deputy chair of both the Local Infrastructure and Net Zero Board at the LGA, and the Lib Dem Campaign for Gender Balance. This all makes Vikki a worthy winner of this award which recognises exceptional women in the party.

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