January saw the forming of our General Election Campaign sub-committee, consisting of the two candidates, Gerald Francis and David Mathias, plus Angharad Jones and Robert Butler - together they formulated the strategy leading up to the election on July the 4th.
Campaigning over the coming months took the form of door knocking with survey leaflets; Focus leaflet deliveries and targeted Facebook posts.
We also ran fundraising activities, including another Name the Bear competition in March and a curry night social with raffle in May – bringing in a combined total of almost £140, which went directly towards campaigning costs.
July the 4th was the long awaited for General Election day! Sadly, neither candidate won, but our relentless campaigning had ensured our presence was felt within RCT, and gave the electorate a Liberal Democrat candidate in both of the RCT constituencies.
August saw the sudden, though temporary, departure of our then-Chair, Neil Feist, from the party. Fortunately, another Executive Team member, Angharad Jones, stepped in as Acting Chair, to ensure that our local party could continue to operate as part of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.
In September we held a car boot sale, within the historic grounds of the Rhondda Heritage Park Museum, netting over £40 in profit - helping to increase our funds again, following the expenditure incurred during the campaigning period.
On the 19th of October, Gerald Francis and Angharad Jones met the newly elected Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, David Chadwick, during the South Wales ALDC “Motivate Day” - at which best campaign practises, in areas such as Focus leaflets and door knocking, were discussed.
Also in October, RCT LibDems began campaigning to help support Ferndale House care home staff, who were running their own campaign, in a bid to keep the only care home in Ferndale, and the Rhondda Fach, from closure. To this end we delivered some 1300 dedicated Focus leaflets in the area and posted our message onto various social media hubs. Throughout the period we also kept in regular contact with the Ferndale House staff to ensure we kept abreast of all developments.
On November the 9th we held our Annual General Meeting – this was the first time that Angharad Jones had run our A.G.M, as then acting-Chair, and during the election of the Executive Team for 2025, she was elected to be our new Chair.
If you’d like to know more about your Executive team, please click on the Meet the Team link.
