Waiting for the campaign to start

The county elections now out of the way, attention turns to the next set of local elections across Suffolk, scheduled for May 2011. Or not, as the case may be. We're due District and Parish elections, but all is on hold pending the results of the Local Government Review for Suffolk, due later this month... probably.

The utter confusion caused by a review that commenced on 3 March 2008 with a reporting date of 31 December 2008, then extended to 13 February 2009, just as the county election campaigns were due to get under way, was a sight to behold. Given the way that arrangements in other counties were overturned at incredibly short notice, nobody could be absolutely certain what boundaries might be fought, and it was only in February that it became clear that the process would be delayed and the elections fought on existing boundaries.

I'm keen to contest a seat at the next set of elections and, obeying ALDC advice to the letter, I'd like to start as early as possible. However, until the Review is completed and the arrangements announced, how can one do so? I don't know what the boundaries will be, or whether there is an existing Liberal Democrat campaigner working the patch. We're expecting more news on 15 July - will there be a unitary county, or a unitary Rural Suffolk, or will they just give up on the whole affair?

Oh well, I'll just have to focus on Creeting St Peter for the time being. Time to talk to the County Council about a morning commuter bus to Stowmarket, I think...