Local elections 2011 - our five commitments

From talking to local residents it is clear that many feel disappointed with the level of representation offered by our councillors.

Too many councillors once elected are never seen again, or move away like the Lib Dem from Horsham Park who lives in Hastings, but still claimed travel expenses when he attended council meetings.

The poor level of representation we have received in areas like Horsham Park over the last four years is a major motivation for us to offer residents a greater commitment to public service at a time when important decisions are being made about cuts to local services. Residents feel their views are not listened to and many people don’t even know who their councillors are! We believe that anyone elected to represent local people should do just that - represent their views on local matters - so if elected we undertake to:

1. Be visible in the local area
2. Attend both council and planning meetings
3. Consult regularly on issues of local concern
4. Feed back on council meetings through regular newsletters and publish a report on our website after council meetings, highlighting what we have said and how we voted
5. Organise regular surgeries to offer help and advice with council issues

 More information about the 2011 elections, including a full list of candidates,  can be found here.

Congratulations to Duncan

This week Duncan Enright won a council byelection for Labour.

OK maybe it is only a town council byelection but this was in David Cameron's back yard and he won convincingly with 66% of the vote - four times as many votes as the second-placed Liberal Democrat.

If that can happen in Witney then maybe the idea of Labour winning a council seat somewhere in Horsham and getting the chance to hold Horsham council to account is not so unlikely as everybody has said.

The result in Witney shows that it can happen with a lot of hard work and a good candidate.  If you would like to help Horsham party this year get in touch.  There will always be doors to knock on, leaflets to deliver, and posters to display for anybody who wants to lend a hand.

We already have some excellent candidates for the May elections, but they can't do it without all of our help.

Happy New Year

We would like to wish all our members, and everybody else in Horsham constituency a Happy New Year in 2011. 

It is likely to be a good year. Unless you are old. Or looking forward to university.  Or fall ill, drive a car, commute by train, lose your job, want to leave home, or buy anything in shops.

Here are a few of the things to look forward to in 2011.

Merry Christmas from Horsham Labour

Horsham Labour party would like to wish everybody a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you all at the polling stations in May!

No sign of hope

By Carol Hayton

So will the recent election result and the new style of government herald a bright new dawn for the people of Horsham? Having voted for change as Francis Maude urged them to do on his campaign posters, will residents of the constituency be bowled over by a whirlwind of exciting initiatives that represent empowerment of local communities?

Postal problems

It has come to our attention that quite a few people in the Horsham constituency did not receive anything from us during the election campaign. This has come as a great surprise and disappointment to us.

A post-election message

By Andrew Skudder

Now that the dust has settled and we have all more or less got back to our normal sleep patterns after the marathon count I would like to reflect a little on the election campaign and, most importantly, thank those people who voted Labour in Horsham.

Election results

These are the results in the Horsham constituency after an extremely prolonged count:

Conservative	29,447	52.7%
Lib Dem	17,987	32.2%
Labour	4,189	7.5%
UKIP	2,839	5.1%
Green	570	1.0%
Christian	469	0.8%
Peace	253	0.5%
Independent	87	0.2%

More on this later, but for now we would like to thank everybody who voted for Labour in this very difficult election.

Don't forget to vote!

Today is polling day so don't forget to vote.

If you are still at all undecided, here are a few (dozen) reasons to vote for Labour in Horsham, apart from the local reasons we mentioned the other day.

Reasons to vote Labour in Horsham constituency

The 2010 general election could be the most important one for decades.

There are many reasons to prefer a Labour government to a Tory government and Gordon Brown's speech yesterday re-stated many of those reasons, but we would like to add a few specific local reasons to vote for Labour in Horsham.

Make it so

Labour's candidate in Horsham, Andrew Skudder, went across to Crawley today to support Chris Oxlade's campaign there, but also to grab the opportunity to meet one of his heroes: the actor Patrick Stewart who was also visiting the town to promote the Labour party.

Gordon Brown's speech to Citizens UK

Today, in what is being called the unofficial fourth leaders' debate, Gordon Brown made an impressive speech about the values of the Labour party.

Sixty seconds

Labour's latest election broadcast

Last chance to see...

There were only three hustings events organised for this election campaign.  One was at Crawley Down yesterday and there was a school hustings at Collyer's this afternoon.  The last one is at Tanbridge House school this evening at 7:30pm, organised by Horsham Churches Together.

This is your last chance to come along to see and meet the candidates together and ask questions.

If the other two events are anything to go by it should be a lively evening.

It's postal vote time

Round about now the voters of Horsham who have registered for a postal vote should be gettnig their ballot papers arriving.

If you are registered for a postal vote and have not received yours yet, get in touch with the town hall now!

If you have received your postal vote and are undecided which way to vote, have a look at our local manifesto, and then take a good look around you. 

If you are in Horsham, look at the derelict boarded up ex-council buildings that could be used for affordable housing, look at the litter and weeds, remember the rubbish bags piling up during January... 

If you are anywhere in the constituency look at the roads, but be careful not to trip on one of the many potholes... 

Take a long hard look and ask yourself whether you think that the party which has so much trouble running a district or county council is ready to run a country.

Now look all the way down to the bottom of the ballot paper and think about voting for a party that wants to make things happen locally, and a candidate who will not be living in London most of the time.

Horsham’s Labour candidate declares interests

In March 2010 the Ministry of Justice issued guidance about declarations of interest to all parliamentary election candidates in response to a recommendation by the Committee for Standards in Public Life.

Tories' commitment to 'people power' in doubt

Over the weekend David Cameron has been promoting a policy that if a party in government changes its leader then the new Prime Minister must hold an election within six months.

He said "it means putting the people in control".

We would like to compare and contrast this with two pieces of local news, one old and one new.

Labour in Billingshurst

Horsham Labour party set out its stall in Billingshurst today - literally.

We had a street stall where we had some intersting discussions with passers-by, got some more signatures for our petitions on affordable housing and council play schemes, and handed out some literature and posters.

Local manifesto launched

Horsham Labour party published its local manifesto today.

Our Journey

Our Journey is the latest election video from Labour.