Now the dust has settled, just a quick note to say that I’m no longer a councillor following my decision to stand down from Lewisham Council at the elections on 6th May, 2010.

The new Liberal Democrat councillors for Lee Green Ward are Cllr Pauline Beck and Cllr Sven Griesenbeck.

At time of writing, Pauline’s council contact details were still being finalised, but Sven can be contacted on cllr_sven.griesenbeck {at} lewisham.gov(.)uk or 8297 4826.

Many thanks to everyone I’ve worked with over my four years on Lewisham Council. It’s been an interesting experience – frustrating at times, but often extremely rewarding.

I will leave this blog as-is for the time being in case some of the archive is of use to local residents. I have been (slightly) bitten by the blogging bug so it’s possible this blog might re-emerge in another form at some point in the future.

best,

Brian

No, not me, but fame at last for Sven – he’s made it on to the Glum Councillors site, which celebrates the work of local elected representatives, and the odd photos they find themselves in as a result.

Follow Sven on the journey to the centre of the Earth, via Lewisham’s biggest pot hole, here.

It’s been brought to my attention that Ladbrokes are offering odds on the General Election here in Lewisham East.    Interestingly, they agree with the Lib Dems’ assertion that Lewisham East is now a two horse race between Labour and the Lib Dems.

Latest odds are:

• Labour 1/8 (fair enough in a seat they’ve held for 18 years)
• Lib Dem Pete Pattisson 5/1
• Conservative 12/1
• Green 100/1

Bookies obviously consider Pete best placed to challenge Labour on May 6th.  Votes for the Greens or Conservatives just risk helping Labour scrape in again.

I spent the weekend in Birmingham at Lib Dem Spring Conference.  My partner’s originally from Moseley, so no opportunity is ever missed to take a trip up to England’s second city (more trees than Paris, more canals than Venice, I’m reliably informed).  However, lovely as the canals and trees are, the highlight of the weekend was Nick Clegg’s speech. See for yourself:

Apologies for the interpution in service!   I’ve been away for the last three weeks, enjoying what was probably the holiday of a lifetime in New Zealand.  However, I’m now back in the UK and have (just about) recovered from my jet lag.  There’s been lots going on while I’ve been away though, and I’ll post a couple of things just now.

The photo shows me with one of the Moeraki Boulders, which are some very unusual spherical boulders which are (very distantly!) related  to the ‘cannonball’ rock formations found in my native Sunderland.  I’d always been told back home that they were only ever found in Sunderland and New Zealand, but I think that might be a bit of a Mackem urban myth as the Moeraki ones are quite different!

And I’m dead chuffed to find out (via a text from Will ) that I’ve won the Tim Garden Award for the Best Blog by a Lib Dem Holding Public Office.  

I just got back from Burlington today, and haven’t made it to Bournemouth yet  so couldn’t pick up the award in person – though Will tells me he made an erudite speech on my behalf… 

James has made me feel old by pointing out it’s nine years almost to the day since he recruited me to the Lib Dems at a freshers’ fair in Leeds.  He won best blog post for his post on Parliament, The Telegraph and Jo Swinson.  I seem to remember going to Sheffield with James a few weeks after I joined the party to help out with an action day in what was then Richard Allan‘s Sheffield Hallam constituency – of course, now Nick Clegg’s home turf.  The person who trained us to canvass there was Jo, and she’s now MP for East Dunbartonshire, so a good few changes there over the course of nine years!

The other winners can be found here.

Update: Have added a photo of me picking up my statuette from LibDemVoice’s Helen Duffett.  Thanks to Alex Foster for taking the pic.