The Autumn Green Party Conference in Bournemouth at the weekend managed to stir up some controversy with their 1 MP Caroline Lucas encouraging members to reach out to people, even from other parties.
The Greens actually have two conferences each year, at spring and in autumn. The reasoning is to encourage members from Northern and Southern parts of England and Wales to enjoy at least one conference in any year.
The Bournemouth International Centre, right on the sea front, is more than a breath of fresh air. The conference attracted substantial numbers of attendees, who enjoyed a complete agenda of political activity at the BIC and evening entertainment inside a large marquee sited on the sandy beach.
At the event it was suggested that county level organisation would be a good structure to help local parties deal with the influx of new members brought by the green surge earlier this year, and to better the communications between local and regional levels. Hampshire was ahead of the pack on this with a launch event already organised for Hampshire Greens on November 7th.
Hampshire Coordinator, Kylie Barton was present while the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas delivered her main conference speech.
Kylie emphatically relayed the message from Caroline;
Southampton Coordinator Chris Bluemel also present during the four day event, and was particularly impressed by a Fringe session on Local Action on Climate Change.
''Andrew Coopers talked engagingly about the initiatives of Kirklees Council, where Green councillors had worked with their Labour colleagues to install solar panels on houses and build low carbon homes. He demonstrated that it really is possible for local councils to make a difference."
" We hope that Southampton City Council can now substantially increase similar building and renewable energy projects".