Residents turned out in force for the Ealing North Conservative Open Primary on Wednesday and around a third of them weren't even Tory supporters.

Such was the interest in this chance to have a say in who the party would put forward as their candidate to take on Stephen Pound.

Before the meeting, Councillor John Popham (Con, Cleveland), chairman of Ealing North Conservative Association, called it "People power at its very best."

And the people of Ealing North chose to exercise that power.

"We had a good attendance with at least a third of those attending being from outside the Party," said John. "Activists from other parties were there to see at first hand what was happening. We achieved our aim of involving the wider community in choosing our candidate. Clearly primaries are new in this country, but I would expect to see other parties adopting this approach in the years ahead. It will be interesting to see whether the Southall Labour party now open up their selection process to the wider population."

The upshot of the meeting? Stephen Pound will be up against Ian Gibb. The Conservative prospective candidate has lived in Ealing for over 20 years and has served as an Ealing North councillor since 1992. Here's how the party describes him: "As Deputy Leader of Ealing’s new Conservative administration with responsibility for Children’s Services, Ian is proud to have delivered the funding for the rebuilding of Perivale and St John Fisher schools. He is also committed to opening a new High School in Ealing North. Ian has been involved in the campaigns to axe the Northolt bus lanes, oppose the West London Tram and deliver Ealing’s lowest council tax increase for 12 years.

"Married with two young children in Ealing schools, Ian is a civil engineer with a successful career in the construction industry. As a local resident, he understands the issues that concern local people, and will campaign for improved public services, especially health and education, lower taxes, family friendly policies and police on the beat not filling in forms."

 

May 10, 2007