The Heaton & Lostock Labour Party
A Members' Branch of Bolton West Constituency Labour Party

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Annual Report 1998

Introduction

1998 began with the feeling of how could we possibly cap the excitement and euphoria of the previous year's general election victory. There was worry amongst activists as the realities of government and New Labour became apparent. Our membership locally became fairly stable with several members moving out of the area or not renewing their membership being balanced by a slow but steady influx of new members. The local elections saw the Party holding its own in Bolton with a couple of knife edge decisions in Wards we had won when the Tories were at their most unpopular. In Deane-Cum-Heaton we did less well than in recent years but still turned in a creditable performance.
 
1998 The Year

The Branch AGM in January turned up few surprises with virtually the same team being elected to run the Branch. I was appointed Secretary; Graham, Chair; Trevor, Treasurer; Pauline and Eve, Vice-Chairs and Joyce, Membership Secretary. We had a full complement of 6 Constituency Party delegates and George represented us on the Bolton Local Government Committee.
Our Membership in '98

We began the year with about xxx members, Joyce having done a tremendous job in the previous twelve months of "weeding out" the non-payers, those who'd moved, disappeared or were simply no longer interested! During 1998 we lost several members, most notably Peter Hamilton and Gary Jones who moved out of the area and who had in the recent past been active in the Branch. Several didn't renew their membership as a protest against the perceived move of the government to the right and their refusal to be rushed into trying to undo 18 years of Tory misrule within 12 months.
However, thanks again to Joyce's untiring efforts, we have retained the majority of members and recruited several new ones resulting in our numbers remaining fairly static.
One worrying trend is a decrease in active members, especially younger ones, and by that I mean under 50! We must make a greater attempt during the next year to encourage greater participation at all levels.

Fund Raising

Our Treasurer, who has managed our funds magnificently despite being President of the Town Planning Institute, will hopefully present a full statement of our accounts. This year we held only one fund-raising social during year, the traditional Midsummer Barbecue at Graham and Anne's house. In common with the previous year the weather threatened to ruin the evening but the rain held off and Graham was much relieved that the attendance, more than 100 in 1997, returned to more manageable numbers. Despite the lower turnout the event made a useful contribution to Branch funds.
The Branch's main fundraiser continues to be the Deane-Cum-Heaton Stakeholder Society (100 Club) which has about xxx members, slightly lower than the same time this year. However, it should still raise approximately £xxx in a full year. Nevertheless, if we are to fully fund our own branch's activities and help other sections of the party where necessary, we need many more members. I hope that we will consider ways of increasing the 100 Club membership during the next few months. With a little effort we should be able to set a target of donating upwards of £3,000 to Ruth Kelly's next general election campaign.

Branch Meetings

Branch meetings have been generally well attended although numbers dropped off a little during the autumn but have picked up again as the year has ended. We have been very fortunate in that several members have offered their homes as venues and my special thanks to Graham and Anne, Pauline and John, Alan and Joyce, Sean and Annie, Veronica and Derek and Ruth.

Thanks also to Graham we have had a succession of high quality speakers at our meetings and we have attempted to make political discussion the priority item on our agenda. Most gratifying has been the vigour and enthusiasm with which members have entered into the discussions following our speakers' presentations.

Unfortunately the extremely bad summer prevented us from holding another annual bowls evening or branch Sunday walk. Hopefully global warming will assist in '99!

The speakers who have addressed us have included:-
February Bolton Councillor, Fabian Society activist and public transport enthusiast, Stuart Murray
March Discussion of the Bolton Unitary Development Plan led by George Kelly
April Joint meeting with Smithills Branch with Ruth Kelly
August "Members' and Voters' Perceptions of Labour in Power" an open discussion
September MEP Gary Titley on European Monetary Union
October Derek Gadd (standing in for Ruth Kelly) with a sketch of the Party Conference
November Stuart Murray again, this time on Genetically Modified Food
December Jeremy Lavin on campaigning
We hope to continue the theme of having a guest speaker at each meeting and suggestions of who to invite will be most welcome. It's with great pleasure therefore that we are able to welcome Bolton Council Leader, Bob Howarth to address our AGM and lead a discussion on "What's up in Bolton?"

Surf the Web With Deane-Cum-Heaton

During the year I've done my best to keep the Branch's Internet Web site (http://gillatt.org/labour) up to date although it's a bit like painting the Forth Bridge! I've restructured it completely in the last 12 months with an opening statement setting out our aims as democratic Socialists:-
We have a few overriding beliefs:-

Included is the text of all the talks at our Branch meetings, the Annual Reports for the last three years and, for the historically minded, a lot about the '97 election campaign, complete with "candid" photographs.

It seems to have been well received by those who have accessed it and I get three or four E-mails each week as a result, some from other Members' Branches who want advice in setting up their own web sites. The counter added at the start of 1998 shows that we have had more than 5,000 visitors during the year with contacts mainly from the USA and the UK but also from such diverse places as China, Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, Cuba and even Astley Bridge.

Local Election '98

It would seem that it wasn't only the Party workers who were a little jaded after the events of 1997. The voters too seemed reluctant to walk a few hundred meters twice in twelve months. As a result, excellent a candidate though he was. Jeremy Lavin failed, not unexpectedly, to keep the Tory majority down to the narrow margin of 1994 and lost by about 1,000 votes.

At the end of the year we selected Akhtar Zaman as our candidate for the '99 elections and we hope that members will work even harder for him.
 
Thanks

1998 was bound to be a disappointment after the high of the previous year. We should look forward to this, the final year of the millennium, putting behind us the petty squabbling that the press seems to have stirred up at the top levels of the Party towards the end of '98. We should recognise that our government has a most difficult task ahead and support it fully whilst rightly being critical should it take actions we consider against the interests of the most needy members of society. As Secretary I am proud to have served the Branch during the last year but it would have been impossible for me to carry out my job without the help and support of very many Party members. I would therefore like to thank Graham, Trevor, Pauline, Janet and Joyce, the other Branch Officers and all those ordinary members without whose help we would have been a pointless debating society.

Most of all, though, I would like to thank Noelene, my wife, who as well as a very hectic life as a student has had to put up with me monopolising the computer so much of the time and has supported me throughout the year.


John Gillatt
Branch Secretary
January 1999



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