LGA Independent Group election
The Local Government Association (LGA) is the association of local councillors in the UK. It is divided into different groups according to party affiliation. All independent councillors and councillors from the smaller parties belong, by default, to the LGA Independent Group. However, only a tiny fraction of them pay any attention to that group does or how it is run. In an attempt to focus some attention on this, the President of the Liberal Party, Cllr Steve Radford, recently stood for election for Deputy Chairman of the group. He came second. http://www.liberal.org.uk/news/lga0608result.htm Having stood on a controversial and radical election platform, Liberal Party President Steve Radford secured some 21 votes to Cllr Warriner of Ryedale's 57 votes in the election for LGA Independent Group Deputy Chairman Cllr Radford responded that the vast majority and other minority party councillors never registered to be counted as members of an Independent Group which treats them as alien. The Independent Group counts a membership of 2000 councillors on principal authorities to justify their role in the LGA. However fewer than 100 used the anachronistic system of registering to vote for an election of officers before they even have a clue who is to be nominated. Cllr Radford said of the election, “The Independent Group must be a laughing stock in terms of democratic legitimacy, in that its only con-*test*-('")ed post could not muster an electoral turnout of 3.9%”