I don't think that I'm going to be on Tim Prater's Christmas card list...

Local Party websites, don't you just love them? Once upon a time, they were the big thing, and everybody had to have one.

But they were difficult if you didn't know much about web design, so when Prater Raines came up with a cookie cutter design, a lot of people jumped at the opportunity to climb on board. And yes, they're not exciting, but they do the job. The only catch was, and still is, you do actually have to feed them. Active campaign teams do but, here in Suffolk, we don't tend to, so we have a collection of semi-derelict websites whose sole impact is to enrich Prater Raines.

As the incoming Treasurer of my Local Party, I have concluded that we could share a website with either the District Council Group in Mid Suffolk, or with the County Council Group. We would all save money - which could be ploughed back into campaigning - and there would be more potential news sources.

However, this can be taken one step further. We have seven Local Parties and eight Council Groups, so why not bring them all under one umbrella?

At this morning's meeting of the Suffolk County Co-ordinating Committee, I raised the suggestion, and got a very positive response. I've been asked to write a paper for our next meeting, so that it can be taken back to the various bodies for agreement. I think that the savings might pay for a County Training Day and conference, which would been a lot to us as a County team.

We'll see how it goes, but it might be a model for other counties in future.